Lenses for family

[emilykate3]

Hi! I am brand new to photography and have a canon rebel eos t7. I want to take photos of my newborn and toddler and have been using the nifty fifty. I struggle to take pictures with that lense as I can’t zoom in and out. Any other suggestions on lenses or how to maximize nifty fifty?

[deebatman316]

Your camera should’ve came with some variant of the EF-S 18-55mm lens. Unless you bought the camera body alone. The 50mm lens on a crop sensor camera such as the digital Rebel is a portrait focal length. So it will be difficult to take pictures with.

[Tronhard]

Hi Emily and welcome to the forum:
The 50mm is a good lens but, as you have found, offers challenges in that you have to 'zoom with your feet', something that is not always practical.

There are two lenses I would recommend for your camera:
1. The EF-S 18-135 IS USM  is an excellent optic and will offer you great flexibility, not only for your children when they are very young, but for later.   It will pair perfectly with the camera body you have.  It has blazing fast and accurate focus, silent, and can be focused manually or autofocused.
2. Somewhat smaller is the lens that Demetrius mentioned, the EF-S 18-55.  There are multiple variants of this, and I would strongly recommend considering only the STM version of this lens.  That is faster to focus, does so silently, and can be manually focused without having to activate the AF-MF focus required by other versions.

If you want to consider used, if you are in the USA, look for KEH.COM, a company that buys and sells used camera gear.  They rate their gear and it comes with a warranty, so you can have confidence in your purchase.

[March411]

You really can't go wrong with the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM which can be found in used, in excellent condition between $800 - $1250. MPB and KEH are trusted resellers and have some pretty nice gear.

Your T7 given it is an APS-C sensor will have an actual FOV (field of view) of a 38-112mm lens. With it's constant aperture of f2.8 across it's entire focal length it will fast enough to photograph in low light and offer you a decent amount of range to grab some decent portraiture. 

It is a bit expensive though, have you had any thoughts on upgrading into the R system? The EF mount system is transitioning towards end of life with many lenses no longer being supported for maintenance.