Is This the Greatest Kit Lens of All Time?

Most photographers with some experience behind them wouldn't buy a new camera body and include a kit lens in their deal. Maybe that philosophy needs rethinking.

Kit lenses get a bad rap, historically speaking, and for good reason: they're often poorly made, slow, and of limited application. They're good for beginners to get to grips with their new camera, and a good photographer can coax some strong imagery out of them, but few of us are reaching for them for any assignment or shoot we're undertaking. 

It felt like only a matter of time before kit lenses started becoming respectable in their own right. I always thought that a good walk-around lens — by which I mean a telephoto with a decent range — would be most fitting and it seems that one of Nikon's newest kit lenses has done just that. Evan Ranft has dubbed Nikon's 24-120mm f/4 ED VR as the "king of kit lenses" and it's easy to see why.

What do you think? Are kit lenses ever something you lean on? Is this the best kit lens out there? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Rob Baggs's picture

Robert K Baggs is a professional portrait and commercial photographer, educator, and consultant from England. Robert has a First-Class degree in Philosophy and a Master's by Research. In 2015 Robert's work on plagiarism in photography was published as part of several universities' photography degree syllabuses.

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