Terrific all-purpose lens for just about any everyday photo activity ...
592734
Terrific all-purpose lens for just about any everyday photo activity shooting hand-held or with a tripod. It has a very easy feel on the camera without being too heavy, smooth auto focus, excellent response to shade and shadow, very good bokeh, and excellent  performance on both the K5 and K3. For the price, Neither Sigma nor Tamron has anything equal to this lens in its range category for Pentax DSLRs..
418537
This is one terrific lens. It's got vibration reduction, with an active and normal modes (active is for shooting from moving vehicles). At full zoom 300mm  handheld shots are sharper than I would've thought possible. Ken Rockwell loves this lens, says it's on his camera all the time. That's my intention as a primary lens. (For DX cameras this is about a 42mm to 450 mm. )The main difference between this lens and ones costing 2-1/2 times more is there's pincushion and barrel distortion at the shortest and longest focal lengths, and some vignetting. As a film lens, this would be no. As a DSLR lens, these are just auto set corrections in Lightroom when down loading from the card. Great value.
977360
I purchased this lens after looking at the Canon 17-55 2.8 and the 15-35 L lens.  In the end, I went with this lens because it seemed to provide great value for the price.  I have not been disappointed.  All in all this is a great lens.  It can be a little soft when it is wide open at 2.8 and and at 17mm, but it sharpens right up if stopped down a little bit. I was fortunate to get a good, sharp copy, and this lens has become a great walk-around lens.

I have it paired with a Canon 70-200mm 2.8 Mk II and a Canon 50mm 1.4 prime, and I feel like I have almost all of my bases covered.  Now for that 100mm macro...

I would recommend this lens to anyone looking to add a wide angle zoom to their EOS kit.
1387620
We have now bought this lens twice.  I broke the first one at a festival this summer and we immediately ordered an exact replacement online.

The lens is great for pros (my husband) or beginners (myself) for day to day use.  We take our camera everywhere and we have both gotten amazing shots with this lens on our D3100.  He also uses this lens for product photography and gets great results.

For the price, this is the best lens we have ever bought.  I'm not nervous about dropping it because it can easily be replaced, unlike a lot of my husbands lenses that are thousands of dollars and only for very specific uses.  This lens is affordable, versatile, and great for many different photography styles and experience levels.
3348702
I picked this lens up to go with my Canon 7D. The focal range was the "sweet spot" I was looking for in a general purpose lens and the speed of the lens getting into f/3.5 was appealing to me. First of all, the build quality is suburb, falling just short of what I would expect from an L series lens. It has a great centered, balanced feel on the 7D, but looks and feels very "front heavy" on my dad's XTi. The IS (image stabilization) was MUCH needed with my shaky hands and is noticeable when I flip it on and off. I honestly never have it off unless I'm doing an A/B comparison of stabilization.

This lens is beefy and with the optional hood, it'll catch as many eyes of onlookers as it will photographs but don't worry, the photographs are stunning.

Image quality is excellent and approaches L series glass territory. Images are extremely sharp in the middle of the focal range. Some image distortion can be noticed down in the 15-20 range.

My only complaint with this lens is that I wish it was a little faster. A perfect example was just the last Christmas I had brought this lens with me for Christmas morning and with fast moving objects (kids) in low light (indoors/morning) I was having a difficult time getting a clear image. If this is going to be your first lens from a kit lens I would suggest picking up a prime 50mm or a 35mm for an indoor lens to swap out with the 15-85 or look into an external flash like the 430ex or the 580exII. The 580exII and the 15-85 has been my go to combo lately.
2454258
I bought this lens after a friend raved about her canon lens of the same type.

Okay, I'm no pro. I can compose a picture well and I usually get consistently good results in good natural light. But this lens magically makes almost all my pictures look great. In low light, they're significantly better than anything I got before, with truer color and less blur. And in natural light, closeups are amazing: crisp, brilliant and professional looking, with razor sharp focus and an attractively soft background. After snapping a few breath-taking pictures right off the bat that I would have had to *really* work for before, I suddenly realized that all of my friends' pictures I admire on flickr and not from brilliant photographers with extraordinary cameras, just amateurs like me with this magic lens. I shoot a lot of craft how-tos, so I am psyched to dramatically and instantly improve the quality of my photos through absolutely no skill of my own. Yay!

Getting the focus just right on a moving subject can be tricky if you're used to a zoom, but on anything still, it's easy peasy lemon squeezy. You definitely need to hang onto your zooms--this isn't suitable for every shot--but man, what a treat!
2696593
IT'S A CANON, GREAT LENS FOR ALL AROUND PHOTOGRAPHY. nice zoom. clear pictures. QUICK!
713191
While researching lenses to use photographing landscape and architecture on various online forums and review sites, I came across several references to this old lens. (see [...] to read the one that made me decide).

It turns out that this is an old kit lens for some ancient Nikon camera. It's plastic. It's silver-colored (although you might be able to find a black one). And it shouldn't be that good. The thing is that it IS quite good for some reason. Every once in a while the stars just come together to make a lens click and this was one of those rare occurrences.

I found it used, inexpensive, and thought I'd give it a try. I'm not at all disappointed. It's extremely versatile, it's fast, sharp, and responsive on my D-80. It has a very flexible zoom range that doesn't require changing lenses for most purposes. It's very light, so it's a great walking-around lens. And, best of all, it produces beautiful photos.

My only regret is that, at the time I gave in to my impulse, I couldn't find an all-black one. The silver (plastic silver at that) does sort of look like a toy. But it doesn't matter. I'm delighted with my lens and it's become a favorite.
1768301
I bought this lens for portraits and general walk-around photography. It complements my 24-70mm f/2.8L and 135mm f/2L very nicely.

On a crop sensor camera (Rebel series, 40D, 50D, etc.) you will get a full frame field of view equivalent of 136mm, which may be a little long for some pictures. I have a 450D (Rebel XSi), and it works very well on it.

Pros:
- Lightning fast auto focus
- Excellent sharpness, even at f/1.8. It's performance is similar to my 135mm f/2L, which is says a lot.
- The price. You're getting a "sleeper L lens" without spending a fortune. The L version of this lens is roughly $2000. You're getting a lot of bang for the buck.
- Excellent bokeh. Backgrounds are very smooth.
- Well built. It feels solid when I hold it, unlike the plastic kit lens.
- Small size and lightweight. It's very inconspicuous and doesn't stand out.

Cons:
- There's some visible CA when wide open at f/1.8, but not really a problem for most situations. Stopping down to f/2 or f/2.5 will generally fix it.

Considerations when buying this lens:
- This lens has a 3 foot minimum focusing distance. You can't get too close to your subjects.
- The full frame equivalent FOV (136mm) may be too long for those on a crop sensor camera, depending on what pictures you're taking

Overall, I love this lens. I've been very happy with its performance, and the pictures that I get are simply incredible. If you're interested in a good portrait/short telephoto lens, this is the one to get.
2484675
Love this lens for family shots and architecture... It is fast enough to capture motion, long enough for portraits, wide enough for smaller rooms, all even in scant light.  I also have the 25mm f1.4 and 14-140mm kit lens, but this one is so versatile that I keep it on my fabulous GH3 almost all the time.  It's my go-to lens for most scenarios.
2747171
This is quickly becoming my go-to all purpose lens. Its been sharp and precise with taking landscape shots. Ive even used it a few times for portrait work, however I prefer a more shallow depth of field for portraits most of the time. Overall its been my main go-to travel lens.
643298
Being a camera junkie, I picked up some used EF lenses at a local estate sale recently and this little jewel was among them.  I grabbed this one thinking it might be good for doing low light portrait work and boudoir photography, and after one weekend of experimenting with it, this little thing is tailor-made for those situations.  It may not be an ideal outdoor landscape lens, but I don't think Canon ever intended for it to be.

I have an workhorse T2i and a T4i that I use quite a bit and have shot with virtually every version of the EOS cameras through the years - from film on into the digital era, so I've thankfully accumulated a decent number of lenses.  The points I like about this lens are simple, it has a metal mounting base so it doesn't feel as "cheap" as a lot of EF lenses, and the build quality on the one I got really seems quite good.  It produces tack-sharp portrait-type shots with muted and soft backgrounds, and that's exactly what I expected it would do.  The natural comparison is how well does it stand up against the Canon 50mm "Nifty Fifty" lens that we all know and love?  Actually, this "obsolete" 28mm job is (in my opinion) just as good or better than the 50mm, and I'll have to do more experiments with lighting, but I expect it'll be able to produce some more dramatic effects with a bit of practice.

As others have stated, using it on the digital EOS cameras, calling it a "wide angle" lens is almost laughable, as the wide angle effect it might've originally produced is pretty well non-existent.  Still, it you like, screw a cheapo Newer wide angle adapter onto this thing and it'll pull in the whole room and open up a whole world of tricks.  Over all I HIGHLY RECOMMEND PICKING UP ONE OF THESE IF YOU CAN FIND ONE - this is a valuable little tool in my arsenal of lenses and I seriously like this one.
506905
This is a great lens for the amateur digital photographer.  It has terrific wide angle ability with very little vignetting. While it's a bit slow, meaning you need pretty good light indoors, it was still able to handle all of my holiday shots with no problems.  The major advantage is that you never have to change your lens out, meaning no missed shots and no dust in the camera body.  It's able to shoot from 18 inches away to quite far off with the telephoto.  It's also light and very compact, making it the perfect lens for travel photography or  carrying around town.

Why no 5th star?  It's not a perfect lens.  In order to have the wide range in such a compact size and weight, there were some compromises made.  There's going to be a bit of distortion and vignetting, but it's not bad, and is actually far better than I was prepared for.
3034891
Better to spend the extra $ to get this lens even if you're not an everyday photographer... Happy addition of this lens to my line up!
4845097
I purchased this lens back in July. I have not been disappointed. It is extremely affordable as far as DSLR lenses go. It makes the perfect match for the 18-55mm kit lens that came with my Canon. The telephoto adds a much needed extension to my camera's range without a focal gap. It is a good match for my camera too, the "-S" designation in the model name signifies it was designed to capitalize on the qualities of my sub-sized APS-C sensor. The lens is surprisingly lightweight, which makes it a pleasure to carry around when compared to larger telephotos that make you feel like part of a camera crew. I took several excellent pictures with it right out of the box shortly after the mail guy dropped it off. It is easy to use! I also like that it has a real focusing ring on it, unlike the kit lens that Canon supplies with most of its entry level DSLRs. The quality of the photos is also quite impressive; I find it easy to bring the depth of field down to a narrow band surrounding the subject (possibly a great portrait lens). The bokeh of blurred backgrounds is acceptable in most cases. What more can I say? Buy it!

Note: Canon offers the EF 75-300mm model lens which you can also find on&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Amazon/dp/B00004THD0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Amazon</a>. It is great if you want a little more range and feel comfortable sacrificing the image stabilization function. Keep in mind though, that the image stabilizing technology you are paying for in this lens is partly what makes it so portable. You will probably feel better leaving the tripod behind on those many unexpected outings.
1720001
This really is a wonderful all around lens. I switched my old Nikkor 18-200 that had sometimes difficulty to focus from time to time. This lens is not any heavier, has less distortion at wide angle, focuses fast, and has makro capabilities that is very handy. The extra focal length at both wide and tele length is noticeable. I still use my primes for low light portraits and other delicate work, but if I could only have one lens, I would be happy with this one. Overall, I'm very satisfied with my new travel lens that is not afraid to stop and smell the flowers (and other tiny things on the way).
39161
This little lens is so much fun!  Now it's non coupled so the camera does not read the aperture info, also does not auto focus.  Focusing is almost an non issue though. Basically I leave it just short of infinity for most situations, only set it closer when doing close work.  The lens seems to be very well made, especially considering the price.  Also seems to be sharp, no complains there.  It's a specialized lens for sure but truly a fun addition to my lens lineup.