17-85 EF-S IS USM kit lens replacement or

[AdamK]

Thanks Jason and Mary Anne for your responses. I guess the crux of my decision will be based on whether the 17-55 will be a significant improvement on my 17-85? If it is only going to be a marginal improvement I should probably keep the kit lens and get the 70-200.
To date my DSLR photography has been mostly of family occasions mostly portrait style. I'd love to do some more landscape and Architecture photography (photography of my work as I am a builder), but I'd also like to be doing more candid portrait stuff and wildlife too so the 70-200 would come in handy.
So is the 17-55 that much better than the 17-85, or should I be looking at supplementing the kit lens with the telephoto and something wider?

[William W]

I guess the crux of my decision will be based onwhether the 17-55 will be a significant improvement on my17-85? If it is only going to be a marginal improvement I should probably keep the kit lens and get the 70-200.
To date my DSLR photography has been mostly of family occasions mostly portrait style. I'd love to do some more landscape and Architecture photography(photography of my work as I am a builder), but I'd also like to be doing more candid portrait stuff and wildlife too so the 70-200 would come in handy.

The crux of your question requires DEFINING what “significant improvement”means for you.
For me, “Family Occasions” and “More Candid Portraiture” and being able tocapture at F/2.8 from 17mm to 55mm would alone be “a significant improvement”.

In addition, there would be a general Image Quality improvement; also (for me) not having a Varying Maximum Aperture, would be “a significant improvement”.

If you replace the kit lens with the 17 to 55, then “supplementing” the kit has to be the trade off – BUT -

“Candid Portrait” does not to me definitively mean a 70 to 200 lens on an APS-C camera.
“Sniping Portraiture” better fits that – and if that is what you want; then I think you need to choose how much of that do you want to do, as 85mm is quite a reasonable telephoto lens, on a APS-C Camera, for Portrait Images, (if you keep the 17 to 85 - if you sell it then 55mm is nit an impossible telephoto length for sniping portraiture.)

“Wildlife” is a broad vista – does that mean birds, for example, then 200mmreach will likely not be long enough.

A Lens Kit comprising two zooms which has a broad FL compass would requires the addition of the 70 to 200: I agree that is without thinking too long and hard about it – I agree also that would be a “significant improvement” – but the crux of the choice still comes back to your definition of what EXACTLY you want to significantly improve and defining exactly what type of images you want to make; but are limited making, at the moment.

WW