Sigma 17-70mm f2.8?
 

Did I miss something in my advanced searches, or has no one discussed this lens yet in the forums? Seems odd, since it sounds like a pretty sweet lens- a very wide range, fairly fast for a zoom lens, and under 500 bucks. Can't find many comprehensive reviews on this, especially when relating it to video, so I'm confused- are we simply not familiar with the lens?

If one were to avoid buying a prime, what competes with this, price/speed/range wise? I know you can't beat primes for sharpness, but I just use zoom way too much on video for a prime to be useful at this point. I ordered the Tokina 11-16, so this seems like the perfect companion. It's been a long time since I've had to shop for lenses (once digital video came into the world) so I'm a little behind on the current wisdom. Just went through the other lens threads, but they mostly discuss primes, and no one mentioned this little guy, which seems like a perfect fit for the t2i.

Maybe it's not very sharp..?

If you are talking about this lens:

The aperture is not constant at 2.8 throughout the zoom range.

Yes, that's the one. Sure, losing a stop when zoomed in isn't ideal, but that's not exactly rare with video camera lenses (perhaps not a full stop, but still.) Okay, that's something, but is that it? Has anyone tested this thing? It's supposedly pretty sharp...

Its a good lens, at the price, it wont dissapoint. I use mine a lot

People seem to love Tamron 17-50 and Tamron 28-75.
Or you may even look into Sigma 18-50. All are f2.8 constant but you lose 20mm at the long end on 17-50/18-50 and 11mm on the wide end for tamron 28-75.
I personally feel, the constant f2.8 is nice to have more often than not.

I have both the Sigma 17-70/2.8-4 and 18-50/2.8 (early version, non-macro).

The macro ability of the 17-70 is very nice, and it's a nice walkaround range.

For video tho, I would prefer to spend a bit more for the upcoming Sigma 17-50/2.8 w/ OS or the Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC.

Sigma 17-70mm f2.8?
 

Hello,
For what it is worth, I have the Sigma 17-70mm with OS and find that it
performs very well. My choice came down to price and features. I sold the
kit lens that came with my T2i, the Sigma has a good feel and weight, given
that the T2i is a bit lite. Optically it does the job for me.

Tom