Why I hate my 18-55..help

I posted on another thread that I hate my 18-55 and you guys asked for me to post a pic so you can see why.

I shoot in AV..it is really dark and gloomy out right now so my ISO is high 1600. I took prob 20 pics and this is the best out of them all. All the others were very blurry.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/qaC6​8n

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/pTeb​zP

Can you post the exif info (aperture, shutter speed, focal length, etc) for the photo? It doesn't seem to be visible on Flickr.

how big of a crop is this? you can post the original to flickr, it will retain all the exif info, and allow people to see what the shot looks like in full

to retain the exif, don't hit 'save for web'

Can you see the info you need now?

looks about right for a 200% crop at that ISO, with that lens.
Do you have your focus point set to the center only? Or are you letting the camera choose the focus point?

Of course you are going to hate a lens if you try to make it do something its not meant for. Just as my hammer is a piss poor screwdriver. Its not meant to be a birder or wildlife lens. Cropping to fill the frame with a bird image from a wide anhke to standard zoom causes problems, but those are not lens problems.

Also AV mode has nothing to do with how high your iso is. Under the same circumstances av, tv, and manual would need the same ISO . Unkess you are doing something to force it higher somehow

Edit: holy crap no wonder its not great. Thats crazy cropping, to get that resolution from that crop the lens did well.

I see a photo like this on your Flickr. It was shot at F 10. Why f/10 and not just wide open?

Looks like you're shutter speed was quite low for shooting at 55 mm, which can result in blurry pics. open up the aperture a bit, this will let more light in and allow you to shoot at a higher shutter speed I don't see any reason for F/10 in this shot.

Edit: Also remember that the further you crop in you are going to lose detail.

It is very dark and gloomy today..when I set the F stop to 15 the shutter speed went way down and I couldn't get a pic.

So what is this lens good for? Landscape?

I tend to go for my nifty 50 as I am happier with all the pics I take with it.

As far as AV I did not mean cause I am in AV that I had to up my ISO...I was just giving you the info of how I did the shot.

after seeing the original, you are asking way too much of this lens if you're expecting that bird to look like it was taken with another lens

why would you set the f stop to f15? there's no need to really do that at all...even f10 wasn't neccesary for this...if it's dark and gloomy, open up the lens to f5.6...you'll get a faster shutter speed, which will make it better

birds will need a faster shutter...but they also require more reach, and getting closer...the 18-55mm isn't the lens for birds

the lens should be able to perform close to your nifty fifty...you just need to use it right

landscapes would be a good use, basically any time you want to go wider than 50mm

the higher you set your f-stop, the slower your shutter is going tom be, unless you compensate by cranking up the ISO. That shot of the bird would have worked with a ISO of 800 (for the gloomy day) and a f-stop at wide open.

Not trying to sound like a jerk here, but you do know how the exposure triangle works, correct?

mamaof2 wrote in post #17288834
It is very dark and gloomy today..when I set the F stop to 15 the shutter speed went way down and I couldn't get a pic.

So what is this lens good for? Landscape?

I tend to go for my nifty 50 as I am happier with all the pics I take with it.

You should have been at f4. Its a kit lens, its good for general purpose photos. Its wide angle enough for landscape, group photos etc, the long end is long enogh to do individual portraits etc. Basically its meant to be a catch all. The 50 might be marginally sharper but would still righteously suck if you cropped the image as you did above, and given that it has no IS it would be blurrier.

I think your understanding of aperture may be reversed. As the F number gets smaller the opening is getting larger and allowing for more light to reach the cameras sensor. Next time try F3.5 or F5.6 which is wide open for your lens this will allow for faster shutter speed and make it easier to hand hold for sharp images.

The general rule of thumb is that you want at least 1/focal length of your lens to be reasonably guaranteed that you will be getting sharp images. So for example at 55mm you want at least 1/55 of a second shutter speed.

Yes before you buy any more gear invest in a book called understanding exposure by Bryan Peterson. It will help a lot.