price good color reproduction

barrel distortion at wide angel corner softness contrast needs a high aperture to produce good pics

Absolutely not a bad lens for it's price. It needs f8 and up at wide angel to achieve good sharpness although the corners still remain a bit soft. Color reproduction is good; contrast can be a problem in mixed light situations.

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

Canon 90-300 usm

- AF is relatively fast for its class. - AF is also very accurate - 28mm equivalent is allows for wide angle shooting for a low price. - light - small (you can even pocket it) - unassuming, unobtrusive, easy to carry - Lens performance is above average for it

- plastic mount - no focusing marks (at this price, of course) - No FTM - f5.6 is a tad to small at 55mm - 55mm is not enough reach in some situations. - cannot use this lens in non-300D cameras (too bad, it is a good lens! maybe they can hack it later to work with the 10d). - there are duff copies of this once in a while so check your copies when you get yours. - you cannot buy this lens easily if you did not include it originally and may cost more to get afterwards.

I was forced to post a review on this lens to do it justice. The 2 other reviewers did not do a good job at this. What they saw was a cheap looking lens, light lens that is packaged with the 300D. And because it was bundled and maybe due to past experiences with bundled lens, they automatically concluded that is not good enough. One even had the temerity to compare it to an L lens. Of course, it will not be a fair comparison! But on to a more sensible review. One of the surprises I noticed with this lens is that its AF is very quick. No, it is not a micro usm or even a ring usm. But it can keep up. The AF is also accurate and hunts less even in dim light. In fact, my ef50mm f1.8 mkII hunts more and has a hard time locking to focus! In bright light, the 50mm is faster, but when the light is tough, the kit lens wins. Optically, and this is where the 2 other reviewers never really bothered to check, it is above par. If I were to score it 1-10, it would be an 8. Very, very close to an L zoom lens, especially at the center. and this is at all the zoom range. I manage to put this lens to the ringer after 2 days I got the 300D with it. I covered my uncle's funeral using the kit lens and took over 300 pictures (in 1 batt to boot!). It was used in all situations (available light, dim, mixed, daylight, very slow shutter speed, high shutter speed, with flash, without flash, 3 feet away from subject, 5ft-10ft-25ft-and further distances). All shots were taken in ISO 400 (very few in 100) and parameter 2. In all this, the kit lens shown. I was shocked to see the details in my uncle's old face in a portrait shot at 55mm wide open! It showed the rinkles, the moulting skin, etc and the color was all right. One saw the picture and also saw the bokeh was good. I did not notice any barrel or pincussion distortion, at least nothing too obvious for me to notice. The wide angle was also great. I shot the coffin and the flowers around it using the wide side. Detail was there. Very little softening on the edges even wide open. CA is also tame in all focal lengths. In the end, I was able to finish the funeral and rejected only 50 pictures or so. I trimmed this down to half of the remaining for printing purposes. A high percentage of keepers. And the contrast, and sharpness was there! Not L, but close and definitely leaving the film eos bundled lenses such as the 28-90mm. In short, this ugly duckling lens is a solid performer! Reminds me of the fragile looking ef 50mm f1.8 mkII lens. If you just look at the packaging, you will misjudge its true capabilities. Summary The lens is a great lens. Highly recommended to get as part of a kit. I hope that it can be used with the other models, but it can't (at least not yet). It performs highly for its plastic and cheap build. It is easy to dismiss it or underestimate its capabilities. DON'T. This is one of the few lens (like the 50mm 1.8 mkII)that performs way above its appearance, price, build, or stature. Get this lens. And use it to believe.

Customer Service

non required (yet)

Similar Products Used:

ef 28-105 f3.5-4.5 mkI, ef 75-300 f4-5.6 IS, ef 50mm f1.8 mkII Nikon AI-S lenses.

Value for money. Size. Lightness. Less than $100, or $1000 for the Rebel Kit and you can stomp all over any point and shoot.

Absolute lens quality is a major limiting factor for the Rebel's amazing sensor and digic processing.

This lens ended up costing me $900! I was initially happy with getting images better than any point and shoot I've seen, but after buying a $70 50/1.8 I was blown away by how much more the camera could do. This in turn led me to seek a replacement for the kit zoom, and the local camera store was evil enough to loan me a 17-40/4L. The 17-40 was so much sharper and contrasty that I was forced to buy it. The sharpness difference in undetectable for 5x7 or smaller prints unless you get out a loop, but the color rendition and contrast of the L is clearly visible at any res.

Customer Service

Unknown. Never needed.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon Coolpix 4700, Canon S45, Sony F717

Decent macro ability Stopped down gives pretty good images very cheap for a wide angle zoom. all other Canon wide angle alternatives cost much more Light weight

very slow lens At wide end, images lack contrast, sharpness and suffers from flare even in non sunny days plasticky construction - plastic mount and lens barrel rotate during focusing

Unfortunately I did not quite like this lens. I was wowed by this lens from Steve's Digicam's review which rates this lens very highly. I don't supose it's worse than many of the consumer zooms out there but I'd prefer better lenses anytime It's very good value for it's price and it does help to make dslr ownership affordable. However, it is a limiting factor to what the 300D can achieve. Shots taken with this lens are a mixed bag. Stopped down to f8 or so do give very usable and good shots. Macro shots were pretty acceptable, but at the wide end where this lens is valued (at 18mm), the shots were dull, lacking contrast and suffered from noticeable flare even on a non sunny day. Build construction is not good - plastic mount and the barrel rotates during focusing However, for the price (around $100), I have to admit that its decent if you need wide angle. Most Canon wide angle alternatives cost far more so this is could be a saviour

Customer Service

Local Canon service centre

Similar Products Used:

Canon EF 24mm F2.8

Light, cheap but still good optics.

Can be mounted only on the D rebel. Plastic mount (but aslo helps to reduce weight).

Surprizingly good lens, not only for the money. I guess the special design for the D-Rebel, using the best cropped part of the lens and being able to reduce its weight, makes it so special. Optically it's above average, slighly below an equivalent L lens. If you stop it to f8 - it's absolutely great.

Customer Service

No nead.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28-105

The price General purpose lens

Plastic Not sharp

I bought this zoom with the canon 300D. At 18mm there is some field curvature. The lens is quite good achromatic. It is far from APO. I have some chromatics problems with the flash in macro mode. The overall quality is good for the price. I was a little well surprised by its macro capacity.