Your opinion -Canon 18-55 f3.5 -5.6 kit lens owners

"Mr. Strat" wrote in message
...
In article , Bill Tuthill
wrote:

A friend took this lens (on a Rebel) down the Grand Canyon, and I was
shocked by its flare. Sharpness isn't bad, but the Canon G7 produces
better images over a wider zoom range. Consumer Reports rated this low.
The Nikon 18-55 is much better, according to them.

Consumer Reports doesn't know an F/stop from an F-sharp.

Yeah, but you can't argue with single-incident anecdotal evidence, that's
for sure. The lens must really suck.

dwight

"asdf3b" wrote in message
...
Greetings! Does any one have any opinion on this kit lens? With thanks.

I've had three versions of the 18-55. Using the EW-60C hood with it gives
you more to hold when manual focusing.

EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II (kit lens) - It is good for the money, focuses
quick and quite close (max magnification 0.28). Works very well reversed
for high magnifications. You can hear the micromotor during focusing. Take
the filter off when flare is evident or if there are light sources within
the frame.

EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II USM - Same optically as the non USM but focus
speed is about 40-50% faster which is damn near instant and almost silent
without any loss of accuracy or increased overshoot. Might be worth the
extra money. I liked this lens especially how light and small it is (190g).
It's $139 at Adorama for new, $109 for Canon refurbished.

EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS. This is my new one and I LOVE IT!. It is
optically much better than the non IS versions. So sharp and little light
fall-off. The IS really reduces camera shake so they show less shake and
are sharper, more convenient, or possibly somewhat longer shutter speeds
handheld if desired. It also focuses closer bringing max magnification up
to 0.34. It only weighs about 10g more than the non-IS variants and a 3.8mm
longer. It doesn't have the micro USM motor so it isn't quite as fast or
silent though when focusing. The IS is silent. It's only $174.95 at
Adorama too.

All of them have some chromatic aberration at the wide end. This is easily
fixed in Adobe Camera RAW. There is some barrel distortion at 18mm too and
a little light fall-off at wide apertures at 18mm. If it bothers you, the
lens distortion filter in Photoshop can fix it. Fixing these issues makes
the images look like they were taken with a much more expensive lens.

All five of the EF-S 18-55mm lenses are supported in Canon DPP if a
supported camera is used (Rebel XTi, 400D, 40D, 30D) which means that the
distortions, light falloff, and chromatic aberrations can be corrected
automatically for those lenses.