18-55mm Canon standard lens, what's it good for?

[stuw]

Just curious what the folks out there think of the standard lens that comes with the 300D.

Do most of the people here use their older lenses or buy other lenses?

Personally, I miss the ability to see the distance readings on the outside of the actual lens itself, when focusing manually in darkness. The auto focus tends to be a bit slow and confused when focusing on people at night.

[gstark]

It's generally not too highly regarded at all.

While I've seen some quite good results from it, the concensus seems to be that it's a POS, and there's a whole slew of reasons why most make a choice to use other lenses.

[Cyrus]

I feel I fit into the category of the people mentioned by Gstark, I have a 350D and the kit lens will get you by and it's not too embarrasing, unless you wish to publish the pictures somewhere or you really yearn to be proud of your shots.

I am waiting for my new Tamron SP AF 28-75mm/f2.8 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) macro lens to turn up so I can have some more flexbility and better shots overal in macro and portrait settings. The I suspect the kit lens won't get much action after that day.

If I had the choice to get the camera with or without the kit lens, I would still get the the kit lens, but only as an emergency back-up.

Cyrus

[kipper]

Good choice in replacements

[rjlhughes]

Go and have a look on http://www.photosig.com - look under lenses and then under highest rated to see the quality of photos that amateurs can get from this (or any other) lens.

If you set that as your standard for the moment you'll avoid getting into the arms race that sees people spending more and more money on lenses, and less time thinking about how they get the most of out of what they've got.

[Speedy_msd]

Just curious what the folks out there think of the standard lens that comes with the 300D.

Do most of the people here use their older lenses or buy other lenses?

I use the 35-80mm Canon lens that came with my 35mm Canon much more often that the 300D kit lens.

[Big V]

This lens is capable of producing good images. You are responsible for the composition, the focal length, the aperture, the shutter speed and the ISO rating. It will not match an L series lens but it is no where near as expensive either. Go out and use it, learn to be creative with your setup and when you are ready to do upgrade, then do. Until then have fun and do experiment. I have printed many photos out at A4 on gloss paper taken with this lens and they are fantastic to look at.