Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM Lens

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!

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.

Pros:
Cost
Weight/size
Macro performance
simplicity
Circular aperture
fairly bright as Zooms go at f/3.5
Resale value

Cons:
Lack of advanced features
Plastic mounting ring
no USM (I know it SAYS USM, but it's not really - it's a micro motor and not the faster ring-type)


This is a great lens that often times people will put down just because it is simple. The truth of the matter is that if you're a true beginner, it has the level of sophistication you want to learn on. Will you outgrow it and want more features? PROBABLY! but that's okay.

If you're considering getting your first digital SLR, I recommend getting the body only and picking up the standard kit lens (this lens) separately, you can save $100 (USD) or better total. I was always impressed with this lens, especially its close focus ability. It is quite sharp from edge to edge and superb for macro photography, landscapes and portraiture. True, it doesn't have a distance gauge, but most novices, whom this lens was designed for, don't want or need that. You don't learn how to ride a motorcycle on a chopper. once you "outgrow" this lens, which could be 6 months or 3 years depending on how much you shoot, you can either keep it as a backup, use it as a reverse-lens macro (with an adapter ring) or resell it on eBay: the fetch between $70-$100 regularly (for good condition). Bottom line: it is a great beginner to intermediate user lens that has fantastic optics for the price.

I will grant you that most professionals won't care much for this lense, as most have bashed it. But, then again most of us aren't professionals. I moved from Minolta to Cannon and this was the kit lense with the Rebel XT I purchased. This lenses does as well, or better, then most people will ever ask of it. It takes great close up shots, and provides you with a little distance as well. The photos are sharp and clear and focus is right on every time. The focusing is also fast and quiet, as well. I have purcahsed two additional lenses for the camera, one a Canon and the other a third party lense (filled the gap between my two Canon lenses), and this one out produces both the others, in my opinion. I read the reviews before purchasing the camera, but as I had no Canon lenses I went ahead and paid the extra ($50) for the kit lenses, and I could not be more then happier with it. Where else are you going to find a quality lense at this price?

I am currently a Assistant Scout Leader for the local Boy Scout troop and we recently had a Court of Honor for the boys awards and I used this lense to shoot it. The photos came out remarkably better then I had hoped for (wished it had a little more length for the further away shots - as I was behing the parents and didn't want to get in their way).

So yes most of the reviews on this lense are not that great, and I can see not purchasing it if you already have Canon lenses. But for someone like myself making a switch from another system to Canon, or someone moving from a point and shoot to an SLR, the I highly recommend spending the little extra and getting this in the kit, you will be glad you did.

I am rating it as good, but if it was a little longer (say a 18mm to maybe a 70mm) then it would have had an Excellent.