The Canon EF-S 18-55mm is part of the manufacturer's cheaper range of digital lenses, designed to fit on APS-C crop frame cameras. This lens is the "kit" lens, which is usually sold with entry- and consumer-level DSLRs.
But how does it fit into this competitive market?
Pros
- Lightweight and compact
- Great Image Stabilization
Cons
- Plastic construction
- Far too loose manual focus ring
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f3.5/5.6 IS Lens Review
This lens has been around since 2008, when it was introduced to replace the non-IS version. It's an impressively compact lens, especially considering the inclusion of an IS (Image Stabilization) unit.
Canon introduced this lens to compete with rival manufacturers' entry-level lens offerings, which were also starting to utilize image stabilizing units in low-priced lenses. But the original lens was never particularly strong on image quality. Has this lens improved on that problem?
Build Quality
As with all of Canon's entry-level kit lenses, the 18-55mm is built entirely out of plastic, and it feels like a cheap lens. The manual focus ring is particularly bad; it feels far too loose, and it has an extremely slim ring to try to grasp.
The problems in the design of the lens are what keeps the cost down. Just remember to be careful with it!
Autofocus
Again, to keep costs to a minimum, this lens features a DC micro motor for autofocus. Canon's more expensive lenses use a ring USM (Ultra Sonic Motor). However, focusing on this lens is fast and accurate, at least until you come across a low-light situation, where it's likely to struggle. You'll find yourself using manual focus on these occasions. The manual focus ring rotates even when the camera is set on AF, so you must be careful not to twist it accidentally, as this can damage the motor.
Optics
The lens is a vast improvement on its predecessor, with far better sharpness in the corners and at wider apertures. There's reduced chromatic aberration as well, and the image stabilization works exceptionally well for such a budget lens.
However, the lens can be really prone to flare, and the lens hood (which you have to buy separately) is next to useless in preventing this problem. Contrast can also be an issue with this lens.
In Conclusion
For the price, this is a good lens, with pretty sharp optics. It's a useful focal length for those just starting out in advanced photography, and it will be a useful all-purpose lens from which owners should receive a great deal of use. However, it's far from perfect, and other manufacturers have proven that corners need not be cut quite so drastically on things such as manual focus rings and lens hoods in order to keep costs down.
I'd recommend this lens as a kit lens without hesitation to those just beginning in DSLR photography, but it's unlikely to keep a beginner satisfied forever!