Best Canon Lenses | 2024

Pros:

• Useful stabilisation system
• Tough build and brilliant handling
• Class-leading optical performance

Cons:

• Focal length won’t be suited to all situations
  
  

This lens is an update to a much loved DSLR lens, the EF 135mm f/2L USM. It delivers not just a little extra latitude in the aperture, with f/1.8 rather than f/2, but also adds built-in stabilisation – and this makes it much more practical to shoot with handheld. The tight 135mm focal length is brilliant for portraits, though with a 0.7m minimum focusing distance, this is also a great lens for close-ups and still life. It’s built to L series standards, with extensive weatherproofing, and its optical performance is absolutely stellar. 

Pros:

• Versatile zoom range
• Image stabilisation 
• Light and pretty compact 

Cons:

• Lacks weather sealing 
• Mild distortion at the wide angle
  
  

It’s a highly versatile lens that caters to a wide range of photographic needs. Its extensive zoom range from 24mm to 240mm allows photographers to capture everything from sweeping landscapes to detailed close-ups, making it an excellent all-in-one solution for travel and everyday photography. Its built-in 5-stop image stabilisation is particularly useful for handheld shooting. Overall, it's a practical and versatile option for photographers seeking a flexible, all-purpose lens.

Pros:

• Ultra-wide focal length suits vlogging
• Weighs just 150g
• Fast, near-silent focusing

Cons:

• APS-C only
  
  

This is the widest lens currently available for RF-S users – meaning it’s great not just for landscapes and architecture photography, but also for vlogging. Indeed, with a practically silent autofocus system and built-in stabilisation, the RF-S 10-18mm f4.5-6.3 STM ticks a lot of the boxes that are priorities to video shooters, as well as being great for stills. It’s tiny and lightweight, but still packs in a sophisticated optical build with 12 elements arranged into 10 groups, to ensure consistent sharpness. There’s a 0.5x magnification factor that makes it pretty solid for close-ups and small details, and the seven-blade diaphragm means you can produce images with aesthetically pleasing bokeh while shooting with a shallow depth of field.

Pros:

• Big, generous zoom range
• Excellent Dual Nano USM autofocus
• Strong control of aberrations for superb sharpness

Cons:

• Max aperture drops a lot at the tele end
  
  

A 100-400mm lens is a popular thing among pro and amateur photographers alike. Here, Canon goes one better — or one hundred better, depending on how you look at it — and produces the RF 100-500mm f4.5-7.1L IS USM. Great for all sorts of applications thanks to its generous zoom range, the RF 100-500mm still manages to be relatively lightweight. It’s equipped with a five-stop stabilisation system, as well as the brilliant Dual Nano USM autofocus that is exceptionally fast and accurate. Aberrations and distortion are controlled well throughout the zoom range, giving you clear and sharp images at every focal length setting.

Pros:

• 29-240mm equivalent zoom range
• Fast focusing
• 4.5-stop stabiliser

Cons:

• APS-C only
  
  

An ideal travel zoom for Canon’s crop-sensor mirrorless camera, the Canon RF-S 18-150mm f3.5-6.3 IS STM is a good old one-size-fits-all, covering reasonably wide-angle to powerful telephoto. It’s also equipped with image stabilisation; this is especially good news for users of APS-C cameras, which don’t tend to have in-body stabilisation systems. Focusing is reliably snappy thanks to the stepping motor autofocus system, and if you switch to manual focus mode, you get a decent ​​0.59x magnification factor that provides some macro capability. It’s a lens to do pretty much everything without costing the earth.

Pros:

• Affordable and lightweight
• Versatile focal length
• Snappy focusing

Cons:

• Premium lenses provide superior optical performance
  
  

The so-called “nifty-fifty” has a deserved reputation as one of the best walk-around focal lengths there is. It roughly equates to the angle of view of a human eye, and so on full-frame it produces images with a naturalistic, documentary-style look that works brilliantly for reportage and documentary-style shooting, not to mention street photography. 

The Canon EF 50mm f1.8 STM Lens is a beloved example, providing a superb balance between affordability and quality, with a generous f/1.8 aperture, a 7-bladed diaphragm for smooth bokeh, and Super Spectra coating to reduce ghosting and flare. The STM motor also means focusing is quick and quiet, so you have everything you need for a day’s photographic adventure.

Pros:

• Four-stop stabilisation system
• Short close-focusing distance
• Versatile focal range

Cons:

• APS-C only
• Fairly pedestrian max. aperture range
  
  

Next up, we have one of Canon’s most affordable lenses – its EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS II Lens. Its all-purpose, wide-to-medium focal range allows it to shoot a huge range of subjects, from landscapes to portraits, and it has many useful features such as Canon’s 4-stop image stabilisation system, which makes it easier to shoot handheld with lower shutter speed, expanding the lens’s utility in low light. It’s also great for close-up, with a generous minimum focusing distance of just 0.25m.

One thing to be aware of is that this is an EF-S lens, which means it’s only useable on Canon DSLRs with APS-C sensors such as the EOS 7D Mark II or entry-level EOS 4000D. Always check your camera’s compatibility before buying a lens.

Pros:

• Great image quality full of character
• Constant f/1.8 aperture

Cons:

• APS-C only
  
  

This wide-angle zoom benefits from a constant f/1.8 aperture — meaning it can shoot wide-open all the way through its zoom range. This greatly adds to your shooting versatility when shooting portraits and when taking pictures in low-light, making the Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 DC Art HSM Lens a fantastic all-purpose lens. It’s designed for APS-C cameras, and boasts an internal construction with aspherical elements and Special Low Dispersion elements to reduce distortion and aberration, ensuring images are clean and sharp at all focal lengths and all aperture settings.

Pros:

• Outstanding optical quality
• Beautifully made with exceptional ergonomics
• Useful 50mm focal length

Cons:

• Manual focus only
  
  

Zeiss are among the best in the business, and this fantastic 50mm prime shows why. It’s manual focus only, so not one for the novice, but if this is how you prefer to focus then you’ll enjoy a lens with peerless optical quality, smooth ergonomics, and a generous maximum aperture of f/1.4 that makes it hugely useful in all sorts of different shooting situations. For shooting a real-life, naturalistic perspective in pin-sharp detail, you can’t ask for better, and this Zeiss lens will allow you to get the very best out of your full-frame Canon DSLR.

Pros:

• Bright f1.4 aperture
• Gorgeous bokeh quality and brilliant image details

Cons:

• Heavier than f1.8 version
  
  

Another Canon nifty-fifty, this handy all-purpose prime benefits from a sophisticated autofocus system as well as the fast maximum aperture that’s so vital for creating perfect bokeh. It produces high-contrast images with vivid detail in all the right places, even when shooting wide open, so you get the optimal balance between sharpness and style. Affix this to the front of your Canon camera and you’ll be prepared for all sorts of different shooting situations.