Dan Martin

We had some great fall colours at the cottage for Thanksgiving last weekend (). Just for fun, I thought I'd take the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens out for a spin. I've always said that the kit lens is actually quite sharp, and it proved itself again on this outing.

Here are a few sample pics from our walk. It's hard to judge sharpness from a small file, so I have made the originals available for download. Click the image to take you to an original sized version (~8MP):



Exif: 30D, 33mm, hand held, 1/100 @ f/7.1, ISO 100


Exif: 30D, 55mm, hand held, 1/60 (a little slow) @ f/7.1, ISO 200


Exif: 30D, 31mm, hand held, 1/500 @ f/5.6, ISO 200, -1 2/3EV


I took the first two, but SS took the last shot and I think it's awesome.

I think the 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 is a great little lens. Sure it's a little slow at the long end, but optically, it's really not bad at all. The sharpness is more than adequate for just about anything the average owner is going to print.

I'll post a few others from the weekend in a bit...

Dan Martin

Here are a few others without the kit lens from the same weekend.


Infrared Coast:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acurazinedanEF-S 10-22mm with a Hoya R72 and custom white balance.



Autumn Apocalypse:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acurazinedanShot with a Hoya R72 infrared filter on an overcast day. I intended to convert this to B&W when I was taking the shot, but I thought it was interesting as is.



Autumn Hues:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acurazinedanJust a collection of colourful leaves collected around my cottage. EF 100mm f/2.8 macro



Leaf Pano:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acurazinedanA vibrant leaf that landed on black sand. Captured with the 17-55mm at 55mm.



The End...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acurazinedanI liked this scene when I saw it because the three main elements to this picture were all at the end of their existance. The firewood had been burned to coal, the bottle cap was burned and rusted, and the leaf had fallen from the tree. The 100mm macro was used for this shot.

drigo

great pics!!! i especially like the infrared coast...
i was just looking at B&H's website to look for a replacement for my kit lens... was there any pp done with the pics you used the kit lens on?

Dan Martin

The three shots done with the 18-55 had minimal post work done. The first was just a straight conversion from raw. The second and third shots were converted from raw, then a b&w conversion with a spit tone was done to finish.

The weak points of the 18-55 in my opinion:
- moderate distortion in the corners
- slow for a 55mm lens
- no USM

Sharpness doesn't seem to be a problem though.

What lenses are you looking at now?

stogie1020

Simply beautiful.

The leaf on the black sand is my new wallpaper!(with your permission?)

Dan Martin

Glad you like it. If you need a larger version, let me know.

Mizouse

great pictures, and yes this past weekend my faith was brought back to this lens as well.

i shot at a glamour workshop saturday night, and reviewing some of the pictures, its sharpness is crazy even at 100% crop.

i cant post pictures thou because of the release forms.


anyways i wont be able to afford the 17-55 for a long time, so what do you guys think of the 17-85?

thinking of still replacing it with a better built lens and non rotating front when focusing and ring usm.

Dan Martin

Yes, I should have added the rotating front element to my cons, but I didn't shoot with a filter that day to remind me. It can be a pain with a polarizer...

I'd grab the Tamron 17-55 f/2.8 over the EF-S 17-85. It doesn't have USM or IS, but it's faster, sharper, and it has less distortion and CA.

wndrlst

Miz, I use the 17-85 as my walk-around, and agree with Dan. I'd really like to upgrade it at some point. I'm constantly cursing the lack of sharpness. I have no experience with the Tamron, but the 2.8 sounds good to me, too. The IS on the 17-85 is nice for hand-holding of course, but I'd rather have the wider aperture for more DoF control. It's been a great lens to get me started, but I'm looking for something else eventually.

jupitersolo

Love the pictures.

There's hardly a bad lens, when you try and use the 18-55 inside, it's not so good, when you don't want to use a flash. So you end up buying another, faster lens for that. Then it's why do I need two of the same in my bag.

drigo

i posted this in the lens thread but got no response...
according to my budget...these are the 2 lenses i'm looking at for replacing my kit lens...

Sigma Zoom Super Wide Angle AF 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC ($389)
Sigma Zoom Super Wide Angle 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC ($419)

right now i have the 50mm f/1.8,18-55mm(kit),sigma 10-20mm,& 70-200mm f/4 L

any other suggestions besides the 2 i mentioned?

Dan Martin

I prefer the Tamron 17-55 over the Sigma 18-55 from my hands-on experience with each, but either of them would be a good choice.

drigo

did you mean the 17-50mm? i'll look into that...

JLatimer

I have the Tamron 17-50 - FWIW I love the lens. My kit lens had definite focus problems - certainly not the quality in your pics Dan (fantastic pics by the way). The only caveat I have seen thus far with the lens is that it is very noisy when focusing and it tends to hunt a bit - that might be the fault of the body (or the user )

I am certainly not a pro, but I would recommend this lens.

Oh, and also the hood will cast a shadow when using the popup flash.

Edit: Made the same typo as Dan

drigo

^^^ thanks for the input...but i'm looking at BH photo and i'm not seeing a 17-55mm but a 17-50mm...is that what you guys are talking about?

JLatimer

Yup. 17-50. My bad.

drigo

lol...i'll look into that lens...thanks

waTSX

Great colors on #6 from the top!

hrj

iTrader: (1)

I have the Tamron too, very sharp wide open, deliver vibrant color. The only two cons it has are no IS/VR and no USM, that means no full time manual focusing.

dom

Awesome pics. That Leaf Pano is fantastic.

Just more proof that its not about your equipment.

Dan, SS, did you happen to take any of the same pics with a different lens just to compare? I know thats asking a lot. I would loved to seen what Autumn Hues looked like on another lens.

Wisc Badger

dan you are still my photography idol... nice pics man

Dan Martin

Thanks Dom.

I don't have any different takes of Autumn Hues, but since it was a macro, it would be difficult to take a similar shot with the other lenses...

I'll do a "shootout at 18mm" someday with my 18-55, 17-55, and 10-22 since they all overlap at that range.

ILLustriousUA6

iTrader: (2)

man, i love your shots...

Dan Martin

The first review of the new 18-55 IS kit lens is out: http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/len...n_1855_3556is/

Very impressive results! It's basically as sharp as the 17-55 f/2.8 but it's 1/5 the price. Of course it's not as fast, but for a kit lens, those are very good results! Certainly now we can bury the myth that kit lenses are no good...

sixsixfour

Ive actually had one for about a week now. here are some samples, all handheld: