They say ......

.. the best lens is what you happen to have on at the time!

Well that makes sack all difference when you forget to reset your white balance, reduce the ISO back down to a sensible level (these were all adjusted whilst mucking about/learning the camera) the previous night.

Well today whilst at Silloth on the Solway Firth the stormy weather was kicking up a fuss around Gretna/Dumfries area, so had a great view up towards the head of the Firth where it was all going on, when we saw the beginnings of a Tornado, the spout moving down to ground level just never quite touching but thought quick rattle a few pictures off, knowing full well the 18-55 lens was not gonna really cut it but figured it's what I've got on, I'll crop later, and the other lenses were 30 mile away.

Anyhoo got home figured just crop a bit and bobs your uncle, between the horrible grey sky, high ISO setting and totally wrong WB setting they were a waste of time downloading off the card, but lesson learned until the next time I do it .

Still, I am impressed with the pentax utility managed to make the pictures of the bairns pretty usable so wasn't a total bust

Hi H, regarding lenses they clearly all have abilities that are better suited to certain types of shots than others, e.g. 100-135 lenses excel at portraits and generally have quality glass. However, regarding your observations on the kit lens, "knowing full well the 18-55 lens was not gonna really cut it", I have to say that I respect this lens and have taken some pretty decent landscape shots with it. It is never going to compete with quality primes for outright image quality, but it's perfectly capable of capturing clouds and tornadoes in detail, it's just a question of how it is used to gain best results.

There are many other photographers on here who have used the 18-55 to great effect and for many people starting out it is the only short to medium zoom they have. Most of my images with the highest number of views on the Gallery were shot with the 18-55 lens.

I wonder what others think?

Regards
David

The 18-55mm is a great lens, capable of excellent results.

Sometimes, reading comments on the internet, we could be given the impression that images would be almost unviewable, but nothing could be further from the truth.

I wasn't down on the lens, more on myself for not checking the settings on the camera and how everything together can spoil the opportunity.

The actual forming of the funnel was a very long way off, and the picture may have been OK if the ISO wasn't so high (16000) I was experimenting and annoying the wife (quite successfully ) the previous evening. Well with the all the grey and not alot of contrast in the sky, it was going to be tricky but by the time I downloaded the shots were a bust and lesson learned.

The later shots with ISO sensible were nice and the better half has picked out a few to be printed.

Just whilst getting familiar with the camera I only use the one lens when we go for a run out, saves the temptation to do the lens switching constantly, which I would be tempted to do as moved to the DSLR from a bridging camera and the extremes that gave kinda made me lazy with the wandering around to get the shot (how did I ever survive with only my 50mm on my first SLR?).

Probably lost in the initial frustration and poor choice of opening statement.