Pros: It is a good starter Lens. Obviously can't zoom in far but it gives you a good wide angle to use. Image Stabilization was excellent. It's light weight and easy to use and carry around. It's also pretty tough for just being plastic.

Cons: Auto focus has stopped working after a year. When shooting events that have constant movement, auto focusing helps a lot. Manual still works and works fine.

Other Thoughts: It's a good starter Lens and I have had a lot of usage from it as my first Lens.

Pros: I own many L series lenses and have been a pro-photographer for a lot of years. The spread between most good lenses and great lenses is usually significant. The nifty fifty (50mm) is a very special lens in its own right, so is the (50mm) 2.5 macro)...but the 18-55mm I/S is so much more diverse..from wide to decent long...image quality is more than acceptable...In fact, for portraits, I have seen image quality even better than from the (50mm 2.5 macro) and that's saying a lot since the 50mm 2.5 macro is rated on the mtf scale at 4.6...Try and find that rating on the majority of L series lenses and you'll be searching til the cows come home and still not find it.....so, is the 18-55 worth the money...If you're looking for incredible image quality and know how to get it from this lens...it is...If you don't know how to get exceptional quality from this lens, than I'm sure you're going to say it's average and ordinary or not worth it....Image quality is all it's about to me.

Cons: None if one knows how to use this lens

Pros: Note: This lens is the kit lens that comes with the Digital Rebel XSi and a few other Canon cameras.

The lens has a decent zoom, and is easy to use, even for beginners.
Image stabilization works well and is quiet.
Cheap.

Cons: Sometimes this lens has problems focusing in low light.
The focus ring is actually the end of the lens, so for beginners it is a little tricky to find.
Aperture is not as fast as I would like, but it certainly works for low light photography, as long as you have a good tripod.
Plastic construction is cheap, but tough enough for daily use. This lens is very sensitive to dust getting in the zoom mechanism.

Other Thoughts: My perfect budget DSLR kit would include this lens for everyday use and macro photography, the Canon 55-250 zoom lens, and a 50mm prime lens for low light.

Get a set of 58mm filters to protect your lenses, the filters are much easier to clean, and breaking a filter is a LOT cheaper than breaking your new lens.

Pros: Great shots, good auto focus, image stabilization actually does work and really shines in low light conditions. At lower F stops in low level light with 1/5 to 1/15 shutter times, you can noticeably see the difference between this lens and the older "non image-stabilization" version. Even the focusing makes a significant amount less noise then the non I.S. version of this lens. An excellent buy, highly recommended.

Cons: It's cheap, and mostly plastic. But I knew this going in, and so for the price and what it does; this is in no way a con. Can't go way down in the F-stops.

Other Thoughts: For a cheap, 18-55 mm lens, WITH I.S., it is worth every single penny. Absolutely love it, and recommended it to family and friends. Looking to try the 55-250 telescoping lens shortly.

Pros: This lens takes surprisingly good photos for a kit lens. The IS is last generation but still very usable. The IS is also completely silent, some other ones I've seen make some noise.
The lens is very light weight, but there's a reason for that.
Very inexpensive for a zoom lens go.

Cons: All plastic construction, well except for the glass optical elements inside.

Other Thoughts: This is the same lens as the one that comes in the XSi+lens kit.
A few lens 'snobs' I know think this is a decent cheap lens, kind of like the nifty fifty (50mm F1.8) which is also suprisingly good yet incredibly cheap.
Overall a good lens to start with.