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Kit Lens Update
Canon 18-55mm IS Kit Lens: I’ve still to get around to full review of this new version of Canon’s standard kit lens but initial impressions are very favourable. OK it still feels like a big lump of plastic, not an engineering masterpiece, but optical performance is better and the Image Stabilisation works really well, giving me sharp images at shutter speeds down to about 1/8 second. That’s about 4 stops of an improvement. Not bad for £ 50.
Nikon 18-105mm VR Kit Lens: The addition of stabilisation and lengthening of the zoom range with Nikon’s mid range kit lens are big pluses, but unlike the Canon 18-55 IS the optics don’t seem to have improved over it’s predecessor, the Nikon 18-70 DX. So far the main impressions are of more plastic, including a plastic mount, and, although images are sharp, there is much more vignetting and distortion at the wide end of the zoom range.
I’d rather have my old Nikon 18-70mm DX.
Sony 18-70mm f3.5-5.6 Kit Lens: As a long time Minolta fan I’ve recently had a look at the Sony range. Unfortunately, if you’re looking at buying a Sony DSLR this lens is best avoided. Yes this is a cheap option, but the cameras deserve much better. Performance at wide apertures is poor and even stopped down not that great. I haven’t tried the more expensive Zeiss options, so the Tamron 18-250mm or Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 would be my choices. The good news for Sony buyers is that the Sony 75-300 often sold in kits is actually surprisingly good value. More Sony / Minolta lens reviews to come.
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