Canon EF-S zoom lens - 18 mm - 55 mm F/3.5-5.6

I recently purchased a sweet Canon 400D/XTi Rebel from Amazon.co.uk (£45 cashback!) and this standard zoom lens (Canon EF-S 18-55mm) came with it.

As far as I know, you cannot purchase the Canon EF-S 18-5mm on it's own, as it's designed specifically to be sold with the 400D/XTi Rebel package. I'm sure you can pick up a cheap one on eBay though (probably removed from a kit package, or being sold due to an upgrade from kit package). I've seen the EF-S 18-55mm sell for around £25-£35 at undamaged/rarely used condition on eBay, which is quite cheap!

I obviously chose the kit lens package with my 400D/XTi Rebel as it only adds about £40 in the price difference, and I couldn't afford a new lens at that time.

Before I start reviewing the actual lens, I'd like to say that is is a kit lens. It doesn't have a great built quality, and doesn't perform very well obviously. You WILL need to upgrade eventually, as it'll degrade/break or you'll find the zoom limit restricting. I did, anyway.

Appearance
The EF-S 18-55mm is black, with two silver tripes around the bottom of the manual focusing ring and the zoom ring. The writing declaring that the lens is an EF-S 18-55mm and other places on the lens is also in silver.

Zoom ring
The zoom ring is quite stiff when you first use it, but it softens up eventually. It can be quite difficult to zoom in exactly where you want.

Manual focus ring
The manual focus ring is a joy to use, as I personally find it quicker and easier to focus on objects than with autofocus. It's also very easy to turn.

Picture quality
Picture quality is average when cropped and resized, but is quite grainy when zoomed in. The lens is also very small and light, which is great.

Build quality
I think the entire thing is made out of plastic (well the girl at Jessops said it was..) except the glass, although it's pretty sturdy. Saying that, I dropped mine onto a carpet and the zoom/extender tube broke.

All in all, the EF-S 18-55mm is quite a decent kit lens. It's good for begginers who want to get used to the SLR features. I reccomend upgrading soon after though, as you will find the zoom restricting and the picture quality grainy. Saying that, I'm going to purchase another one of these lens from eBay as they're really cheap and light to carry around on holiday.

(Sorry if I don't use 'SLR' terminolgy correctly.. I'm quite new to photography and SLRs in general)