 The best lense to start with for Canon Digital SLR Review created: 12/19/05(updated 01/06/07) 46 of 55 people found this review helpful.
I'm writing this review because I'm tired of hearing self-named experts degrade something that wasn't made for them. You don't want to start with professional lenses any more than you would want to buy a race car to drive around town (though it would be fun). Professional lenses are made for specific things, which is why pros need so many of them (i.e. the soup lense, the salad lense, the butter lense, the appetizer lense, the pasta lense, you get the point). Professional NASCAR would laugh if you tried to enter a new Ford Mustang at Indy, but nobody laughs at the one in your driveway. Anyway, on with the review:
Two years ago I purchased the Digital Rebel to replace a combination of film SLR and digital point-and-shoot. My SLR was a Minolta, so when I decided to go with Canon my lenses became obsolete (Minolta just hasn't been keeping up). This was my first lense investment. Everyone, even professionals, still want photos of friends and family and that's just what this lense will do.
My next lense investment was based on my reasoning for going with SLR. I wanted to get closer to far away objects, so I started looking for telephoto.
If you are considering stepping up to digital SLR from point-and-shoot, there is little question that you should invest in this lense. This lense will allow you to take all of the photos that you were used to taking with your point-and-shoot, and it will auto-focus and zoom with similar efficiency.
You may read or hear complaints about image quality from this lense. The image quality with this lense is comparable or better than any of the high end point-and-shoot cameras and better than any of your generic alternatives.
The price is great. The professional lenses that everyone compares this lense to cost 10 times as much. If you have $500 to $1000 to blow on a lense, I recommend sending me the difference via PayPal and getting this one anyway. Hey Ebay, I was kidding!
Review ID: 10000000000111214  Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our guidelines, it will be posted within 24 hours. You cannot vote on the helpfulness of a review you wrote. Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later.   Hey - It's cheap. 28 of 33 people found this review helpful.
So let's see. This lens comes with the body at a price well under 100 dollars. It has a nice 18-55 range - good for wide angle on one hand and a little distance on the other hand.
I will not compare this to any other lenses. I'm not going to say, oh, it's not as sharp as this, or blah blah, who cares? As another reviewer said, it's pretty much disposable, it's not a professional-grade lens, and it's CHEAP.
The autofocus is medium-fast and is dead on most of the time. It hunts in low light and backlit conditions, but this is expected. The front element rotates when focusing, so circular polarizers are an issue.
The lens has good (hence my rating: good) image quality, good sharpness, although there have been reports of quality control problems. I probably got a good copy. Other people have gotten copies that have not performed very well. The build is decent. It feels sturdier than what you paid for.
I like this lens as a walk-around lens just to have some fun with, although I have taken some serious pictures with it. I have made a 12x18 print of the following picture that I took with the 18-55 and it came out spectacular:
http://nd.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30105784&l=341c1
That's about it. Oh yeah, one more thing: I like its macro capabilities. It in fact does a good job with close-up shots. I found my best pictures came from this type of shooting. Here is an example:
http://nd.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=15715144&l=c047d
I would suggest, for those upgrading to DSLR from point and shoot, to go with this lens as the kit lens. It is worth it.
Review ID: 10000000000124091 Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our guidelines, it will be posted within 24 hours. You cannot vote on the helpfulness of a review you wrote. Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later. | |
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!BmM~$(KGrHgoOKjwEjlLmS!t7BKyLcCZ5UQ~~_32.JPG "Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM Lens")
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