Photography isn’t necessarily just about making money–it’s also a big hobby of many people. Just look at Photowalks; they’re fun events where folks get together and shoot just for fun. And if you’re looking for a single lens to stay glued to your camera during that time, then you’ll see just how many there are for not too shabby prices.
The Phoblographer has done loads of reviews on lenses, and this in post you’ll see a compilation of some of the best and most memorable that the site has tested.
Canon 50mm f1.8 STM
In our review, we state:
“Canonâs 50mm f1.8 STM is a great lens for the beginner, hobbyist, enthusiast or even the professional who likes to rough and tumble their equipment. But overall, itâs scoring mediocre to good results when you attach. The image quality is much better than before and Canon has proven once again that they can keep ahead of the curve.”
Buy Now $125:Â Amazon
Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art
In our review, we state:
“The bokeh quality from the lens is also really quite creamy. Again, something about it almost reminds me of Mamiya or Bronica lenses that have some beautiful bokeh to them. Because of the fact that there is no micro-contrast in this lens, you wonât see your subject popping out from the bokeh as much as you would on a Zeiss or Leica lens.
Wedding photographers, photojournalists, and event photographers are the ones that would do best with this lens besides the obvious street photographer legion out there. 35mm is such a classic focal length and I personally believe it to mimic my field of view much more than 50mm.”
Buy Now $899:Â Amazon
Canon 24-105mm f4 L IS
In our review, we state:
“This lens is one of the most affordable L lenses in Canonâs lineup and can often be found used for an even better price. The fast autofocusing speed, silent motors, image stabilization, sharpness, color rendering, and zoom range make this lens a no brainer for most photographers. Rightfully so, it has earned a special place on our list of recommended lenses for Canon owners and for DSLR videographers.”
Buy Now $999:Â Amazon
Nikon 20mm f1.8 G
In our review, we state:
“Another thing I didnât expect this lens to handedly excel at is smooth bokeh. You donât even have to get up close to create these pleasing out of focus areas either. You can stand anywhere between a half foot to a solid five-feet and still produce some very nice bokeh with this wide angle lens. This all makes it a unique lens for capturing upper body and even headshots with much of the background still in the frame.”
Buy Now $799.95:Â Amazon
Sony 28mm f2
In our review, we state:
“We were quite pleased with how sharp the Sony 28mm f2 lens fairs. This has to be one of Sonyâs sharper lenses and the companyâs primes are what impress us the most. Itâs about on par with the 35mm f2.8 if not a tad better, but both the 55mm f1.8 and 35mm f1.4 are sharper. This lens also seems sharper than the Zeiss 35mm f2, though not at all sharper than the Zeiss 50mm f2 Loxia lens.
The best sharpness comes at f5.6 with the best balance of both bokeh and sharpness coming in at f3.5 on a full frame sensor.”
Buy Now $448:Â Amazon
Fujifilm 35mm f1.4 R
In our review, we state:
“The 35mm f1.4 is truthfully best experienced if not wide open, nowhere past f5.6. Otherwise, youâre doing an extreme injustice to yourself by not taking advantage of the beautiful bokeh and extreme sharpness that the lens has to offer wide open. In my personal opinion and comparisons, this lens is just a tad softer than my trust 35mm f1.4 for my Canon 5D Mk II in the center. Granted (and I totally understand), they are two totally different lenses for different formats. But that statement is literally just to compare how far the technology has come along.”
Buy Now $599:Â Amazon
Olympus 14-150mm f4-5.6 II
In our review, we state:
“Olympus has never really given us a reason to complain about the sharpness of their lenses, though we found this lens to not be as super sharp as some of their other offerings. But for what this lens is (a superzoom with weather sealing) it isnât too shabby. Olympusâs Pro lenses and premium primes beat this though.”
Buy Now $599:Â Amazon
Panasonic 20mm f1.7 II
In our review, we state:
“The overall image quality from the 20mm f1.7 II lens from Panasonic is truthfully pretty damned good. There is a healthy amount of sharpness, contrast, and overall solid color rendition built into this lens. When you couple this with its great build quality and focusing abilities youâve got yourself quite the winner.”
Buy Now $429.99:Â Amazon
Sony Zeiss 24mm f1.8
In our review, we state:
“This lens never ceased to amaze me. It was super fast to focus on Sonyâs NEX 7 and nearly always nailed the subject perfectly in focus. That is a big concern for street photographers or those capturing candid moments: such as photojournalist shooters. If by any fluke of a chance you are a Sony photographer that also shoots weddings, it is nice to know that you can rely on these to act almost like a Leica the way the old masters used to.”
Buy Now $1,099.99:Â Amazon
Zeiss Milvus 21mm f2.8
In our review, we state:
“Zeiss lenses for DSLRs have never really been for the newbie photographer. These lenses require you to manually focus and find careful precision with each photo that you take by using the focusing confirmation with Canon or Nikonâs rangefinder focusing system. For what itâs worth, Nikonâs system works better.”
Buy Now:Â Amazon
Sigma 18-35mm f1.8
In our review, we state:
“One of the first things that I did when I got this lens in was take a photo and then chimped the LCD screen to ensure that my copy was sharp. Indeed, it was and still is. Weâve got no complaints about the sharpness of this lens at allâand we only want to start great things. Wide open it is pretty damned sharp and only gets sharper down to f3.5-4 where it stabilizes and we didnât see much of a difference in the performance. Beyond this, you start to see some diffraction.”
Buy Now $799:Â Amazon
Rokinon 14mm f2.8
In our review, we state:
“The lens also seems to control flair very well. I was essentially shooting right up into the sun for the photo above. You see a bit of the rainbow effect and some very tiny flair, but overall it isnât terrible. It isnât the level of control that Zeiss has though. Thatâs probably the best Iâve seen.
Additionally, I want to remind all fanboys in the forums to chill out: flair issues are easily taken care of in most post-production software. Iâm also sure that SnapHeal could take care of it. Alright, you can breathe now. Itâs not the end of the world and Cartier-Bresson is not going to rise from his grave with the zombie Apocalypse and eat the brains of engineers whom couldnât get it perfect.”
Buy Now:Â Amazon
Sony 16-70mm f4 OSS
In our review, we state:
“The lens feels amazingly solid in the hand and exactly what one would think Zeiss would make for the system. Absolutely nothing about it feels cheap and it only seems to ooze with quality. With that said though, we would appreciate the addition of weather sealing.
The only other thing that we would like is the addition of a distance scale so that we can see how far out the lens is focusing at a glance.”
Buy Now $999.99:Â Amazon
Tamron 35mm f1.8 Di VC
In our review, we state:
“One of the strongest points of this lens is the bokeh. The Tamron 35mm f1.8 Di VC is designed with 9 aperture blades and has a very close focusing distance. It can seriously render better bokeh than almost everything weâve seen except for the Sigma 35mm f1.4 and Sonyâs 35mm f1.4.”
Buy Now $599:Â Amazon
Tokina 24-70mm f2.8
In our review, we state:
“Man, oh man.
Even when you use this lens without a flash youâll still be able to render some absolutely crazy sharpness that Iâve only ever seen from Sigma, Zeiss, and Sony if weâre talking about optics designed for full frame 35mm sensors. Itâs astonishing and incredibly deceiving.
Why deceiving? Well, the Canon 6D doesnât render images to be the sharpest on the LCD screen. Bring it into a computer though and youâll be rubbing your eyes in disbelief.”
Buy Now $999:Â Amazon
