The best walkaround lenses for a crop-body camera

For this post, a Canon crop body will be my point of reference

Some factors to consider when buying a lens:

• Maximum aperture (lowest f-stop)

• Focal range

• Image quality

• Build quality

For a walkaround lens on a crop body, you will want the minimum focal range to be around 17mm. The range of any lens you attach to your camera will be magnified 1.6x. 17mm will be 27mm and so on. This is important because you will want some wide-angle options. On a full-frame, 17mm stays as is.

The list

17mm+ lenses

Sigma

Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM

Has constant f/2.8 aperture and Sigma’s version of image stabilization (IS)

Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM

Has macro, but doesn’t have a constant f/2.8 aperture.

Tamron

Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II VC LD Aspherical IF SP AF

Has image stabilization but average build quality. f/2.8 aperture

Canon

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

This lens has the best build quality of all the lenses I’m listing since it’s in the L series. It’s the most durable and heavy of all the lenses in this list. It’s a bit slow at f/4 and doesn’t have IS, but if you ever decide to upgrade to a full-frame body in the future, this lens will give you great wide-angle shots. Your body can accept EF and EF-S lenses, but full frames can only take EF. This particular lens is an EF lens.

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

In the EF-S walkaround range, all lenses compete with this. It’s not an L lens, but has L lens elements and great image quality with a constant f/2.8 aperture. Build quality is not the greatest though.

Others

Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

People seem to like this lens because of its overall quality, but it’s not very fast if you take a look at its aperture.

Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

This is Canon’s best superzoom lens. Has an amazing range, but sacrifices speed and image quality. This is a lazy traveler’s lens.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM

L lens with great everything, but its range is more suited for full-frame bodies. Also not the fastest at f/4

Using your DSLR Camera - Taking a Picture

Review the basic concepts here at Using your DSLR - Lesson 1

This post will be set in AV mode with a manually set center-focus point.

Now that you have seen several pictures that demonstrate effects such as depth of field and bokeh, it's time to take a more hands-on approach and begin taking your own pictures.

We'll start by learning how to compose your picture.

A picture normally takes shape when you spot something catches your attention. We'll call this 'thing' the subject. Once you have chosen your subject, it's time for some camera action.

You may eventually develop your own methods of picture taking, but here are the steps that I follow when I take a picture:

1) Frame > 2) Focus > 3) Re-frame > 4) Shoot

Before we begin with step one, you should manually choose your camera's focus point. You're smarter than the camera so you want to have as much control as possible when it comes to choosing what to focus.
(If you don't know how to do this, you'll have to read your camera's manual). When your focus point is chosen, the point should light up red in your viewfinder like the one seen below (no focus point is chosen in this picture).

Remember to have your focus point or points figured out in advance or else the opportunity to take the picture might disappear. I will stick to a center focus point in this post.

Now back to your subject. Once you have chosen the subject, you will have to 1) Frame the image. Through your viewfinder, decide what other elements you want to have in your image. Remember the depth of field and bokeh effects you can achieve by adjusting the aperture and shutter speed.

Now it's time to 2) Focus on your subject. You will have to move your camera so the center focus point is targeted at the subject. Press the shutter button half way down until you hear a beep. This means that the camera has locked onto and is focused on what you have chosen. If it doesn't beep, you are either too close to the subject; there's not enough light for the camera or the camera is just having troubles locking onto the subject.

You can take the picture with the subject dead center in your shot, and in this case you'll be skipping the 3) Re-frame step. It's difficult to re-frame subjects that are moving, but in the case of static objects, you can be creative and thus use the 3) Re-frame step. It's pretty simple to achieve a shot like the one below. Try to think about it yourself before you read on.


You probably figured it out, but here's how it's done. Once you have 1) Framed the image in your mind and through the viewfinder and 2 ) Focused the subject by pressing and holding the shutter button half way down, you now have to 3) Re-frame the image. With the shutter button still held down, move the camera in any direction and in the case above - to the left - and 4) Shoot - press the shutter button all the way down. Finished!

For subjects that you have difficulty focusing, especially ones that move, you can set your camera's focus point to Auto. Setting the AF mode to AI SERVO can also help. An explanation of AI Servo can be found here.

It's time to take your own pictures. Remember the concepts discussed in Lesson 1. Experiment with your camera and use it all the time and you'll figure everything out in no time.