The do-it-yourself/buy-it-yourself blog series is all about ways you can upgrade your mediocre camera equipment, mostly by throwing money at the problem, and in our Landscape Lens Rodeo Roundup, we talked about ultra-wide angle lenses for capturing the big picture better than your kit lens can. In this edition, we turn our attention to upgrading the mid-range, the focal lengths between 24mm and 85mm, where the majority of photographers will be making the majority of their photos, including portrait, lifestyle, and travel images. While all entry-level camera kits come with a lens that technically fits the bill (the 18-55mm kit lens on a crop-sensor camera), it’s usually a very cheaply made version, and does not have very good performance under more demanding conditions.

What you need to know

• As of the last 5 years or so, every camera and lens you can buy is very high in quality regardless of the cost, and can take great images in the right hands. So buying a more expensive camera or lens will not make you a better photographer. Your purchases should therefore be towards equipment that can do things that your existing equipment cannot, rather than just upgrading towards something “better”.

• The capabilities of your next lens boil down to two things: Focal length and maximum aperture. Other factors such as sharpness, distortion, and more nitty gritty things like “coma” and “chromatic aberration” are so well-controlled across all modern lenses that I would argue they’re not worth worrying about, because you will not notice them in your photos unless you look very, very closely. But focal length and maximum aperture have no substitute.

• The focal length is the first number, or range of numbers, in millimeters, that identifies the purpose of a lens. It represents how wide or narrow (telephoto) the perspective of a lens is - a wide lens is best for landscapes, whereas a telephoto lens is better for portraits, wildlife, or sports. A wide angle lens would typically have a low number such as 16mm, while a telephoto lens would be 100mm or 200mm. A mid-range focal length such as 50mm would be considered “normal”, because it represents approximately the same perspective as the naked human eye, and is neither wide nor telephoto.

  • A “prime” or “fixed” lens has only one focal length, such as 14mm, or 105mm. A zoom lens contains a range of focal lengths, such as 18-55mm, or 24-70mm.

• The maximum aperture is the next number that identifies a lens, and represents how wide the aperture of the lens can open to let in more light. A lens that has a lower maximum aperture number can open wider, and is therefore better for low-light situations such as star photography, or for limiting depth of field for portraiture. So for instance a lens that is called a “14-24mm f/2.8” is a wide angle zoom lens that can open up to f/2.8 at it’s largest aperture setting, and is ideal for landscape photography, including low-light and night situations. A lens that is called a “85mm f/1.8” is a prime (fixed) telephoto lens with a very large aperture suited for portraiture. Generally lenses with larger maximum apertures (lower f/ number) are bigger, heavier, and more expensive than the same focal length lens with a smaller maximum aperture (higher f/number)

• Don’t be too enamored by a zoom lens that has too wide a range of focal lengths, such as 24-270mm, and claims to do it all. That might be the one situation where you end up a bit disappointed by a noticeable lack of sharpness in your images. Lenses that are somewhat specialized tend to perform better than lenses that try to cover too much ground.

• Lenses for digital SLR and mirrorless cameras are made for two main types of camera bodies: Full-frame (35mm sensor size) cameras, and crop-sensor cameras (smaller sensor sizes). And the focal length numbers mean different things depending on what camera you are using.

  • For camera brands that make both full frame and crop sensor models, usually the full-frame lenses will also fit on their crop sensor cameras, even though the focal lengths will change in meaning.

Choose your lens based on the shots you intend to make and the type of camera body you have. These are the lenses we recommend based on our personal experience and the experiences of photographers we trust.

Mid-range lenses for portrait, lifestyle & general photography

For crop sensor cameras:

Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 for CANON, NIKON, and SONY

This lens will do a great job of covering the wider part of your mid-range focal lengths, and has an amazing f/1.8 max aperture across its entire range for improved low light performance and depth of field control, which is unprecedented in a zoom lens. This range of focal lengths is best suited to environmental portraits, group portraits, and some landscape work. Upgrading from the kit lens to something with noticeably better performance like this always involves a compromise of a different kind - the incredible aperture size means this lens won’t reach as far as your 18-55mm kit lens.

Sigma 50-100 f/1.8 for CANON and NIKON

I tell ya, a few years ago it would have been impossible to find a zoom lens with a f/1.8 max aperture, and now Sigma has two of them. This one will cover the longer end of your mid-range focal lengths, for close-up portraiture, lifestyle and some sports photography, and other general purpose photography. With a nice wide aperture, you’ll be able to get great depth of field control for isolating your subjects from their backgrounds. 

Sony 18-105mm f/4 for e-mount

For crop sensor sony mirrorless cameras, there is nothing more versatile than this wide-to-telephoto zoom that covers all of your mid-range as well. While you don’t get the depth of field control that you would get with a brighter aperture lens, you do get a much larger zoom range than your 16-50 kit lens, and a reasonably bright f/4.0 max aperture throughout.

For full frame cameras:

24-70mm f/2.8 for CANON, NIKON and SONY

Every camera maker produces one of these for their full frame cameras, and for good reason. This focal range works for the majority of your mid-range needs such as events, portraiture, and landscapes, while the bright constant f/2.8 aperture means it’s good in low light as well. You won’t find many professional wedding photographers who haven’t used one of these at some point in their careers.

24-70mm f/4 for CANON, NIKON mirrorless and SONY

And if you don’t quite want to spend thousands, you can opt for the f/4 version of the 24-70, which is almost as good, just not as great in the low-light department. It will still create the same focal lengths and if your subject is far from the background, you can still achieve very nice subject isolation and bokeh. It’s also almost half the size and weight of the 2.8! (Nikon f/4 is only available for Nikon mirrorless).

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 prime lens for CANON, NIKON, and SONY

Some photographers prefer primes to zooms, because you can always get a little bit brighter of an aperture with a fixed focal length lens, and even in the modern day, the prime lens produces images with a bit more sharpness and distinctive character. This Sigma is a beast for environmental portraits and group shots. You can always opt for the cheaper, f/1.8 version, but we really like the f/1.4.

50mm f/1.8 for CANON, NIKON and SONY

This may be the “original” lens for SLR cameras going back to the film days, and the 50mm focal length is considered normal, which means it approximates how the naked eye sees the scene, which is why this prime lens is so common. The better news that goes along with that is that this lens is also very affordable! Called the “thrifty fifty” or the “nifty fifty”, this can be an excellent alternative or addition to your kit lens that can produce sharper results and has better depth of field control for portraits and abstracts. 

85mm f/1.8 for CANON, NIKON, NIKON MIRRORLESS, and SONY

This is considered the quintessential portrait lens. This focal length works well for head shots and other tight framings, and will produce smoothly blurred backgrounds for excellent subject isolation. If you plan to take a lot of pictures of people, you need to have one of these.