Canon 400D kit lens

[macmike47]

Hi guys,

just wondering what everyone thinks of the kit lens included with the 400D. I've heard some negative stuff, but wanted to ask people with first-hand experience. How bad is it?? Or how good is it, even?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[sananda]

the 18-55mm lens isn't bad at all. just not brilliant.

 

[Cave Man]

Which one? I've seen the XTi packaged with three different "kit" lenses.

 

[macmike47]

Which one? I've seen the XTi packaged with three different "kit" lenses.

Sorry, should've specified, I mean the EF-S 18-55mm lens.

Also, what differentiates this from a better (equivalent) lens?

 

[sananda]

i've found that it good light the 18-55 is a good performer. it's just not as sharp as my 50mm.

 

[robbieduncan]

It's OK, but not great. It's pretty slow across the entire range so no good in low light, it's not IS (unlike the new 18-55 IS), it's not very sharp (again unlike the new 10-55 IS), it feels really cheaply built, the contrast and colours are not great...

But it's basically free and gets you taking pictures straight away...

 

[Cave Man]

Sorry, should've specified, I mean the EF-S 18-55mm lens.

Also, what differentiates this from a better (equivalent) lens?

Canon's just released an 18-55 with image stabilizer that apparently has better optics. It's price is about US$220. If you budget allows around the US$400 or so, then you have several other superior options.

 

[JNB]

While certainly not among the best glass, the EF-S 18-55 can serve quite nicely across a fairly wide range of shooting (effective range of 29mm - 88mm), covering landscapes to portraiture pretty well. I added the 70-200 f/4L and a 1.4 Extender to the bag, so I have a nice little short/medium/medium-long combo without breaking the bank.

I've never had a complaint about mine, and even as I expand my lens collection, I'll likely never toss it out of my bag. The cost as part of the kit is low enough to not be a "make-or-break" kind of thing. Unless you've already got something else that covers that range identified, I'd stick with it for now.

The question to ask yourself is, if you opted out of the kit lens, what would you get, and at what cost?

As sanada indicated, the 50mm/1.8 "plastic fantastic" is an absolute must. 70 bucks through Amazon/Adorama. Best "First Prime" you'll own.

 

[ZballZ]

IMO, not unlike everybody elses, it performs well in good lighting conditions. I found it fairly fast-focusing, and sharp enough to suit my needs. BUT, in low-light it immediately turns around - slow and pretty much hopeless.

I bought a TAMRON 17-55 2.8 - and havent had the kit lens back on the camera since. It costs me DKK 3000,- (approx 600$) (and a cheap 1.8 canon 50 mm as a very good portrait lens for about 125$)

 

[dllavaneras]

To be honest, it's the only lens I have. That being said, I have found it to be very versatile, pretty quick to focus and quiet. I love the zoom ring, but dislike the manual focus ring (it's more like a thin plastic strip). I'm forced to sharpen every pic in PP, but I just upgraded from a P&S and the pictures from that camera are inherently oversharpened.

 

[nutmac]

The kit lens (EF-S 18-55mm II) is a good performer if used between f/8 and f/11. In other words, it's a fine performer if you need wide depth of field and have good lighting. But for bokeh (blurred background) and low light photography (e.g., flash-free indoor), you will quickly run into limitations.

If you are under limited budget, get newly released EF-S 18/55mm IS. The combo (with body only) will cost $100-120 more than the kit. The build quality is still toy-like, but the optical performance is significantly better than EF-S 18/55mm II while adding 4-stop image stabilizer (about 2.5 to 3 in real life) and 6 circular aperture blades for creamier bokeh.

 

[dllavaneras]

I've gotten pretty good results with the kit lens, under decent lighting:

18-55mm kit lens at 55mm
f6.3, 1/60, ISO 400
​

It's decent if you're not making big prints or cropping too much... Again, the only thing I have to compare it to is my old S1 IS, so right now pretty much everything my XTi does is much better

 

[macmike47]

Thanks for all your help everyone!

=

 

[JFreak]

IMO, what makes the kit lens "crap" is slow aperture. In Finland where I live half of the year it's very dark so I find f/2.8 slowest okay lens. I have f/1.4 attached most of the time and it's great.

I'd really like it if I could afford Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L but it might take a while 'cause it's rather expensive lens.