It is SO easy to want more and more gear once you get started in photography, thinking it will make your life or photos better or easier! Unfortunately, it might not. It might drain your bank account and give you back problems from carrying it all though! Instead of having every lens and other piece of equipment, I recommend you make informed decisions and invest in a few pieces of quality gear that suit your current and long-term needs. Unless you truly plan to be a jack of all trades who photographs every possible sort of scenario and noun.
I only own two lenses at the time I am writing this blog post. A 35mm 1.4L series from Canon, and a 50mm 1.2L series from Canon. They fit my needs perfectly right now and work well on my full-frame camera body. When you’re thinking about what lens to buy next, read this post for my tried and true advice!
Know your body
You need to become familiar with your camera body and sensor in order to make an informed decision about what lens to buy. Figure out what body you have, and what sensor your body uses. If there is a crop factor, know what it is so that when you are looking at lenses, you know how to convert them to approximately what they will actually look like with your body. All you need to do is multiply the lens focal length by the crop factor to see what the lens will look like on your cropped sensor. PLEASE note what kind of lens mount you have, because not all lenses work with any camera!
Consider what you want to photograph
Next, think about what you are going to be photographing. If you just want to photograph your children at home, you do not need a telephoto lens and buying one may actually be difficult to use. You would have to have enough space to stand away from your child. In this scenario you would be happier with something like a 35mm lens. Now, if you want to photograph your child’s soccer matches, a telephoto lens would be more appropriate! Check out my focal length overview chart below. This is actually the chart that all of our photography students get inside their 10-page comprehensive lens guide! You can also purchase the lens guide yourself by clicking here.
| Category | Focal Length | Purpose/Use | Other Notes |
| Wide-angle | 14mm | Landscape, realty | fish-eye |
| 24mm | Landscape, architecture, realty, interiors, some portraits | Slight fish-eye effect but not obnoxious. Often used for realty and landscape. | |
| 35mm | Portraits, landscape, realty, documentary and every-day photographing | Closest to human eye perspective IMO. Almost a normal range. Great all-around lens. | |
| Standard | 50mm | Portraits, documentary and every-day photographing | Very popular for portraits and every-day type work. Another great all-around |
| Medium Telephoto | 70mm | Portraits | Found more as a range in a variable aperture lens than a prime lens |
| 85mm | Portraits | Very popular portrait lens | |
| Telephoto | 100mm *100mm Macro | Portraits, Sports, Wildlife | Can be used for portraits, but 85mm or 135 are more commonly used. *A 100m macro lens is common! |
| 135mm | Portraits, Sports, Wildlife | Some portrait photographers like this lens for the compression | |
| 200mm | Sports, Wildlife, long-range photography | Only purchase if you’re into birds or sports | |
| Super Telephoto | 400mm | Wildlife, long-range photography | I don’t think the average photographer needs |
Consider your lens budget and goals
Obviously, you need to set a budget for your lenses, too. Think about how many lenses you think you will want/need in the future. Remember the gear trap, though. Really consider what you will need lenses for and prioritize what you want or need to be photographing. Then, see what options are available for your mount system, and at what price points. If you know you want to upgrade your camera body in the future, you need to consider that as well. Look at the maximum aperture the lens can achieve. Most brands have a lower, middle, and top tier of lenses. The top tier isn’t always the best option. As long as your lens can reach the maximum aperture you need, it will probably work just fine for you!
If this all seems a little overwhelming still, please consider purchasing our comprehensive lens guide! It has 15-pages of information and EVERYTHING you need to know about lenses without having to hunt through google.