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The 5 Best Cheap Lenses for Canon DSLRs

Chris Gampat
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05/31/2015
2 Mins read

AbramGoglanian_ThePhoblographer_Canon40mm

You don’t need to spend over $1,000 to get a great lens for your Canon DSLR. Heck, you don’t even need to spend over $400. Canon and third party manufacturers have great lenses available for your DSLR at fairly affordable prices. Some are surprisingly good, and some will possibly stay glued to your camera.

Over our years of reviewing lenses and cameras, we’ve rounded up our top five choices for the best Cheap Lenses for Canon DSLRs.

Canon 50mm f1.8 STM

Canon 50mm f1.8 III

Though we haven’t reviewed the new 50mm f1.8 III yet, it’s bound to have better optics than the previous version. It’s also been updated to include seven aperture blades, a metal mount, and new focusing motors to overall make it a better product. The lens is designed for full frame DSLRs but will also work with APS-C sensor DSLRs with a field of view of 80mm.

Buy Now $125: Amazon / B&H Photo

Canon 40mm f2.8 STM

Canon 40mm f2.8

In our review, we said:

“I was extremely surprised with the Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM lens, the image quality delivered was beyond what I expected from a lens at this price point. I do wish the manual focus feel was a bit more responsive, and the AF speed just a touch faster, but I can certainly live with it as-is and have no issues. For $150 (as of Nov’ 2012) I feel like this should be a no-brainer purchase if you want the smallest lens that Canon currently produces.”

Buy Now $149: Amazon / B&H Photo

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f4-5.6 II

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Though we never formally reviewed the 55-250mm f4-5.6 II, we used it many times with the Rebel cameras and were pleasantly surprised at how sharp the image quality is. For a small lens that is bundled as a kit option, you’ve got a heck of a sharp optic that most people may be forever happy with.

Buy Now $299: Amazon / B&H Photo

Rokinon 85mm f1.4

Rokinon 85mm f1.4

In our review, we state

“For the money, many photographers are bound to swarm to it due to its great construction, small size, light weight, and sharpness. With the supply of products coming out of Japan being limited as well at the time of writing this, the South Korean lens looks a bit more tempting.”

Buy Now $269: Amazon / B&H Photo

Rokinon 14mm 2.8

Rokinon 14mm f2.8

In our review, we state

“For the price at around $400, you really can’t beat it. Canon and Zeiss’s options offer either autofocusing or assistance, but this lens offers essentially the same quality at a much more affordable price.”

Buy Now $329: Amazon / B&H Photo

40mm 50mm amazon aps-c b&h photo canon Cheap Lenses for Canon DSLRs dslr full-frame Rokinon
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.