Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

This lens was good enough when I first got my canon 300d and I didnt know anything about photography, now I see the limitations of this lens. The quality of the images is crap with this lens. but I am glad to say that I found a better use for this lens, if you reverse the lens is actually a good Macro lens.

Price, good when reversed for Macro photography

Everything else

A kit lens that comes with my Canon 20D. it is actually not too bad for walkaround. However, I have noiticed that it 's a bit too soft, and have to adjust the sharpness parameter of the camera. Even the user manual warns that you have to use the sharpening filter in software to compensate the softness.

Overall, I think this lens is acceptable even for 8x10 print outs.

Cheap
Wideangle
USM is quiet

Cheap plastic
Soft

This will be a controversial review. I rate this lens highly overall unlike most other reviewers. How can other reviewers give this lens less than a 5 star value rating when the lens costs virtually nothing??? That's not logic... that's silliness. When you buy a Canon kit you effectively get this lens for as little as £10 these days. When you compare that to the price for a lens cap for Canon's 600mm lens (an astonishing £69!!!) you will understand what a true bargain this is. Even the cheap plastic lens hood for this lens will cost you more than the lens itself. So enough nonsense! This lens is 100% true value for money.

1. Build quality

Plastic construction... but so is the dashboard of an Aston Martin DB-S. If you mistreat it or throw it down the stairs then it will break (and so would a £500 17-40mm f4). It's built to a budget but that doesn't mean it won't do the job... it will. Mine's had a good thrashing for 3 years and it is still as good as new. It has a plastic lens mount... so what? Anyone ever wore out a plastic lens mount? Even if you did... spend £10 for another lens. The other little thought about benefit of it's plastic construction is that the lens weighs very little indeed... that can surely only be good, right?

2. AF performance

Not USM but that doesn't matter. In my experience USM is only really beneficial on longer focal length lenses. AF is fast, accurate and quiet (for a non-USM).

3. Optical quality

This is where this lens usually takes a battering from the other reviewers. Is it as sharp as a 16-35 f2.8? Nope. Neither is it £900. The results from this lens are nowhere near as bad as people make out. They're good, but that's as far as I'll go. When you show all your photos to your family and friends, or even if you exhibit some of them, you can virtually guarantee that not a single person will think "hang on a minute, that chromatic aberation is a bit obvious" or... "Ooo, Margaret, will you just look at the softness of those images taken at f5.6. Tut, tut.... if only they'd used an L series optic."
I've shot weddings with this lens and all clients were delighted with the results. Fellow photographers were all complimenting my work and they didn't know what lens was used. The only reason I would upgrade to a more expensive lens is for IS or a faster aperture. The quality is good but not stunning. And, most importantly... it is definitely not poor!

Price
Price
Price
Lightweight
Responsive AF
Reliable
Reasonably good optics
Good sized twist zoom ring
58mm filter thread (most common size)

Awkward manual focus ring
High-brow photographers smirk at you

(TOP TIP: Buy a roll of that red pinstripe sticky stuff from a car accessory store and put a nice even ring of it round your lens barrel... stops the camera snobs mocking you)

Cosina 19-35mm
Canon 17-40 f4L

Not needed

I bought this lens used after I got my Rebel XT. I was planning to get the 17-40L instead, but couldn't come up with the money to do this at the time. I would have got the kit instead had I knew this. Anyways this lens is cheap. It has its uses and is ok for shots, but its sharpness leaves much to be desired. On some shots the outer edges of the picture were soft and distorted. You get what you pay for in this lens.

Cheap price with kit

Poor optical quality and build Its a kit lens so what do you expect?

Yes ... it is plastic, toy like & cheap (bundle-in kit) .... BUT ... IT TAKES GREAT PICTURES! Over the period of 2 mths, I had taken more pictures with this len than I possibly imagine ... maybe over 1 thousand and most of the time it gave result that I am more than happy with. Reviews from Popular Photography show that this len is just a few decimals different compare to the Canon EF 17-40 f/4L USM in large blow-ups! Pictures speak a thousand words ..... www dot pbase dot com / cheerful_yc .... need me say more??!!! Friends, if you own one keep it even if you have ultra expensive stuffs ... 'cos it can produce results too!

Cheap, Fast in focus, Contrasty if one used it correctly, Great colors if one understand lighting, Compact, Decent in macro too.

Plastic, Manual focusing is difficult, Slow .... f/3.5-f/5.6

Hasselblad XPan - 45mm, Rollei 6x6 - HFT 80mm/f2.8, Canon FD - 24mm/f2, 50mm/f1.4, 85mm/f1.2L, 135mm/f2, Panasonic LC5 - Leica DC VARIO-SUMMICRON 7-21mm f/2-2.5