This is a good but not great lens and is being replaced by version II. It is an excellent lens when measured against other starter kit lenses and has been one of the best low cost kit lenses on the market. (The $800- $1,000 USD Leica badged kit lens on Panasonic digital SLRs does not count as a "kit" lens in my book.) I did replace this lens in my bag with a Pentax 16-45 f4 and do prefer that lens. It seems to have better contrast and sharpness, but then again, it cost 4x as much.

This is indeed a good "kit" lens and is much better regarding use and build quality than offerings from Nikon and Canon.From my use the lens is fine on a istD L 6mp camera for A4 prints but neither camera or lens will produce exibition A3 prints.Simple maths dictates that a 300dpi print at A3 requires 18-20 mega pixels.Here we go again not that old chestnut !!!! it also depends on your viewing distance as to what is acceptable in quality.
Yes this lens is brilliant up to A4 and may be marginal up to A3 on a 12mp body .I have given up on DSLR's and use a Canon A550 for snaps and scan my Mamiya 7 negs to give a 120mp file for serious photography.

By far the best kit lens in the market nowadays.
Dpreview has it all written here:
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/pentax_18-55_3p5-5p6_p15/

I am satisfied with close up, and general use.

Very good optical quality - I used it for two years on my istDs. However I sold it finally as I switched to camera bodies. The fact is that I wasn't able to find any other lens in this price range providing the same quality and feeling.
Despite the plastic housing its mount is metal (not like the FA J series where mount is plastic also) - so it feels more robust tha other plastic built optical accessories. It is lightweigh and much better than other digital kit lens of any other brands.
The reason is easy - meanwhile the build is eco or budget, optical parts are just the same Pentax quality. Remeber this.

It always bothers me when someone rates a lens with the phrase"great lens for under" and you pick the amount. This lens is a great lens, PERIOD. Sure, there are better ones but when you combine the features it is a hard lens to beat. I have about 6 lenses for my K10D and I keep coming back to this one. It is a great lens for walking with and even though you may be a little bit further away than ideal, the lens is good enough (and with 10MP from the camera) so that you can crop out a small segment and still have a sharp well exposed image.

I am most please with the lens and especially the K10D.

DoctorJerry

For a $100 CDN kit lens, great. Unless you already have a better lens in the range, well worth getting with the camera.

Unbeatable - by anything 2-3 times the price. Very Good.. Macro rivals dedicated lens.

I would say that it is a very good lens for under $100. (far under now) It is sharp to the edges on my ist DL. I'd rate it at over 4/5. When I get a K10D this lens will probably be the knock about lens.

Although much maligned, this lens is actually well worth owning. It is indeed somewhat soft wide open, but closed down to f8 or f11 it gives a very respectable performance. In terms of cost/performance ratio it is extremely good value. A3 prints are perfectly possible, to a standard suitable for exhinition and competition work. Of all the kit lenses from all manufacturers, this may well be the best of the bunch.