Kit supplied 17-55mm lens: always out of focus?

Yes those look bad indeed. Why are you testing at only f8 though? Try shooting at 18mm at f3.5 or at 55mm at f5.6. It does look like you got a bad kit lens though.

Is there anyway of returning your lens for another one? Because the kit lens should not at all be that unfocused and dull. I say this because a kit lens can take a shot this sharp.

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I tried out the 17-85mm lense today and it was a noticable improvment, but somthing still seems off. This was on a tripod using image stabalization and auto focus (f5.6, 1/13 sec, iso 100, no flash, 85mm):

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Daniel, are you accustomed to shooting with a point and shoot? In moving from P&S to dSLR, most people react in a manner similar to you..."it should be sharper!". That is because the P&S applies a lot of sharpening to the photo before storing it. But the dSLR does NOT apply sharpening much at all before storing it...the camera maker assumes that the dSLR user wants to be the one determining the amount of softening -- not the camera! -- during the postprocessing step. It could be your eye is accustomed to the expectations set by long use of the digital P&S, too.

But until you post the yardstick and book test on a tripod, it still could be a bad lens on the 18-55 or it could be front focus or back focus that is at fault!

Is there some reason why you simply will not do this test, and insist upon posting picture after picture of non-conclusive photos?

Can you take some images with the square box mode or "Auto". Just because that sometimes is a good way to test a lens also.

The Olympus picture does not look that bad. It doesnt look great but usually store snap shots dont.