Hopefully you will have had time to view the video to which I gave you a link in my previous post, if not, I still encourage you to check it out.
Any lens choice is a compromise in considering several elements:
1. Budget - something you should consider first. The more features and greater performance you want, the more you will have to invest. You get what you pay for.
2. What you want to capture - this starts with Focal Length (FL). The greater the FL, the narrower the Field of View (FoV) - what the sensor sees and captures - and the closer objects appear:
3. How much you want to isolate your subjects: What appears to be sharp is called Depth of Field (DoF).
There are times that you will want everything in focus, such as landscapes, so you want a deep DoF. On the other hand, if you want to isolate a subject, such as for an animal or human portrait, then you want a shallow DoF.
There are three things the impact DoF:
The greater the lens' focal length, the shallower the DoF
The closer the subject, the shallower the DoF
The smaller the f/stop (see below) the shallower the DoF
Since all of these elements are active at the same time, you can combine them in different ways to capture the image in a way that is pleasing and to deal with challenges like amount of light and distance to subject.
4 Aperture Range: The Aperture is a variable sized hole in the lens that allows light into the camera, and the performance of that is measured in f/stops. These are measured in numbers that go up by the square root of two: so - 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8 etc but each represents a halving or doubling of the light. To make things simple, remember the rule: the smaller the f/stop value, the more light comes in but the less things in focus (or shallower the DoF).
Lenses with very small f/stop values tend to be more expensive and are harder to get with zoom lenses - the greater the FL range, usually the higher the f/stop range, unless you pay a lot of money!
Getting the Balance
It seems to me that you have two choices:
1. Get a single lens that you can leave on your camera and that will cover the range of subjects you are likely to shoot.
In your case, it seems likely that you want to be able to capture a very wide range of subjects, from fairly close up, through landscapes to wildlife. If you want that in one lens, then you are looking at a unit which is called a Superzoom with a big FL range. These are mostly made by companies other than those that make the camera bodies, and a major brand in this area is Tamron, a Japanese company that has been around for many decades and is highly respected.
If you want the maximum range of FL, at a reasonable price, and with decent resolution and performance, (given the economics), then I would suggest the Tamron 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD. It is a lens you can put on the camera and never change for a lot of your photography. On your body, this lens would have an effective FoV of 29-640mm - which is pretty massive!
Here are a couple of reviews on You Tube for your consideration:
https://au.pcmag.com/migrated-33679-lenses/51355/tamron-18-400mm-f35-63-di-ii-vc-hld-review#:~:text=....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Xc0tMQ5Tc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w5dgNnzJrU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzkaYjIloOU
2. Get a separate lens to add on to the 18-55 lens you have and would change in order to get subjects that are far away
On that case I would suggest the Canon EF 70-300 IS USM (avoid ANY 75-300 lens from Canon - they're awful). On your camera such a lens would have a FoV of 112-480mm and is a really good lens, benefiting from the lack of need to cover the wider focal range. I posted a review of all of the Canon 70-300 lenses and here is a link to that: Canon 70-300mm Lenses
Canon have a special deal on the MkI version of this that should hopefully not break the bank, and as I noted in my review, this lens can take great images, but you need to act quickly - see: https://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/ef-70-300mm-f-4-56-is-usm-refurbished
The other lens that could work and is likely the cheapest, is the EF-S 55-250 STM lens, giving a FoV of 88-400mm. This is the kit lens designed to work with the 18-55 lens you have, and give you more range than that and is actually an excellent lens in that context as regards performance. If you go this way, make sure it it the STM or USM version (the latter has a tell-tale group of gold contacts on the lens body), as there are earlier versions that are not as good.
As a kit lens there are heaps of them on the market as many people use other lenses like the 70-300 I mentioned. It is not as robust and doesn't have the reach as the 70-300 lens, but it should be your cheapest option.
cheers, TREVOR
The mark of good photographer is less what they hold in their hand, it's more what they hold in their head;
"All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow", Leo Tolstoy;
"Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase" Percy W. Harris
