18-55 new & old

ElDude

ElDude

ElDude

Soldato
Joined
8 Apr 2004
Posts
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Location
Wrexham
I've just given my sister my 30D, battery grip, 70-300 & nifty fifty, and she wants to give my old 300D to my dad, but this would leave her without the 18-55 kit lens she's been using (and it's VERY good to be fair). As she currently doesn't have a lens to cover that lens loss I've offered to get her a replacement if she's good :D My question is, is the newer one with IS as good/better/worse than the old kit lens?

I had a quick look on WEX and they're only £148 so IQ wise it's not going to be a world beater, but if they are as decent/better as the old kit lens I'll get one for her (extra brownie points for me from my sister and dad :D).

Obviously I've had a search around, but there seems to be a lot of conflicting info on the subject, with people not helping by incorrectly identifying lens models, which doesn't help.

Has anyone got any experience with the old & new 18-55 kit lenses? A scoot about (baring in mind I've never wanted to buy this lens, so this is new info to me!), it seems there is the old 18-55 which my 300D came with, there's a 18-55 IS and a 18-55IS II which is dirt cheap @ £78 and also received awful reports, and good reports.

Anyone got any idea which of these is worth getting? To be clear, I'm not wanting to spend £300 on the better options for this focal length, I just want a replacement for the kit lens to give to my sister. I've got my own lenses for my 60D, so this is just replacing my sisters older stuff I gave her.

Ta!
 
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Looking about a bit more, I think that kit lens I had was slightly better than the norm. I've found a II version on one stop, so I think I'll go with that one, unless someone actually replies to the thread with some info rather than read and leave ;)

Admittedly, more people seem to go for the longer zoom kit lenses these days, so I suppose that could be why no one has any experience of the old lens and also the new one. I dunno, you kids and your student loans ;)
 
The IS version of the 18-55mm is apparently much better than the non IS version.
I've used the IS I and it is really good for such a cheap lens. But I haven't used the non IS so can't compare.

I don't think they've made any improvements with the II over the I, just like the 55-250mm II. I would go with whichever is cheaper.

Have a look on these forums/TP for a good bargain. You shouldn't be spending more than £60 on the IS kit lens second hand. Looks like most go for about £50.
 
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Having used both non IS and IS (both new, not sure which versions. One from my 550d and one from my gf's 1100d), they are pretty close in terms of quality, but the IS seems a tiny bit sharper, perhaps due to the benefits of stabilisation.
 
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