Which Lens is the Absolute Best Walk Around Lens?

Find a lens that is perfect for your DSLR Camera needs!

One of the choices you have when buying your new camera is whether you want to get the "kit lens" or just get the body and get a different lens to suit your needs.

If you are on a budget, you will want to consider getting one lens that will cover a multitude of shooting situations. Whether you can it an all purpose lens, all around lens, or walk around lens, there are a few excellent choices, and not all of them are made by Canon or Nikon. Tamron and Sigma make lenses for Canon, Nikon, and other brands of cameras, and some of these lenses are as good or better than their brand name competitors.

Here are some great choices for a single "walk around" lens:

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Image Stabilizer USM Autofocus Lens

Nikon Zoom Wide Angle-Telephoto AF Zoom Nikkor 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR Autofocus Lens

Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di Autofocus Lens for Canon EOS

This lens takes excellent photos. The 2.8 aperture is constant throughout the zoom range, which makes it easier to take photos in low light situations. The wide aperture also gives great bokeh in your photos, too. This is highly desired by nature photographers. Bokeh is when your the object of interest is in focus while the background is blurred. The only negative of this lens is that it does not have image stabilization as the others do.

Price: about $389

Tamron AF 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Di-II LD

A Tamron lens with nearly 14x zoom - it will handle all your focal range needs. Reviews at B & H Photo are very good. As you push the telephoto to its upper limit, the aperture also increases. This means you will have some issues in low light when trying to zoom to the farthest range (6.3 aperture), but in good light, this is a very good performing lens. The 18mm wide angle is fine for landscape and the 250mm telephoto gets you right up close to almost anything. There is no need to switch lenses and miss that great photo opportunity. FredMiranda.com users have rated this one at 8.3 out of 10, which is quite good for an off-brand lens. It is available for Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras. Even though it is a bit more pricey than the others, you get the extra focal length to compensate for the extra $$$. (recommended by dpreview.com)

Price: about $469

Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM IF Lens

This is the new "all around" lens on the block. Sigma has been producing quality add-ons for Canon, Nikon, and other digital cameras. They have a great reputation for giving the buyer great quality at great prices. This lens seems to be no exception. The Sigma 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM Zoom Lens utilizes an anti-shake compensation function, with a 13.8 times zoom ratio. This lens's Hybrid Optical Stabilizer provides not only an anti-shake function for the camera body, but also compensates for image shaking in the view finder as the Optical Stabilizer is built in to the lens.

Four special low dispersion glass elements and three aspherical lens elements, results in excellent image quality throughout the entire zoom range. With a minimum focusing distance of 17.7" at all focal lengths and a maximum magnification of 1:3.4 reproduction ratio, this wide-range zoom is great for close-up photography as well as for telephoto shooting.

Price: about $489-529

A few test shots with the new Sigma 18-250 Lens
This is not a macro lens, but this shot turned out very well. Hand-held about a foot away.	Bright daylight shot at about 180mm - colors came out nice and vibrant
Indoor test - low light and hand-held	Self-portrait

 

Got Enough Money for More than One Lens?

If you have plenty of money, forget these recommendations. Well, don't forget them.. any of these lenses will all make an excellent walk around lens. But if you can get several lenses to cover the wide range of shooting possiblilities, you will need a wide angle lens for landscapes, a medium range lens for such things as portraits and street scenes, and a telephoto lens for capturing distant objects. A good macro lens is also desirable for those butterflies and flowers. Once again, if money is no object, definitely get Canon L lenses or Nikkor lenses. They are the Cadillac of lenses.

The Bottom Line:

Each of these recommended lenses will better serve you as a single walk around lens for your Canon or Nikon DSLR camera. If you plan to shoot birds and other objects that you want to fill the frame, you should consider the longer range of the Tamron 18-250. or the Sigma 18-250mm. If shutter speed and low light situations are your normal shooting fare, then the Tamron 28-75 is the best choice.

Update October 9: I purchased the Sigma 18-250mm lens. It was delivered two weeks ago. I am totally in LOVE with this lens. It fills the spot of 3 lens in my camera bag. There are a few snapshots above to demonstrate the versatility that I have experienced so far.