Digital BW, The Print

At 3:28 AM +0000 11/18/04, Tony Bonanno wrote:
>[snip]
>The images looked excellent.  All that resolution and low noise. 
>You definitely are going to want the best glass for this camera. 
>[snip]  My main application for the 1DsMKII will be architectural, 
>landscape, and large group shoots.
>[snip]

But what _is_ the best wide-angle Canon glass for those applications 
(which are also mine)?

It's easy for me to choose among Canon's longer and normal lenses 
because the image stabilization feature on some of their lenses is so 
important, and getting more important, to me.

But I'm agonizing between Canon's two "ultra-wide" 16-35mm f/2.8 and 
17-40mm f/4.0 L zooms. Because all I've heard is that one is better 
at the lower end while the other is better at the higher end. If not, 
I think I'd prefer the faster 16-35mm despite the price difference.

And I'm also wondering whether it might not be better to give up the 
benefit of zooming and get the 24mm and 35mm f/1.4 L prime lenses. I 
have the 35mm f/2.0 prime and the 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom and think I 
see a big difference between them - even with (film) cameras nowhere 
near as good as the 1Ds MK II. So if the f/1.4 L primes yield better 
images than the f/2.8 & f/4.0 L zooms, then by using the primes I'd 
get the better-image benefit plus at least two stops of speed.

Or at least so it seems to me. I'd appreciate any advice about all this.
--
Sam