Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II SLR Lens

Comment

PROS: 1) Inexpensive 2) Great portrait lens esp @ 35-55mm 3) Sharp, Clear images with great color depth 4) The "Image Stabilizer" works wonders in low light conditions CONS: 1) plastic rather than metal construction (price) 2) slight vignetting in corners at 17mm 3) auto-focus is a little on the slow side 4) In my experience there is a slight performance degradation in the 17-24mm range, but not really noticeable in panaramic shots. Having said all that, this lens performs like a $[...] lens the mid-upper focal length range.. its just a bit slower and not constructed quite so solidy. In fact, in portraits you may want to use a diffusion (soft-focus) filter, otherwise you will see every detail down to split ends in the hair. Its that sharp. I would definitely buy this again. This is as close to commercial quality shots you will get for under $[...].

more

Comment

This Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens is the improved version of Canons workhorse entry-level lens. It continues to get better and better, and this lens is a bargain! It performs nearly as well as my Canon L-Series Professional lens (17-40), but it cost 1/3 as much. It represents very high value-per-dollar, and is unsurpassed -- from all I can tell -- by any competitive-manufacturers lens in this category. The selling dealer (Amazon Marketplace) was TheImagingWorld, and this dealer shipped this item almost immediately at, of course, no charge for shipping. The packing was excellent, and this item arrived in 100% safe condition. You could not ask more of a seller than what TheImagingWorld offers in this case.

more

Comment

Love my Canon camera and lens. I also have the Canon zoom lens. I get great photos of flowers, wildlife and landscapes. Most importantly, it takes great shots of my two grandchildren!!!!

more

Comment

This lens is a little noisy when autofocusing, but it is certainly functional. Since my only other experience before I got my Cannon 60D is with point and shoot cameras, the image quality is great. The inner lens had a smudge on it when it arrived, but it wasnt a big deal. I would prefer that the focus ring were not on the extending part of the lens, but oh well. Its a great all-purpose lens for well-lit areas or relatively slow-moving targets. The aperture is not wide enough for indoor sports (I got an EF 50mm f/1.8 II for that and it works great.) and the telephoto is not long enough for distance shots. It is my best all-purpose lens, though. I can take landscape photos and close-ups if I walk up to the target. For most purposes, thats fine.

more

Comment

This is a pretty good lens for the price. This lens is for Canon EOS DSLR cameras with APS-C size image circle. Pros: Super-Sharp Images, Compact Design, Light weight. The Lens Construction has 11 elements in 9 groups. The biggest thing I like about this lens is the wide angle of view of 75° 20 - 27° 50 - Thats pretty wide and real useful in taking indoor face shots or getting the whole group shot in frame. I am not a big fan of AF on this lens or most of Canon lens. It seems to work too slow vs kicking it in manual and just doing it myself. The one and only con I have is working in low light with hi ISO settings, this lens craps out sooner then the other lens I own. All in all if you have an Canon EOS DSLR i would defiantly have this lens in your photo bag. Cheers, Casey

more

Comment

I have a Rebel XT and sold my 18-55 kit lens to try the new IS version. The gamble was worth it. I sold my old one for $90 and bought the new one for roughly $175 at Amazon. The $85 difference is well worth the price. I dont have the steadiest hands and so the IS has really made a big big difference. I hate fuzzy/blurry pictures and this lens really has reduced the number of bad shots. Color is also impressive, particularly outdoors. Picture quality is really good for the price. Michi (another reviewer) must have had a bad copy or an extraordinarily good copy of the non-IS version-- this lens, for the money rocks. I also own the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 lens (a really fantastic lens). This Canon isnt as good, but for 1/2 the money, it is a bargain and holds its own fairly well. My advice-- upgrade if you have the old and dont have the cash to upgrade to a higher class lens (like the Tamron I mentioned) and/or buy this lens instead of the non-IS version. If you cant find the Canon body you want bundled with this lens rather than the non-IS, then buy the camera body only and purchase this one seperately.

more

Comment

Ive been doing videography for 5 years but Im finishing up college, so Im always looking for the most bang for my buck when buying camera/video equipment. Let me first start off by saying that this lens saved my life during an indoor event shoot. I was in a tight place and couldnt use my 50mm f1.8 (which I would have preferred given its wider aperture which would have been better given the poor lighting conditions). I snapped this lens on, lowered my shutter speed a bit, turned up my ISO and captured everything in the small room that I needed to with the wide 18mm length. It is difficult to use this lens indoors, however given its limited aperture of 3.5-5.6. If youre not sure what that means, simply put, its that your lens has to be within an aperture range that will require more light. This means that youll have to slow your shutter speed (not as desirable for anything with any amount of action), or raise your ISO (potentially sacrificing your image quality to the nasty noise monster). Using this lens with lights seems to yield pretty nice results. The other reason I bought this lens was to use it on my steadicam (flycam nano-a great budget steadicam that yields good results when used correctly). This lens is only a fraction of the weight of comparable lenses and when shooting at 18mm and stopping down your aperture much of what the camera catches will be in focus, which is great for steadicams. With the light weight I find that I can use my steadicam for an hour or more at a time before my arm gets too exhausted. This camera has IS (Image Stabilization). You wont realize just how nice that is until you use a non-IS camera while shooting handheld (video or photography). I avoid auto-focus like the plague, but I did test it out on this lens for the sake of this review and I found that it is quite slow compared to other lenses. For the casual photographer, or a photographer who is patient and has clients that are patient, this wouldnt be a bad option (because youd find that it would slow you down if you were constantly taking pictures at a wedding for instance for hours on end). I bought the cheapo set of 3 zeikos filters for the lens to protect the end and get a more artistic flavor. They work really well on this lens and I now cant live without a polarizing and UV filter, although I would not put those filters on a fancier lens (see that review with my other reviews). This lens will NOT work on bigger cameras like the 5D mark II. LIKE: 1. Price (I wouldnt cry if it got run over by a car). 2. Image Stabilization. 3. Wide angle with little bokeh (background blur) for tight shoots and steadicam. 4. Light weight. 5. Nice thick, quality zoom ring. DONT LIKE: 1. Minor image distortion at low lengths (like 18mm). 2. Constraining aperture. 3. Good but not great image quality (see Canons MTF charts on their website for more info). 4. Cheep focusing ring. I like this lens and its saved my work more than once and itll do it again Im sure, but given the choice I would much rather use my Canon 50mm f1.8 (check out that review with my other reviews if interested). So what am I looking at now? I am planning on replacing my 18-55mm with the Canon 24-105mm f4L lens, but for 1/10 of the price, this is a good lens. When I do, Ill write a review and let you know how it compares. If you would like to see this equipment in action to better make a decision, you can find my youtube channel by searching jbhphotovideo in the youtube search box and going to that channel. I hope that helps!

more

Comment

I bought a whole camera package (but put together by myself) for a cross-country road trip I took last summer, and my dad said to get a lens around these specifications. I am SO glad I did. I got tons of great landscape & up-close photos all through Glacier National Park, as well as many other locations on the trip. Additionally, I use this lens all the time for my ebay photos, since they raised the resolution requirements. Im a novice to photography so there are probably better lenses out there, but this one has performed beautifully for me, and it was well worth the price (it was like 40% off at the time).

more

Comment

This is a very good lens, even for a kit lens. The one I bought was a "refurbished" model, which really just meant that it was broken out of a kit and sold as a standalone. It came looking and performing like new. Its a very good walkabout lens if youre not doing professional level photography, with a very good wide angle and decent zoom. Its replaced my 50mm 1.8 as the default lens solely on its versatility, but is nowhere near as sharp. The IS works, but dont expect miracles. I can get some handheld shots at marginally slower shutter speeds than I used to that are very usable.

more

Comment

Bought this used to replace my lens that broke. I was pleasantly surprised with the condition and it worked perfectly to capture Christmas morning memories.

more