Whether you are a photography enthusiast or professional photographer, good lens are the best equipment you can invest in. All over the world, Canon is the market leader in cameras and optical products. Their lenses are designed to capture pictures that display edge-to-edge sharpness with accurately rendered color and contrast, with minimal distortion.
Canon offers a great selection of more than 70 fixed focal length and zoom lens designed to meet the challenge of almost any photographic scenario one could imagine. They incorporate a combination of advanced precision-manufacturing technologies to produce what is acknowledged to be an industry standard for image quality, lens design, and manufacturing quality.
Picking a lens is a tough decision, but we are here to help you make it easier. In this article, we will talk about some of the things you need to look for while choosing Best Canon lens for portrait and landscape photography and tell you about some of our favorites.
One of the first things you will need to decide is which focal length is right for your needs.There’s not really a right or wrong lens to use, but rather the most appropriate for the subject and location.
Best Canon Lens for Portrait Photography
This lens is quite popular for portrait photography for its price range, especially with the cameras with aps-c sized sensor. The long focal length lets you get quite close to people, without distorting their facial features. In many aspects the 85mm f/1.8 outperforms the exotic special-purpose Canon 85mm f/1.2L II that costs five times as much!
The large aperture of f/1.8 lets you nicely get the background out of focus. We love the built quality of this lens, it’s solid but not too heavy for use.Contrast and saturation are very good. The usm auto focus is very fast and quite.
But the lack of image stabilization and the long focal length will make this a hard lens for taking videos with hand, however you can use a tripod for stabilization. This lens takes impressively sharp images, with a lot of detailing with more or less no chromatic abbreviation.
However there is one problem of purple fringing on the corners if you use this lens at f/1.8 on a bright sunny day, but it almost disappears if you use it at f/2.8.
However there is one problem of purple fringing on the corners if you use this lens at f/1.8 on a bright sunny day, but it almost disappears if you use it at f/2.8.
Pros
- Takes impressively sharp pictures, with great bokeh effect essential for portrait photography
- Great built quality
- Great depth of field
- Fast and silent focusing
Cons
- Does not have image stabilization. You will need a tripod while making videos
- Purple fringing at the corner of the photographs at f/1.8 aperture
At 1.3 kgs this is one of the most reliable, robust and study professional lens made to shoot in any kind of environment. It is on the expensive side but has its reasons. Canon hasn’t changed anything in this lens since its inception in 1995 which speaks a lot about its design and materials used.
The outer body is completely made of metal and can withstand extreme weather challenges. It is compatible with all canon cameras ever made, including film cameras.
The usmauto focus motor is very fast and virtually silent. It is used for photographing fast action subjects, like on a sporting event, getting sharp photographs when the opportunity arises. It let’s in a lot of light in comparison to a cheaper lens, which is why this is lens is used a lot in indoors wedding photography as well.
Pros
- Must have for professional photographers, for high quality image
- Won’t crack or break easily, due to its heavy duty metal body. Meant for rough use
- Great for capturing motion photography, like sports or animals
Cons
- Requires good investment, this lens is not cheap
- Heavy and big in size, due to which it can’t be discreetly carried around
Called the nifty50 Canon EF 50 mm f/1 is compatible with both full frame and cropped sensor cameras. It is one of the best budget lens in its EF range, being one of the highest selling and value for money camera lenses. At aperture f/1.8 it creates nice out of focus backgrounds for your portraits.
The bokeh effect created with this lens is very smooth.It lets in a lot of light, which is handy if you’re shooting in low light or indoors. Made of metal, it has compact solid body which also increases the longevity of the lens.
You can get pretty decent close up macro shots with this one, even though it hasn’t been made for it. The auto focus is noiseless and smooth which is always a plus! Chromatic abbreviation is very less and vignetting is almost non-existent.
Pros
- Comes under economic price range, considering the quality of pictures. Great for amateurs as well as professionals
- Sharp image quality
- Nice Bokeh effect
- Compact size, great built quality
Cons
- Purple fringing at f/1.8
This is Canon’s widest image stabilized lens. Great for landscape as well as street photography, it is also one of the best choices for hand held video work and the 35 mm focal length is an extremely versatile focal length for a full frame camera.
35 mm is nicely wide angled but is just zoomed in enough to just about give you emphasis on your subject,making it an ideal lens for all kinds of uses, even street photography.
The lenses maximum aperture f/2 let’s in a lot of light which is great for shooting indoors and even at night. But since it is a wide angle lens you’ll have to get close to the subject to see it strongly. It is compact in size so it won’t take up much space in your camera bag. The auto focus motor is very fast and accurate but does make some noise.
Its super-sharp even at f/1.4, has no significant distortion, has fantastic bokeh, and is very resistant to flare,a nearly perfect and very superior lens.
Pros
- Versatile lens which can be used for portrait a well as landscape photography
- Bargain price for a pro lens
- Creates ultra-sharp, free from distortion images
- No chromatic abbreviation
- Has image stabilization, which is great while making videos
Cons
- Bit expensive for a beginner. But great for a professional photographer
Best Canon Lens for Landscape Photography
A dream come true for Landscape photographers, this is an ultra-wide angle lens for full frame cameras with great image stabilization. 16-55 is handy for expansive landscapes, nature, interior, real estate and general architectural photography.
This lens is quite an investment but it is also the lightest and least expensive of Canon’s three sharpest ultrawides. The lens is compact in size and is not too heavy which is great if you’re going to be shooting all day long. The USM auto focus is blindingly fast, very quiet and accurate.
The down point is that the lens isn’t weather sealed, but you can use a UV filter to protect it against the dust and make it water resistant in trying environmental conditions. Chromatic abbreviation with this lens is almost negligible
Pros
- One of the best ultra-wide angle zoom lens in the market
- Image stabilization makes hand-held shooting possible. Which is great for outdoor shoots and video making
- Compact and light in weight, great for long shoots
Cons
- Not a cheap lens for someone starting out in landscape photography
- The lens is not weather sealed, but you can use an optional UV weather filter to make it dust and weather resistant
Another one of the best ultra-wide zoom lens for Canon cropped sensor cameras in its range. The zoom range is interesting and allows for shooting wide angle point of view. It is great for shooting outdoors, indoors or for shooting in tight spaces.
The corners of your photographs will look dramatically stretched, lending a new perspective to unexciting scenes. But it will only work on cropped-bodiesVideo footage of 10mm looks very interesting, lending the same effect as 16mm on a full frame camera.
The lens is based around a metal mound, but is not weather sealed. The USM auto focus on the lens is lightning fast, silent and accurate
Pros
- Produces wide angled, sharp images with no distortions and no chromatic aberrations
- The body is solid, made of metal and plastic
- Easy to work with while making videos
Cons
- Can only be used on cropped sensor cameras
- The lens is not weather sealed
- Does not have image stabilization.
If you are looking for a compact easy to carry lens for your grand adventures to cover grand landscapes or unending views, look no further. The size of this “Pancake-lens” makes a very portable and convenient lens in the market.
This Canon lens has had a lot of success around the world, which fits both full frame and apsc cameras. It has a fixed focal length of 24 mm which a equivalent of a full frame 38.4mm, which is a great wide angle focal length , wide enough to give you a bigger picture and taking in your surroundings but not so wide that you don’t have emphasis on your subject.
It comes under the economical range since it does not fit Canon’s high range cameras. Unsurprisingly for a lens of this size, this lens does not have image stabilization. So you will need a tripod while shooting videos with it. Fan aperture of 24mm will also help you shooting indoor or at night time getting faster shutter speed.
The lens is small and light but is sturdy being built around a metal base mound. The lens’s stm auto focus is accurate and efficient and does not make much sound while focusing
Pros
- Economical, compact and light in weight. Great for travelling
- Takes high quality wide angles photographs
- Suitable for Entry level and mid-range cameras
Cons
- Does not have image stabilization. You will need to use a tripod to shoot videos
- Won’t fit into the high range cameras
Conclusion
For portrait photography, Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 usm is an absolutely gorgeous lens. It produces really sharp results even at F/1.8. However for best results stop it down to F/2.0. Gives that creamy bokeh in the out of focus areas which is really essential for portrait photography.
We would highly recommend this lens for portrait photography in addition to your 50mm F/1.8 lens even though this lens doesn’t have image stabilization.
Contrast and saturation are very good. It is small and not too heavy, which is great for day long portrait shoots both indoors and outdoors.
For landscape photography, the 16-35 f/4 is our choice of lens. It is just really excellent, high quality professional lenses put out by Canon. It’s a highly competent lens that does a marvelous job of managing problem areas where other ultra-wide angle lenses tend to struggle.
It is pricey but it is must have for both professional and amateur photographers who would like to get into landscape or architectural photography. Useful for shooting both indoors and outdoors, expansive landscapes, nature, interior, real estate and general architectural photography.
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