18-55mm lens from an old XTi: Need upgrade for image stabilization?

[ajblove]

I have an EFS 18-55m lens that came with an old Canon Rebel XTi (from 2006?) I am looking to upgrade to a new body, but I am not sure if I need to/should upgrade the lens too.

My main concern is if this old lens has image stabilization, and/or if the newer lenses have much better image stabilization (enough to warrant an upgrade to a new lens.) Does anyone know?

Thanks in advance!!

[ScottyP]

The IS is not going to be much, if any, better. If I already owned an 18-55 kit zoom and I felt like spending some money on an upgrade I would instead add a prime lens to my setup. It will give you 1.). better image quality and 2.). About 4x better ability in low light and 3.). The ability to create a more blurred background to deemphasize distracting objects and to make the subject jump out. Either a 50mm f/1.4 or an 85mm f/1.8 or maybe a 35mm f/? Would be something to look into, depending on what you are shooting.

IS is handy if you are shooting a longer telephoto lens but at just 55 on the long end you don't need it all that much and the 2 or 3 stops IS your kit lens has is plenty. IS is primarily good for non-moving subjects because it does nothing to freeze subject action; all it does is reduce the effect of your hands shaking as you hold the camera. To avoid camera shake you only need the fractional reciprocal of your focal length so at most all you need with your lens is 1/55 th of a second, adjusted by your 1.6x crop sensor focal length multiplier so something in the neighborhood of 1/85th (1/100th rounding up) shutter without IS. one stop IS gets you down to needing only 1/50th and two stops IS lets you get away with just 1/25th or fAster. (1/30 rounded up). Your current lens can definitely give you 2 stops of IS and probably a bit better. That allows you a shutter speed so slow that any living subject is likely to be blurred by its own motion at so slow a shutter speed. If your subject is inanimate just use a tripod or rest the camera on something if you need any slower than that.

[ebiggs1 · Accepted solution]

The reason that IS is valuable on this focal length is, it is so slow that anybody hand holding is going to need all the help they can get.  They are OK for daylight but go indoors and a slow lens needs help.

I would buy the new version of the EF-S 18-55mm STM with IS.  Especially in the kit as it is a good deal.  Not only a quicker lens when focusing, the optics are better, too.

[ajblove]

Thanks you! This is what I was looking to find out 🙂

[RobertTheFat]

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@ajblove wrote:

I have an EFS 18-55m lens that came with an old Canon Rebel XTi (from 2006?) I am looking to upgrade to a new body, but I am not sure if I need to/should upgrade the lens too.

My main concern is if this old lens has image stabilization, and/or if the newer lenses have much better image stabilization (enough to warrant an upgrade to a new lens.) Does anyone know?

Thanks in advance!!

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Your lens is not stabilized unless it was a later add-on to the camera. When the XTi was current, the stabilized version of the 18-55 wasn't out yet. If it is stabilized, it should say "IS" on it somewhere.

If you're going to buy another crop-frame camera (e.g., a T5i), you can leave the decision regarding a new lens until after you've had a chance to try your current lens on it. If you're happy with the result, you don't need a new lens. If you aren't, you have a wide choice of affordable lenses in the same zoom range. Probably the best is the Canon 17-55mm f/2.8, an image-stabilized, constant-aperture zoom, for about $900. But the stabilized version of the 18-55 is said to be pretty good, and there are various third-party lenses available at a variety of prices.

If you're the newbie you seem to be, there is absolutely no reason for you to buy any prime lenses of any focal length. You don't need them and probably wouldn't use them much. Zoom lenses are now so good that nobody below the level of advanced amateur needs any primes. (Just my opinion, of course, but a strongly held one.)

[ScottyP]

Oops! Sorry. I did not know Canon had released non-IS 18-55 kit lenses. I was thinking the OP already had IS and was wondering if a newer version of the kit lens would be worth purchasing.

In light of this corrected information, I think it probably is worth it, particularly because you get a price break when you buy the camera + lens as a kit.