Why Keeping Your Nikon Kit Lens is a Good Idea

Most photographers start with a kit lens, whether it’s the 18-55mm for entry-level cameras, or the 18-105mm for high-end DSLRs. After discovering the type of photography they’re really into, they begin to start investing on better glasses, most of which are fast primes or zooms (this means that the lens have fixed and lower apertures). While it’s true that you can take great images with better lenses, it’s also true that you can still get shitty photos with a $1000 lens. It all goes down to the photography skills you have from years of experience. 

It’s a Good Lens

Lens assessment from www.dpreview.com on Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR DX

Most people criticize kit lenses for being cheap and plasticky – this doesn’t mean that these lenses can’t take decent photos. Especially with the 18-55mm lens that has the highest IQ (image quality) compared to more expensive kit lenses. It doesn’t have a lot of barrel distortion, and it’s super-sharp at apertures F8-F11. If you want to blur background for portrait shots, it can still perform decently in its long end at F5.6.

It’s Versatile

Left - Taken with 18-105mm VR DX, Right - Taken with 18-55mm VR DX

Do you know why DSLRs are often bundled with kit lenses? Well, it offers versatility and allows you to have a grasp of various kinds of photography – landscape, portraits, etc. If you find landscape photography to be your ‘thing’, you might want to purchase wide angle lenses in the future (for the sole purpose of landscape photography. On the other hand, keeping your kit lens as a general purpose lens is not a bad idea.

It’s Cheap

Joining a Buy and Sell Group in Facebook is great for picking up quality used lens

One of the best things about kit lenses is that it’s cheap as hell – In the Philippines; you can get a used kit lens for $60. If you’re looking for one, I would suggest the 18-55mm because of the reasons I stated above - A friend of mine just bought one for 2700Php (about $55). If you wanted more zoom, you might be able to get a used 18-105mm for about $100

I love using primes, but I still use my kit lens from time to time. While it does have its limitations, especially in low light scenes, it’s still great to use outdoors.  In photo walks, I try not to go below F8 for sharper images. You also have to be careful putting it on your camera since it doesn’t have a metal mount – it’s plastic, and it might break if you’re not careful. Also, it doesn’t have weather sealing so try to shoot with it in a fine weather.