Quote Originally Posted by JayG30 View Post
Reviews I've read and the data I've seen shows the 18-55 IS kit lens to actually be pretty decent. I enjoy reading stuff over at a place called DPReview.com.
This is what they said in the XSi review about the kit lens;

Also a review they did on the lens can be found HERE. From looking at the chart it seems like best sharpness results would be achieved around 28mm and F4.0.

I have no idea how versed you are in cameras so I apologize if what I say comes off like I'm talking to someone who knows nothing, but that is how I've been taught to explain things(assume the reader knowns nothing). Get yourself a tripod and a shutter release cable or something similar (alternatively you could set the timer for the cheapest solution). The reason this is important is that unless the shutter speeds are high enough you could be getting blurry images due to slight movement of your body. This is something people new to photography do. They think a room has enough light because our eyes adjust to the light but the camera need much more to reach high shutter speeds. This results in the use of flash, underexposed images, or blur. The tripod and shutter release will allow you to set your camera and object stationary and set exposure however you need regardless of how low the lighting is and stop any blur from movement....greatly increasing the sharpness of your pictures.

And then of course there is post processing (PP) for sharpness and such. But that's too long to explain. Just remember that no lens or camera can solve inexperience or improper technique. You'll just have a more expensive lens that takes blurry pictures. Finally, it seems like so many who post pictures here are somehow removing their EXIF data (Opanda nor Opera can find any). This is a bit annoying to me when you want to help someone by seeing what they did (what mode/iso/shutter speed/aperture/focal length/etc.).

And sorry for OT.
I understand everything you're saying. I use my tripod whenever possible. I actually went out on Saturday to take pictures in Seattle with my friends and got some good pics. I usually just end up using the timer, since I've only had the camera (XSi) since Christmas.

I shoot RAW and use Zoombrowser EX to process them and it gives me the EXIF data there.

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it since I'm still learning.