Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED-IF Lens

A superb kit lens which shows a clean pair of heels to any of Canon's kit offerings. This is a solid well made lens that has a semi professional feel to it, it has a nice wide bit of glass at the end 67mm and has a lovely smooth zoom and focus mechanism. It is whisper quiet and you can focus it manually just by turning the focus ring even when in auto thanks to a button at the side. It only has a 3.5 aperture at the wide end but this is better than the kit lens average of 4.0-4.5. This lens is about £200 new in the shops but you can pick them up as new for just over a £100 on ebay. Factor in the lens cost with the cameras its in kit with and it makes a lot of sense. The D80 might appear more expensive than its Canon counterpart but thats because of the quality of this lens. It is lovely and sharp throughout the range and provides nice punchy pictures - as with most lenses its best at f8-11. The focal length of effectively 28 - 105 is very useful and will do for most situations. All in all a well made lens that gives good consistent results at the very top of the amateur scale and just creeps into the Semi Pro standard...