EOS 300 to 300D upgrade question

[jb1]

Morning
Am looking to try & buy a Canon 300d despite its discontinuation here. ebay's looking the best bet at the moment. My question is that I currently have an old Canon EOS 300 with an EF 35-80mm lens. As far as I can see the 300D cameras all come with an EF-S 18-55mm lens. Someone told me I can use my 35-80mm lens on the 300D, is that true & as such should I just be looking for a body or is the EF-S 18-55mm lens far superior? Ta v. much for reading this.
Joe

[coldrain]

The 35-80 lens you have is a cheap lens that does not have a very good picture quality... the 18-55 lens is definately better on the 300D (and will give a more useful range, you have to take the 1.6x crop factor into account).

[cdifoto]

Morning
Am looking to try & buy a Canon 300d despite its discontinuation here. ebay's looking the best bet at the moment. My question is that I currently have an old Canon EOS 300 with an EF 35-80mm lens. As far as I can see the 300D cameras all come with an EF-S 18-55mm lens. Someone told me I can use my 35-80mm lens on the 300D, is that true & as such should I just be looking for a body or is the EF-S 18-55mm lens far superior? Ta v. much for reading this.
Joe


To actually answer your question:

Yes, you can use your 35-80mm. Any EF mount lens will go on the current dSLRs. EF-S lenses are limited to the smaller sensor dSLRs (300D, 350D, 20D) and will not work on the bigger full frames like 1Ds and 5D.

The 18-55 is a good starter lens but not great. AFAIK, the 35-80 isn't that great either. Both would be "ok" but if you get serious about it you'll most likely want to upgrade lenses. I'd buy the kit with 18-55 if I were you, then you have a wide angle plus your mid-telephoto-ish lens to play around with till you figure out what you really want. The kit lens isn't much more than just the body at most legitimate online retailers.

[coldrain]

The 18-55 is a good starter lens but not great. AFAIK, the 35-80 isn't that great either.
That is a major understatement.... the 35-80 is actually plain crap, I think it must be the worst EF lens there is.... The 18-55 will definitely be a much better performer, even though it has its weaknesses.

Even the 28-80 USM II I have, that is MUCH better than the 35-80 which was originally the kitlens for the EOS1000, still is less than the 18-55 kitlens.