Canon 400D with or without kit lens?

[Rangie]

Hi everyone,
Im a newbie here in the forums with very little knowledge about photography, and in need of some advice and direction.:thinking:
I have just started using my old SLR Canon EOS 500N again :) and have two Canon lenses (budget ones?), both fitted with UV filters, info below.

Canon Ultrasonic EF 28-80mm 1; 3.5 - 5.6
Canon Ultrasonic EF 75-300mm 1: 4 - 5.6

I am wanting to go digital and looking at purchasing the Canon 400D (body only) and using my existing lenses, as the kit lens is an EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and costs an extra £50.

Would i be better off in the long run spending the extra £50 on the kit lens? or towards a wide angle lens? as i think i will be buying a wide angle lens in the future, as i love landscape and scenic views. (seen some of your landscape shots with the sigma 10-20mm lens :clap:)
Also, can someone please explain what the numbers mean after the size of lens.

Thanks, im looking forward to learning and going DSLR. :woot:
Simon.

[Jimmy_Lemon]

Hi Rangie - welcome to the forums :)

I personally love the kit lens and think it is worth the price. The 18mm is pretty wide and I find it more usable for landscapes than the 10-20 as anything below about 16mm seems to loose too much detail for me :( So I would say it is worth the extra £50, personally.

[dsb]

The kit lens gets quite a good write up and i use mine a fair bit.

[Slapo]

The kit lens isn't the best around, but it definitely is usable, check the website of Robert Mekiš:

http://robertmekis.com/

That should be inspiring :)

[RobertP]

The kit lens is better than some people seem to think so getting one with the camera or from ebay is not a bad idea if only for the wide end.

The numbers are the maximum aperture the lens can do. eg at 75 mm the aperture will be f4, zoom to 300 and the widest aperture you can select is 5.6. The lower the f number the bigger the aperture so more light can get in and faster shutter speeds are possible.

[walls]

not a great deal of price difference if you buy with or without the kit lens (£34 according to camerapricebuster) so you may as well get it as a backup if nothing else.

[Rangie]

Thanks everyone for the quick response.
Reckon i'll go for the kit lens as its wider than mine and especially for an extra £34 :thumbs:

Thanks Slapo, great site.

Thanks RobertP for putting it simple

Simon