Well impressed,

Received this yesterday and couldn't be happier with it. Charged in 3 hours, intuitive to use, sound quality is superb and the headphones are incredibly well designed and unlike any i've ever come across. PC recognised it without installing software, and i had 750 track on it within an hour. Menus are easy to navigate, the equaliser is a great tool and it automatically levels out the track volumes so my Billy Holiday sounds as loud as my Arctic Monkeys. I didn't buy it for video but the sample one pre-loaded looked amazing. Only negatives really are the headphone jack going into the bottom and the headphone cable comes in 2 parts with a jack to join them which seems daft but doesn't cause any problems. Would have been good if it had a clip to attach it to yourself but am sure they can be bought. Overall a great little thing and i love it.

Fab Present - Challenging

Was bought this as a present (lucky me!) and it is a teeny tiny little lens.

Very small, light and very bright, it does take some getting used to if you normally use zoom lenses. You must move to compose the frame rather than zooming in and out to frame the shot.

I keep trying to use it like my macro (also a fixed focal length) but it doesn't allow you to get as close so I'm still getting to grips with it.

It has performed wonderfully in relatively low-light and produced bright vivid images. It is a flattering portrait lens and a good general purpose lens.

It is fast, bright and focusses quickly so long as you aren't too close to the subject. I'm told (by someone more knowledgeable about these things) that the optics are better on a prime lens, so you get a pretty good lens for a pretty painless price!

Brilliant

This lens was the reason why I went with Nikon rather than cannon, brilliant choice - highly recommended

A great companion for the Nikon D40/D40x

A great lens for a tiny price! This is an excellent lens to really take you a step further into the world of digital SLR photography.

I've owned the D40 for about 7-8 months and I finally decided that I'd like to be able to pick out features and have a bit more flexibililty with zoom. So after reading around I decided upon this for it's ability, but mainly becasue of the price tag! A quality lens for this much money is a nobrainer. The VR is essential, especially in low light situations and i've got excellent results with it.

wonderful flash unit marred by its menu system

Another reviewer has commented that the unit lost a star in its rating because it was not very intuitive to use. I agree absolutely.
While my D200 operation is helped by a clear menu system the SB-800 menu is plain horrid; it is difficult to access quickly and the instruction manual is not a great help. However once you get it set up the remote operation is very very impressive.
I assume that persons who buy this unit will want to use it in more ways than sitting on top of a camera in auto mode; in which case they will be willing to invest the time and practice needed to learnt how to quickly change between modes of operation - if they are then this is a good investment

Beware of the seller if you want cashback

This review is more about Simply Electronics than the lens itself. I ordered this lens at the same time as a Nikon D80 and another lens (which was delivered by a different seller). Nikon are currently running a cashback offer of £50 if you buy a D80 and one lens, or £75 if you buy a D80 and two lenses.

When this lens turned up it turned out to be sourced from the US, so is not included in the cashback offer. When I complained to Simply Electronics about this they just said that most of their items are sourced from the UK but in this case it came from the US, so unlucky. They said it was my fault for not checking with them first!

So if you are buying this lens from Simply Electronics be aware that it may cost you an extra £25!

Oh, by the way, the lens is excellent!

Excellent value

This a perfect very low budget tele-photo lens that combined with a digital SLR will give you great results.
I have been using it for taking pictures of birds from the local nature reserve and then increase the magnification in the computer.
The lens weights 480 grams and the SLR will still feel well balance when taking pictures in the wild.
For under £150 you can't go wrong as a starting point for wildlife photography.
How ever if you want semi-pro results you will need a USM lens with a lower f value.
I recommend a Hamma filter to make the pictures slightly sharper and a lens hood to prevent glare in the open.

Use with 4/3 lenses Olympus e 410

A good product does exactly what it says it should do. Also fairly cheap way to offer protection to the lense, when the cap is off.

Great image quality, but ...

One star for great image quality.

Wireless setup was a nightmare (needed extensive troubleshooting and patches).
Printed and online tech support was poor.
Wireless reliability was poor.
PC software installation was excessive.
Jpeg compatibility was poor.
Built-in software was poor.

Returned. Don't buy one.

The best general purpose lens available in the EOS series

This lens is probably the best buy you can make for the Canon EOS cameras. It has a fantastic range, anything from group photos to portrait close ups.

The lens is also extremly fast and quiet.

The standard lens for the 400 series is the 18-55 lens and this is very limited. Most people will then go on to buy a bigger lens, like 55-300 mm to cover the greatest range. To me this is a mistake. You will end up having to swap your lenses frequently or end up with one being unused and usually be stuck with the inadequate 18 - 55 mm. True you will probably never use the 18-55 mm lens again if you go with this one but you will also have a lens that does everything instead and won't have to make further swaps.

The 28mm - 135 mm lens is the best general purpose lens available in the EOS series and the way to go.

Sharp with great colours

I've had mine for 8 years and it delivers sharp pictures with great colours every time. If I could only own one lens, this would be it.