@igmonster wrote:
Question - what is a good all around lens to replace the two I got with the camera kit from Costco. They work fine but are obviously the cheaper lenses included in the kits sold in places like Costco. Thanks in advance for your expertise.
I think I remember your previous thread. It sounds very familiar.
I have really liked the updated EF-S 18-55mm f/3.6-5.6 IS STM lens that has been included in Canon's 80D camera kits. It is a vast improvement over the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens still being included in the most basic entry level Rebel camera kits: most currently like the T6 and T7. Notice that these are the bodies that lack Dual Pixel AF image sensors
My only knock against the lens is that it is slow, and not optimally suited for low light or indoor use. Otherwise, it is a remarkably sharp lens, which has been optimized for shooting video with DPAF image sensors.
I have similar knocks against the kit 55-250mm lenses. Both lenses are great for shooting short video clips of the kids and the family pet running around the backyard, which is probably how the vast majority of users will use them. I think the only people with valid complaints are the photo enthusiasts, whose artistic growth is stunted by the kit lenses. In short, both are too slow.
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So, what is good lens to replace the two that came with your original camera kit? Such a lens does not exist.
Those lenses covered a range from 18mm to 250mm. There are a couple of third party zooms that cover close to that focal range. They are noticeably worse than the original kit lenses. I think Tamron makes one, and there are a couple of others. Canon included two lenses to cover that wide range of focal lengths for a very good reason.
When it comes to a zoom lens, they have dramatically improved over the past few decades, most especially since 2000, and once again since the early 2010s. There is one thing about these zooms that has pretty much not changed. If you look at the ratio of the longest to the shortest focal lengths offered by a given zoom, all of the best zoom lenses have zoom ratio that are roughly 3:1, or as much as 4:1.
Seduced by the latest discounts, I recently purchased the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM, only because I was curious as to whether or not it lived up to all of the praise that keeps getting heaped on it. Let me tell you, the praise for its' image quality is well deserved. I am not a fan of its' build quality, not as much as the EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM.
I want to note that I would not recommend either of these lenses if video is important to you. But, that is another topic. I am speaking strictly from a photographer's perspective, not for a videographer. In short, stick to STM zoom lenses for video, not the STM primes, just the STM zooms.
It is too bad that neither the 17-55mm, or the 10-22mm, is weather sealed, Otherwise, these two lenses are easily the best EF-S lenses has released, and by a wide margin. I have only one APS-C body, and four full frame bodies. As good as the EF-S 17-55mm lens is, I have the [bad] feeling that it will see little to [no] use on my 7D Mark II, which I use mostly for outdoor action photography.
There is what is known as the "holy trinity" of three zoom lenses, [which] every professional photographer would want to own. Most amateur photo enthusiasts would want to own at least two of those lenses. The Canon equivalents ranges are 16-35mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8, and 70-200mm f/2.8.
Canon makes EF-S mount equivalents for the first two lenses, but not for the most versatile of the bunch, the 70-200mm.
The 17-55mm zoom range is almost an ideal "work-alike" for the classic 24-70mm standard zoom range for a full frame sensor body camera. For that reason alone, it is a good choice, but not what I would consider to be the best investment. I would recommend Canon's EF 16-35mm f/2.8L IS III USM for that range of focal lengths.
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