Maximize Your Kit Lens

Maximize Your Kit Lens - because lens is the most important camera equipment. A good lens in well maintained will certainly last a long time and its age will exceed the camera body, which is some opinions advise that invest in the lens, and not on the camera body.
 

Usually when you first bought a 'real' camera (SLR camera) will certainly get a kit (default) lens, for example, Canon cameras with Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS II lens. Most kit lenses cheaper price, because it is considered to be one set of producers outstanding camera affordable to consumers and can compete in the market. With the kit lens does not mean you can not be creative in photography. Never mind what the people said, lens kit you have now is the most appropriate for you to start creating your photography style. Especially if your financial situation has not been possible to buy a better lens. To inspire your activities, you can see pictures of the photographers shots through google search engine with keywords 'kit lens photography'.

Now let's discuss how to maximize your kit lens. Kit lenses usually have focal lengths of 18-55mm. So here occurs combined 18mm lens and 55mm lens into one. Lens with a focal length of 18mm is a medium wide-angle lens that suitable for landscape, architecture and the environment photography, while a lens with a focal length of 55mm is a short telephoto lens that suitable to compress the perspective and for portrait or detail photography.

The above statement means there are many opportunities that you can exploit its focal length between 18 and 55mm, doesn't it? You can study the behavior of each focal length in the range. The lens is the 'eye' of the camera system, and your photos will be experiences in increasing your knowledge to know the character of each focal length.

Some of kit lens has other very useful features, namely image stabilizer. In the Canon lens is called Image Stabiliser (IS) and Nikon is called Vibration Reduction (VR). However, some cameras sometimes already have this feature. This feature allows us to take pictures with a low shutter speed, which means you can shoot without a tripod or a buffer at a focal length of 18mm and a shutter speed of 1/4 or even 1/2detik and produces sharp images. This feature is very useful when we are shooting in low-light atmosphere, and of course will greatly facilitate shooting in the daylight and evening. 

Lacks of Kit Lens
After a time you are using the kit lens, will certainly encounter some limitations. It's not the absolute poor, but a sign that you have been at a stage where you really need another lens to produce better pictures anyway. Here are some of the limitations of the kit lens:

Focal Length: you will feel that you are on the 18mm kit lens was not wide, of course you need a shorter focal length so that can produce more dramatic. In this condition, you can begin to consider purchasing a new wide-angel lens.
On the other hand, if 55mm focal length does not gives you the distance that you want on the subject, then you really need a telephoto lens. Usually if you experience or if you like photographing wildlife or sports.

Autofocus: Autofocus on the kit lens tends to be slow and a little bit noisy compared lenses are more expensive, if the performance of the kit lens autofocus hinder you, maybe it's time to upgrade.

Aperture: The kit lens is a lens that is 'slow'. This lens does not have a wide maximum aperture. The reason is simple: The wider the maximum aperture, the greater the lens body, and this will lead to even more need for the lens body, and it means also increase the cost of production. Most kit lens has a maximum width that is small to reduce the market price.

Maximum aperture at 55mm focal length at most kit lenses are f/5.6, if it is less wide, you can buy a zoom lens that cover the same focal length with maximum aperture of f/4 or f/2.8, or 50mm prime / fix lens with a maximum aperture of f/1.8 or more. A wider aperture on the lens is really going to help you to take pictures in low light conditions or be creative with narrow depth-of-field.

Quality of Lens Body: If you want to test the resilience of the body lens or shooting in bad weather conditions, then of course you'll need a lens that is built better than the kit lens. The more expensive lenses usually have a body and a metal mounting and can be used in bad weather (rain, snow).