Nikon AF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED DX Zoom-Nikkor

I have been a NIkon user for more than twenty years. In 1985, my boyfriend, who is now my husband, purchased me my first SLR camera, it was the Nikon N2000 with a standard 50mm lens. I put that camera through hell and high water yet,it was faithful in deliverance and durability. Since then, I have been the owner of several Nikon outfits. All have proven to be dependable and durable. Nine months ago, my husband bought me a new Nikon D80 outfit that included the DX 18-55mm lens. This is my first digital SLR and util recently, I was very impressed with how it could deliver. You see, here's the problem. It doesn't deliver anymore because the lens is broken. While travelling home from a holiday trip my camera was packed in a padded case and placed in the back of our vehicle with rest of our luggage. While we were parked at a rest stop, the back door was opended and the camera case rolled out of the back and onto the street. It wasn't a real hard impact. Surely, I thought, the padded case offered enough protection. Well, I was wrong. It seems the new PLASTIC lenses don't have the same durablility as the older ones that are made of metal. I must say that this unfortunate experiance has left me with the opinion that some things are not worth sacrificing...especially if it is only going to make something a few ounces lighter.

The Nikon durability is lacking in this product.

NIkon AF NIKKOR 28-70MM 1:3.5-4.5

NONE

I got this lens with the D50 kit, and I'm really impressed so far. When used properly it can deliver great results. However there are things you can't do with it...Forget about manual focusing ( the tiny little plastic focus ring feels loose and cheap) but the AF works nicely if there is enough light. That's another thing..it's a slow lens, so it's not suited for low light photography...even long apertures deliver dissapointing results.
There's also a bit of barrel distortion at the wide end (18mm) but not noticable unless you photograph straight lines like buildings. All in all it's a very decent lens for the price. It is sharp, compact and light, a great walk around lens that won't break the bank. Optically it challenges it's bigger brother the 18-70 AF-S DX, but the plastic feel and lack of a proper manual focus makes the 18-50 the lesser lens.

Small, light, ED glass, silent AF, affordable

cheap plastic build, tiny plasic MF ring (not really worth using), slow, some distortion.

Nikkor 18-70 AF-S DX

I got it as a kit lens but I luv it. I once tried replacing with Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 but the sharpness of this lens was no different then this 18-55(on similar aperature) so I returned the tamron. I have shot around 3000 shots with this lens and they all appear reasonably good on contrast as well as on sharpness. For this price I highly recommend this lens. I sometime think of getting some f/2.8 lens but I mostly fall back becasue depth of field is really shallow at 2.8 and hence I always tend to shoot at 5.6-8 only.
Overall its a great lens for outdoor photography.

good contrast and sharpness

plastic feel ...

tamron 28-75 f/2.8

Nobody cares about this lens ? Surely it's not prestigious, not expensive, it's plastiky and light and f/5.6 is not really stellar. you also cant override the autofocus without switching to manual. But the overall perfomance is really great ! Look at the pictures and compare, look in the charts, not in your Nikonian heart ! The 50D kit lens is really sharp, vignetting is no problem at all, the AF is fast, the operation smooth. Read also what Ken Rockwell think about this lens (www.kenrockwell.com) and you will realise it's a winner !