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Noobie with canon 6d Mark 2

noob
Apprentice
Just bought a Canon 6d Mark 2 and am needing advise on what lenses to buy. I know it's a full frame camera therefore it needs a full frame lenses. I believe I heard that if I don't buy full frame lenses it could break some part of my camera? Please correct me if I misheard. But as I only have the body, what would y'all suggest for my first lens? I take mostly nature landscapes and portraits. I was thinking of a standard zoom lens. I'm just super cautious to buy a lens at all for fear of buying one that's not compatible with my camera. Should it say on the site "full frame lens" or something that indicates it's compatibility with my camera? Sorry for the string of questions. Any insight is more than appreciated 🙂
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Waddizzle
Legend
Legend

@noob wrote:
Just bought a Canon 6D Mark 2 and am needing advise on what lenses to buy. I know it's a full frame camera therefore it needs a full frame lenses. ,,, ,,, ,,, Any insight is more than appreciated 🙂

Which lens depends upon your budget.  While a lens is what will ultimately determine how good your photos will look, it is the camera body that controls the lens.  What lens to buy is highly dependent upon what you want to photograph, and more importantly, you lens budget.  So, om that note, my top choices would be as follows” sorted low price to high price.

 

  • Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM
  • Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM
  • Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM - this lens is a best buy for Canon “L” Series lenses.
  • Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS II USM - Like the 24-105 above, another great standard zoom.
  • Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM - this lens is the best in my bag.

I would suggest buying one of first two primes, and one of the latter three zoom lenses.  If I had to choose just one, I would go for the EF 35mm f/2 IS USM.

--------------------------------------------------------
"The right mouse button is your friend."

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3 REPLIES 3

Waddizzle
Legend
Legend

@noob wrote:
Just bought a Canon 6D Mark 2 and am needing advise on what lenses to buy. I know it's a full frame camera therefore it needs a full frame lenses. ,,, ,,, ,,, Any insight is more than appreciated 🙂

Which lens depends upon your budget.  While a lens is what will ultimately determine how good your photos will look, it is the camera body that controls the lens.  What lens to buy is highly dependent upon what you want to photograph, and more importantly, you lens budget.  So, om that note, my top choices would be as follows” sorted low price to high price.

 

  • Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM
  • Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM
  • Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM - this lens is a best buy for Canon “L” Series lenses.
  • Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS II USM - Like the 24-105 above, another great standard zoom.
  • Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM - this lens is the best in my bag.

I would suggest buying one of first two primes, and one of the latter three zoom lenses.  If I had to choose just one, I would go for the EF 35mm f/2 IS USM.

--------------------------------------------------------
"The right mouse button is your friend."


@Waddizzle wrote:

@noob wrote:
Just bought a Canon 6D Mark 2 and am needing advise on what lenses to buy. I know it's a full frame camera therefore it needs a full frame lenses. ,,, ,,, ,,, Any insight is more than appreciated 🙂

Which lens depends upon your budget.  While a lens is what will ultimately determine how good your photos will look, it is the camera body that controls the lens.  What lens to buy is highly dependent upon what you want to photograph, and more importantly, you lens budget.  So, om that note, my top choices would be as follows” sorted low price to high price.

 

  • Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM
  • Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM
  • Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM - this lens is a best buy for Canon “L” Series lenses.
  • Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS II USM - Like the 24-105 above, another great standard zoom.
  • Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM - this lens is the best in my bag.

I would suggest buying one of first two primes, and one of the latter three zoom lenses.  If I had to choose just one, I would go for the EF 35mm f/2 IS USM.


Just to clarify, there are two versions of the 24-105mm f/4L IS USM: the original and the newer Mark II. When I looked them up just now on the B&H site, I was surprised to discover that the Mark II is going for only $100 more than the original. I'm not sure how to explain that, though some of the reviews suggest that the Mark II isn't as much of an improvement as it was made out to be, and it has the disadvantage of being bigger and heavier.

 

You might see the 24-105 and the 24-70 on Waddizzle's list as being similar alternatives, but their intended uses are actually rather different. Think of the 24-105 as an outdoor "walkaround" lens and the 24-70 as primarily an indoor event lens, paired with the 70-200. The 24-105's extra reach is useful in a walker, and you don't usually need the extra stop outdoors. OTOH, the 24-70 is considered one of the best lenses Canon makes - very sharp and with excellent color rendition. So you pay your money and take your choice.

 

Many of those in this forum own one or both of those lenses, so any advice you get here is likely to be worth considering.

 

There's also an f/4 version of the 24-70, but I don't think as many people in the forum have it.

Bob
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA

TCampbell
Elite
Elite

Any Canon EOS "EF" lens will work.  It must not be an "EF-S" (designed for APS-C crop-frame sensors) nor should it be an "EF-M" (designed for the Canon EOS "mirrorless" bodies) lens.

 

The "EF" stands for "Electro-Focus" - so these are all auto-focusing lenses.  

 

For purposes of completeness... Canon does make a few specialty lenses that are not auto-focusing that work on any Canon EOS camera (regardless of full-frame or crop-frame) such as the TS-E (tilt-shift lenses) and MP-E (specialty macro-photo lens).  Those shouldn't be your "first" lenses...  but they do work on the camera.

 

The EF 50mm f/1.8 STM would be the least-expensive lens.  This is not a zoom lens... but it has a "normal" angle of view for your camera (a framing that seems neither wide angle nor narrow angle).  Back in the days of 35mm film cameras, the "kit" lens typically was a 50mm lens.  This lens is about $125.

 

If budget allows... there are more versatile lenses (the 50mm would be the "least expensive" lens).

 

The EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM used to be the "kit" lens with several full frame camera bodies because it provides a bit of wide-angle... and zooms through to a bit of narrow-angle (tele-photo) and was a good general purpose lens.   It's an "L" series lens (the suffix "L" after the focal length gives that away ... also all "L" series lenses have a red stripe/ring around the front of the lens to set them apart from the rest of the lenses Canon makes).  These are Canon's top-end lenses.  This is one of the more affordable "L" series lenses (most of which cost more than $1000... but this lens is less than $1000).

 

If you could only afford to buy ONE lens... but had a budget of around $1000... then that would probably be THE lens.

 

On a budget... there's an EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM that sells for less than $500 (new) and would be a general purpose lens.

 

Depending on what you actually want to shoot... there are MANY lenses that are optimized toward particular uses. 

 

If money were no object and you could only own TWO lenses... then the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM II and the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II would be THE TWO LENSES that you would choose.  

 

You'll find that low focal ratio lenses are highly desirable... you can shoot in lower light... you can capture a tack-sharp subject but have a beautifully blurred background... but these are more expensive lenses (especially if they are zoom lenses.)

 

 

Tim Campbell
5D III, 5D IV, 60Da
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