The right lens for you is entirely about the type of photography you do. Whether that is landscape, portraits or commercial, you need to have the kit that suited for your work.
The first point is you’ll normally find photographers have a preference – prime lenses or zoom lenses.
Personally, I love the look of prime lenses, yet my shoots are so fast moving, I readily need zoom lenses. So I made that choice and I’m a zoom lens owner.
But what do I use?
First off, I am a portrait and commercial photographer shooting on a Canon 7D Mark II. Its the top of the APS-C line from Canon and while you have to work a little bit harder for that bokeh, the autofocus, dual card slots, buffer rate and dynamic range all make up for it’s low light performance (which is nothing to be sneezed at, ISO 6400 is still perfectly usable).
This lens is probably attached to my camera more than I am. It is probably Canon’s most popular lens of all time – and there is a reason for that – it’s fantastic.
It is my main portrait lens for headshots, mid length portraits or when I’m out on a shoot in a field on a pet shoot (again this is another part where the 7D Mark II’s autofocus proves its worth).
This lens is my main walkaround lens when at weddings, doing full-length portraits and sometimes headshots as well – mostly in the studio. This lens is sharp all the way through and produces some lovely vivid colours. I am looking forward to seeing what the Tamron 24-70 VC G2 can do and how it compares to its predecessor.
I only have super 35 and crop sensor cameras so this little wide angle lens is perfect for use with them. I mostly use it for video as the STM autofocus is amazing (both silent and stunningly accurate) and there is enough sharpness and detail in the shots to match with my lenses listed above.
Perfect for interior property photography and video. Wide angle was something I dearly missed.
This lens gets left in the bag or behind in the office quite a lot now as it’s largely replaced by my 24-70 and 10-18 for those wide angles. It’s still a great lens for APS-C users and is a big step up from the kit lens. This was my second purchased lens and is still used on a second camera when doing interviews or the extra aperture is needed.
Conclusion
My lens choices are not very exciting I will give you that, but they are all very reliable lenses. I have never had a problem with any of them and not once has anyone complained about the sharpness, detail or colour rendition of them.
Links to all my lenses can be found on my Kit page.