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

Product Information

It's a no-brainer: get one with the D40, and in the USA you have no choice because that's the only way the D40 is sold. One construction detail that is readily apparent with the rear cap removed is the plastic lens mount. Lightweight, yet sturdy plastics have been used for much of the construction of this lens, which helps to keep the weight down to just over 200g.

we see the older lens performing better in the wide angle periphery and the newer lens performing significantly better at the long end. The manual focus ring is not very smooth, but the much bigger problem is that there is a lot of play in the extending portion of the lens.While this is not the best lens for creating a strong background blur, the quality of the blur it produces (bokeh) appears nice. As this lens features a Canon EF-S mount you are only able to use this lens on a Canon camera with a cropped sensor (APS-C), such as the Canon 350D, 450D, 550D, 600D, 7D. But if you need advanced features and build quality along with equal photo quality, the Sigma 18-50mm f2. There are a lot of people going to bed hungry tonight if the money is just burning a hole in your pocket! Cameras with electronic levels have a big advantage in overcoming this issue, but holding a camera level alone does not render straight lines straight.

Move back to about 6' (2m) and even a distant background remains in identifiable focus at these settings.

For a lens that will be bundled with Canon's entry level cameras, the sharpness delivered is quite impressive. The VFA target should give you a good idea of sharpness in the center and corners, as well as some idea of the extent of barrel or pincushion distortion and chromatic aberration, while the Still Life subject may help in judging contrast and color. It's sharp enough for what I in tended to shoot and the style of editing I intend to do in the coming weeks. If straight lines are of the utmost importance, then you'll be glad to hear that the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, which should make corrections relatively simple to apply in image editing software afterwards. Generally, however, this version of the lens is soft and must be stopped down to gain acceptable sharpness.