Don't Write Off That Kit Lens

I'll admit, I've been a bit of a lens snob the last few years. I don't own any of Canon's L series lenses but I picked up a Tamron 18-270mm a couple of years ago and I love the lens. When I bought my 50D it came with the 17-85mm witch in my opinion is just not a very good lens. It was never a very sharp lens. But the Tamron 18-270mm performed well for me across the board when I tested it out.

Yesterday I was going through my little collection of lenses that I've gathered over the last 4 or 5 years and noticed the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens that came with my Rebel XTI. Now back then I was happy with the lens but all the reading and podcast listening had turned me into a bit of a lens snob and I discounted it as a bad lens when I got my 50D.

Just for kicks I put the lens on my 50D and I must say, I'm very happy with the results. I was going to use it just for long exposures of moving objects like water and grass blowing in the wind because of the ND4 and ND8 neutral density filters I have for it but after taking some test shots I'm going to be using it a lot more. I was very surprised at how sharp the images were with my 50D.

Here is a portrait of my daughter that I took just to test out the lens. Granted how can you take a bad shot of such a cute model but this cheap little lens really came through for me.




I'm not going to write off this lens anymore and I do believe my Tamron is going to suffer for it!


Chris.