Canon 18-55mm IS kit lens.

I’m not a big fan of Zoom lenses, i prefer prime lenses, so imagine shooting with a kit zoom lens for serious photography !!! I did use the Canon 18-55mm IS kit lens on my Canon XS for family photos but never for serious photography. Not long ago i bought a 7D and 400mm/5.6 L for my wildlife photos and also a set of Extension tubes. I like to try my lenses with Extension tubes to see how they performs, sometimes they are good but sometimes not so good.

So lets start with regualr distance shots without Ext. tubes, i took some photos with my 7D to see if that little lens can stand the 18Mp sensor ?

All shots taken in RAW and processed in LR and PS.

Here is a shot of my 2 young girls:

Taken with 7D and 18-55mm IS, handheld with IS activated.

Set at 32mm, 1/30 sec. at f/5.6, ISO 500, handheld with IS.

Here is a crop from the shot above, i zoomed-in to 100% in PS. From the TIFF files with no PP and sharpening, just resized and saved as JPEG.

Some tests with Extension tubes.

7D with 18-55mm IS with 34mm of Ext. tubes on tripod.

Set at 37mm, 1/80 sec. at f/8.0, ISO 200, tripod.

Some photos taken inside my house, sorry for the boring subjects!

7D with 18-55mm set at 44mm with 13mm Ext. tube, ISO 400, 1/200 sec. at f/8, handheld.

Zoomed at 100% and cropped in PS with no sharpening.

Same cropping but with PP and sharpening set at 90 % and radius at 1.0.

Close-up of my SMC Macro-Takumar 50mm f4.0.

At 45mm with 13mm Ext. tube, ISO 125, at f11, tripod.

Zoomed at 100 % with PP and same sharpening as above.

At 24mm with 13mm Ext. tube, ISO 125, at f11, tripod, same crop with same PP.

Well at normal distances that lens is sharper than i was expecting and certainly can be use for serious work if needed especially from about 20mm to 45mm where i found it to be at it`s best on my sample. Also it`s not too bad for close-up work, sure not as good as a real Macro lens but can be useful to shoot close-up at 24mm.