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Ibought this lens for my back-up Canon camera. 20d. The original lens was not an IS lens and many times I would get blurry pictures. With this Image stabilizer lens, the pictures are in focus all most all of the time. If you are in the market for a new lens for your canon digital camera, make sure that you get an IS lens. It will make all the difference.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I consider this a buyer beware. Buying lens on eBay is a risk. This works fine in mannual but is a total fail in AF mode. I checked it on three different cannon cameras with same result. All these cameras work fine with good lens. So Buyer beware when buying untested lens on eBay. I have a duplicate of this lens so I will survive.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I will grant you that most professionals won't care much for this lense, as most have bashed it. But, then again most of us aren't professionals. I moved from Minolta to Cannon and this was the kit lense with the Rebel XT I purchased. This lenses does as well, or better, then most people will ever ask of it. It takes great close up shots, and provides you with a little distance as well. The photos are sharp and clear and focus is right on every time. The focusing is also fast and quiet, as well. I have purcahsed two additional lenses for the camera, one a Canon and the other a third party lense (filled the gap between my two Canon lenses), and this one out produces both the others, in my opinion. I read the reviews before purchasing the camera, but as I had no Canon lenses I went ahead and paid the extra ($50) for the kit lenses, and I could not be more then happier with it. Where else are you going to find a quality lense at this price? I am currently a Assistant Scout Leader for the local Boy Scout troop and we recently had a Court of Honor for the boys awards and I used this lense to shoot it. The photos came out remarkably better then I had hoped for (wished it had a little more length for the further away shots - as I was behing the parents and didn't want to get in their way). So yes most of the reviews on this lense are not that great, and I can see not purchasing it if you already have Canon lenses. But for someone like myself making a switch from another system to Canon, or someone moving from a point and shoot to an SLR, the I highly recommend spending the little extra and getting this in the kit, you will be glad you did. I am rating it as good, but if it was a little longer (say a 18mm to maybe a 70mm) then it would have had an Excellent.Read full review
This lens is fairly lightweight and somewhat compact. You can get slightly wider-than-true shots when taking photos at its widest 18mm. With its zoom range to 55mm, it is a good lens for SLR beginners and amateurs for everyday usage. At 18mm, your f-stop max is f/3.5 which is the largest aperature for this lens and lets a a good quantity of light in for lower light images. Clearly a larger aperature lens will perform better in low light, but for under $100, this lens is a great option especially if you are on a budget when it comes to camera lenses and toys. Want a slightly better step up from this lens? Then get the IS (Image Stabilizer) version of this lens for better low-light performance. The IS version of this lens has the same f/3.5 maximum aperature opening, but can help get rid of the blur sometimes seen in photos when in low light situations, especially when not using a flash. This lens by no means competes with Canon's L-series lenses which introduce fluorite and low-dispersion glass with no vignetting, but for a cheaper $100 lens like this one, it's a good all-purpose lens. Great for group photos and great in daylight. For beginners, you will find that you will use this lens most of the time in normal day-to-day scenarios. To partner with this lens, aim for the 70-300mm IS lens which lets you get up close and personal with the action. Nonetheless, this entry-level Canon lens is good for the beginning and amateur Canon digital SLR users.Read full review
Update: This lens has been redesigned in a new "kit" lens that now has image stabilizaton. The reviews all indicate that whatever its virtues in the older form, the new one is clearly better. So - if you are buying a kit lens, make sure you get the newer one with "IS" in the name. The price new is essentially the same and image stabilization is a real plus. The English mag, Digital Camera Magazine, has decided this is a soft, worthless lens compared to the Nikon equivalent. Yet in the most recent issue (in the US, as of March 9. 2006) at least three of their "winning" photographs were taken with this lens. Popular Photography magazine's review of this lens (available at their website)concluded 'Excellent ... performance at all focal lengths'. Is it equivalent to a Canon 'L' lens? No, of course not, but it is surely the lightest lens available for the Canon Rebel, 20D and 30D digital cameras. It is essentially weightless, certainly by comparison to the IS lenses that would probably replace it. Its one real flaw is that the front lens element rotates making polarizing filter use problematical. After a year, I bought a better Canon lens, but I'm keeping this one for the times when I want an small, light outfit to just carry around. At the wide angle end, f3.5 is not too bad even for available light, given the Canon ability to capture decent images up to ISO 1600 and even 3200. I've done a fair amount of hand-held interior work with this little gem.Read full review