The image left was taken with the Canon EOS-350D using the 18-55mm EF-S at 35mm f8; the original JPEG measured 2.48MB. With 1750 lpph of horizontal and vertical resolution, the 350D comfortably beats its rivals.

Canon’s EOS-350D clearly delivers the lowest overall noise levels of the group, with 400 and even 800 ISO images being very clean. Nikon’s D50 also performs well on the sky simulation, but reveals higher noise on the black patches.

The 18-55mm EF-S at 18mm f3.5 is slightly soft, but sharper than its rivals, and acceptable once closed by a few stops. At 55mm the lens performs similarly to the competition, although again the best results are when closed by two or more stops.

The 350D with the 18-55mm EF-S lens exhibits purple fringing at its widest position, but no worse than its rivals. Fringing is virtually absent at the 55mm end, again in line with the competition.

The image left was taken with the Canon EOS-350D and the 18-55mm EF-S lens at f8. Like other budget digital SLR lenses, the best macro performance was achieved using its longest focal length of 55mm. Here the lens captured an area measuring 66x44mm from a distance of 13cm. This is essentially the same as the competition, although superior to Konica Minolta.

The image left was taken with the Canon EOS-350D and the 18-55mm EF-S at 18mm f8. Barrel distortion was measured at 3.35% which is slightly better than the Nikon and Konica Minolta bundled lenses, but not as good as the Pentax.

The image left was taken with the Canon EOS-350D and the 18-55mm EF-S at 55mm f8. Pincushion distortion was measured at 0.389% which is barely noticeable.

The image left was taken with the Canon EOS-350D and the 18-55mm EF-S at 18mm f3.5. The light falls off to an average of 68.8% in the corners, which while better than the Pentax, is well below the Nikon and Konica Minolta results.

The image left was taken with the Canon EOS-350D and the 18-55mm EF-S at 55mm f5.6. The light falls off to an average of 83.8% in the corners, which is similar to the Pentax but again well below the Nikon and Konica Minolta results.