Best Walk Around Lenses For Canon [Top 5 Lens in 2021]

Tired of carrying different lenses specialized for different types of photography? Want to own a lens that is perfect to meet everyday needs? You are just at the right place where I’m reviewing some of the best walking around lens for your canon camera.

Walk around lens is another name for standard zoom lens those are proven to be most useful considering zoom range. The all-around lenses can go from wide-angle range to the telephoto range. They are compatible to capture almost all types of photography, including landscape, portrait, travel, blog, or even food photography.

If you like to know which lens is the best walk around lens for canon camera and which one you need to have, the article aims to help you out by comparing some of the best general-purpose cameras available.

Why Do I Need A Walk Around Camera Lens?

Choosing the lens for your type of photography you do is simple and straightforward. Most photographers at their beginning start with the basic kit lens. With time they choose specialized lenses suitable for their type of photography. But if you are asked to carry only one lens with your camera someday to capture random pictures, what would that be? That’s when you would feel the necessity of owning a walk around lens.

What does the walk around lens mean? Why are they called walk around even? It is because the lens is most suitable when you are walking around and randomly take pictures. Because the lens excels with its focal ranges that allow you to capture images of any type. Most of the walking around canon lenses start from 24mm or so that enables you to capture wide angle photos up to 135mm long or more for perfect telephoto photography.

Another reason everyone loves the lens as you don’t have to change lenses when you are roaming with one of the lenses. The lenses also offer variable aperture lenses that are usually f/3.6 to 5.6 but are less sharp than top trinity zoom lenses. But they are mostly cheaper than those flagship lenses.

The 5 Best Walk-Around Lenses for Canon: The Reviews

1. Best Overall: Canon EF 24–105mm f/4L IS II USM Lens, Black – 1380C002

Whether you are an amateur or a professional, the EF 24-105mm lens is going to satisfy you as general-purpose lens. The ‘L’ series canon lens strives for the best quality performance that pairs smoothly with the high-resolution, full-frame sensors of SLR cameras.

The 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM’s new optical composition includes 17 elements in 12 groups for excellent overall resolving power. The improvements help increase peripheral brightness for better edge-to-edge results with reduced distortions, producing still photos and videos of great clarity and resolution.

This best walk around lens for Canon is perfect for different types of shooting with its 24mm wide-angle and 105mm mid-telephoto focal length coverage. You don’t need to waste time changing lens for capturing landscapes, portraits, snapshots or videos.

This lens comes with Air Sphere Coatings (ASC) on its lens elements to help combat flare, ghosting and reflections, and deliver clean images with reduced aberrations from reflected light. The lens also features an improved Image Stabilizer system that provides significantly enhanced shake reduction resulting in consistently sharper images.

The EF 24–105mm lens is engineered to provide fast, accurate operation for efficient performance. A high-performance control CPU drives Canon’s quick inner focusing with ring USM for quick starts and stops. The optimized AF algorithms help achieving fast, accurate focus making it one of the best all-in-one lenses for Canon.

2. Best walk around lens for canon APS-C: Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 Macro OS HSM

The Sigma 18-200mm lens was designed for APS-C sensors. Unike the earlier models, the lens doesn’t sacrifice image quality for versatility. Instead, the model offers improved minimum focusing distance of 14.7 inches and special low dispersion glass.

The Sigma 18-200mm is relatively compact as compared to other superzoom lenses which makes it one of the best choices for a walk around lens.

The optical IS helps to get excellent stabilization, especially when you are shooting at the telephoto mode. The images stay blur-free even without using a tripod. It’s Hyper Sonic Motor (HSM) also ensures quiet, fast and accurate autofocus and stabilization to compensate camera shake.

This lens offers capturing in both wide angle and telephoto modes. You will get an angle of view of 76.5˚ when capturing at 18mm and 8.1˚ at 200mm. The lens is also pretty good at focusing objects at daylight, and false confirmation is very rare. But it struggles under low-light conditions to lock on at all, especially at the telephoto end.

If you don’t possess a dedicated macro lens for macro photoshoots, the Sigma 18-200mm 3.5-6.3 DC HSM OS lens has got your back. With a minimum focusing distance of 39cm or 15.4 inches and a maximum magnification ratio of 1:3, the lens serves entirely satisfactory as a macro lens.

3. Best walk around lens for canon full frame: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens

Canon’s EF 50mm f/1.8 STM is an excellent entry into the world of EOS prime lenses. The Compact and lightweight lens is the best walk around lens for Canon 70d or other SLRs.

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM should feel solid in your hand, even though it is constructed with plastic materials. The focusing ring is narrow yet sturdily built. The rubberish grip band helps to operate the lens with finger-tip. With the 50mm focal length, you will get an angle of view is 40˚.

The EF 50mm comes with a fixed focal length, and a bright f/1.8 aperture. The lens is excellent for portraits, action, even nighttime photography. The bright aperture helps it not only to excel in low light but also to capture stunning, sharp images and movies with beautiful background blur with the help of its circular 7-blade design.

The best prime lenses for Canon come with super spectra coating helps render images with excellent colour balance, plus minimized ghosting and flare. A stepping motor delivers near-silent, continuous Movie Servo AF for movies plus speedy, smooth AF for stills for an excellent performance.

4. Best walk around ultra-wide camera lens: Canon EF 16–35mm f/2.8L III USM Lens

The Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM is an ultra-wide-angle zoom lens which is ideal for professional and enthusiast photographers. It features a 16–35mm focal range for superb perspective control, with a fast, constant aperture and the outstanding image quality you can expect from a Canon L-series premium lens.

The EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM is famous for as one of the best wide-angle lens produced by Canon. The lens uses two ultra-low dispersion glass elements for controlling abnormalities for accurate edge-to-edge detail and sharp contrast and clarity. Also, the lens is applied with SWC and ASC coating that helps significantly to reduce flare and ghosting for increased colour accuracy with reduced aberrations from reflected light.

The maximum f/2.8 aperture gives superb control over depth of field and can be maintained throughout the zoom range, which helps shoot outdoors. The lens is dust and water-resistant to be a reliable option, even in the harshest conditions. Also, it has a non-stick fluorine coating to maintain a clean lens.

With its 9-blade circular aperture, the 16-35mm lens is capable of capturing gorgeous, evocative out-of-focus areas and soft backgrounds throughout its zoom range. It delivers an incredible level of control over background blur for impactful photos and videos.

5. Best walk around telephoto lens: Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS STM Lens

The Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM delivers impressive telephoto at its highest zoom. The decent f/4-5.6 aperture isn’t the best under low light condition, but the lightweight, compact and affordable zoom lens can be a smart choice for the beginners to start with.

The best zoom lenses for Canon come with Optical Image Stabilizer for up to 3.5 stops for capturing sharp images of faraway objects, even when handheld. It features STM stepping motor and a high-speed CPU, rear focus mechanism and improved AF algorithm for high-speed performance, supporting Canon’s Movie Servo AF for smooth, quiet and continuous focus adjustments.

The telephoto lens also features one UD lens element that reduces chromatic aberration, helping to achieve excellent image quality with high resolution and contrast. Furthermore, full-time manual focus is available even while in AF mode. Enhanced coatings on the lens deliver outstanding colour balance and minimize ghosting and flare.

The Definitive Buying Guide for Canon Walk Around Lens

Many of us refer a product as the ‘best’ just looking at the most expensive one in that category. But that’s not the actual way you find out the best product.

The best lens for you should be within your budget range, and a perfect value for money product.

When you know how a lens differs from the rest of the others in terms of quality of performance, you can choose the best lens efficiently.

Keeping that in mind, here we bring some of the key features that you need to look for before buying the best walk around lens for Canon.

Focal length

The focal length of a lens is the field of view of the frame. The size determines how large the compositional frame will be.

The wider the lens will be the more area the frame is going to cover. Photographers use the wide-angle lens for landscape photography as it allows more space other than keeping the subject on the frame.

Again, the longer focal length lens isolates the subject of the shot, which makes it better for portraits and close-up shots.

Focal length also influences the depth of field. The foregrounds and backgrounds seem further away when captured with wide lenses, whereas longer lenses have a lighter depth of field.

Most of the Canon lenses come with focal ranges except few has fixed focal length. Having a lens with a focal range lets you capture both landscapes and portraits. But the fixed or prime lenses have fixed focal length. They are sturdily built, resulting in sharper images and less visual abnormalities.

On the other hand, a lens with focal range is more versatile, compatible of multiple focal lengths but are more prone to distortions resulting blurry images compared to the fixed ones.

Aperture

Aperture is one of the prime factors to consider before buying a lens. Aperture refers to the speed of the lens, and the amount of light is allowed to enter into the lens. The aperture is controlled by the lens directly, and that’s the reason why finding the best aperture lens is essential.

Aperture is described in f-numbers such as f/2.8 or f/4. The smaller numbers indicate faster aperture. A quicker aperture means the lens can take more lights and performs better in low light conditions. They are more agile but doesn’t provide an exceptional image quality.

Most of the lenses with slower aperture offer outstanding image quality at daytime but can’t maintain the standard under shades.

Autofocus

It is undoubtedly true that not all brand’s autofocus mechanisms aren’t the same. Some lenses include lightning-fast autofocus but cost you a lot for that.

Rest of the others offer decent autofocus in decent price tag. While choosing a lens, make sure the autofocus isn’t too slow and loud that may distract you while capturing photos.

While autofocus is the current trend, many camera enthusiasts still choose manual focus over it. Manual focus lets you have more control over the photos. You can control the focus of the image by rotating a ring with your finger. Make sure the ring is sturdy enough to withstand even if used too often.

Image Stabilization

When you come out with your walk around lens camera to capture random pictures, you don’t want to carry tripods or other mountings, isn’t it?

The optical image stabilization technology is now commonly used in most of the camera lens. When you are taking pictures with free hands, it’s so natural the images can be blurry because of the shaking of your hand.

The image stabilization smartly compensates unwanted shaking effect from the pictures. It is handy, especially when you are capturing without a tripod. This is a must-have feature for the best all-around lens for Canon.

Size and Weight

This feature mostly depends on personal preferences. The lens you will be carrying everywhere should be compact enough to fit inside your backpack. Also, it would be best if the lens is lightweight so that it can be carried all the time easily. There are lots of compact canon lens available in the market those are performing well.

However, if you find a lens which is the best with all other features, you may ignore the size and weight features for better reasons.

Conclusion

Most of the professional photographers have at least one walk around lens to use in versatile conditions. The lightweight and compact lenses are easy to carry and always ready to capture. We hope the article could make you understand why you need a general-purpose camera and help you find the best walk around lens for canon camera.

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