More camera advice needed ??

[Pudi]

Well lens actually, but same difference .. Decided to take the plunge and buy the canon 400d that I have been eying up for ages, the standard kit comes with an 18-55 lens which gets very poor reviews, I have seen a "Canon EF-S - 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS" which I fancy because of the image stabaliser, would this lens be of a superior quality as it isn`t a bundled lens ? Already have bigger lenses and need a small lense anyway so want a decent one ..

And is the "is" all it`s cracked up to be ??

[[XC] Lead Head]

I read that if you set the Aperture to around 5.5 on the kit lense, it takes decent pictures, but most say that it is noisy and slow