Now here's a stupid question

[Don Simon]

I know we're getting off topic here but I just wanted to agree with NJMAN about kit lenses. I can't speak for the Canon one here, but my kit lens is very useable in good light; of course you don't expect spectacular resolution with a kit lens but it's pretty good with the aperture stopped down a bit. Distortions are of course to be expected; the answer is simply to avoid the extremes of the zoom. Sure they are slow, but does everyone need a fast zoom? If used sensibly (stopped down a bit and not at the very widest end) you should be able to make perfectly good prints even at larger sizes. The areas where cheaper zooms IMO suffer most are distortion (as mentioned) and the fact that the cheaper lenses don't handle 'difficult' light as well, producing more aberrations. Of course some of that can be fixed in software. Basically my point is, just because kit lenses aren't as good as lenses costing 4 times as much, doesn't mean they're terrible.