The Most Versatile Lens of all
If you’ve already been doing some research on what’s the best lens to buy that will be good for pretty much anything, you probably know by now that, no matter what lens you get, will bring you pros and cons.
I shoot Canon and there is one lens that, in my opinion, can be used for pretty much any situation, though, and that is the 24–70mm f/2.8 lens. If you’re not a Canon shooter, it’s ok, you can also find this lens for Nikon and Sony as well.
But why? Why is this the most versatile lens of all?
If you shoot portraits, since it is a zoom lens with a pretty decent aperture, you can both take full body shots as well as close-up shots. If you use it in 70mm, by the way, at f/2.8 you will get some awesome bokeh in the background! Is it the same as having an 85mm and shoot it at f/1.4? Of course not, we’re talking about a prime 1.4 aperture lens vs a 2.8 aperture lens. But I’ve done portraits with this lens and it does an amazing job.
If you shoot product photography, outstanding as well. It’s a very sharp lens and will deliver you high quality images.
If you shoot very small items, such as rings or tiny elements, it might not be the best lens of all, though. On that case, maybe you should have a macro lens instead. I myself have the Canon 100mm f/2.8 for those types of shots, but if you’re not shooting such specific items, again, the 24–70mm can do the job!
If you want to do street photography, again this lens is great. If you shoot it at 24mm, you will get a pretty wide focal length that will allow you to have a lot in your photo. If you want to catch something or someone who is further away from you, the 70mm will get you pretty close in most situations. Of course, if you want to shoot something that’s really, really far from you and get a close up for that, maybe then you should have a 70–200mm f/2.8, but hey, we’re talking of a much heavier and bigger lens. Plus, if you want wider shots, the 70–200mm will not help you at all.
If you do documentary photography or weddings, then more than in the other cases, hands down this would be the lens I’d have with me at all times! It will give you a very nice range of different focal lengths to work in different situations. In fact, I can do an entire wedding with only this lens and not miss pretty much anything! For the weddings I shoot, I usually use this lens for about 85 to 90% of the day.
Then you might be wondering: if this lens is so good and so versatile, why doesn’t everybody get this lens first?
First, because it’s a pretty expensive piece of glass for most photographers who are just starting out. Usually when you’re starting out, you’re trying out new things, you’re learning and you don’t want to spend a whole bunch of money on equipment. For that reason, this wouldn’t even be the first lens I would recommend for someone who has never been in touch with photography before. Not because it’s not good enough, but because it’s just very expensive. If you would like to know what lens I would recommend for anyone starting out, I’ll leave a link for a video I did talking specifically about that up here and in the description.
If you’re starting out and don’t mind spending more money, though, it will be a pretty nice lens to have as a starter! You’ll get pretty much all covered with it!
You will find this lens for about $1700 and this is the main downside to it!
The second downside to the 24–70mm lens would be its weight. It is not the smallest nor the lightest lens of all. It weighs 805g and if you need to shoot with it all day long, it might get you a little tired after a couple of hours.
Nice! This is a very versatile lens! Now, if I get this lens, is this all I need? Well, then we’ll get back to the initial discussion: if you’ve been doing some research on lenses, you know by now there is no such thing as THE BEST LENS of all. If such a thing existed, everybody would only get that one lens and done! Meaning: if you get this lens and you keep doing photography, at some point you will realize you could do different things with different specific results if you had a different lens. Maybe you will want more depth of field, so you might miss a prime lens… maybe you will want a lighter lens… maybe you will want a lens with even a wider focal length, then you could get a 16–35mm… or you want to do close ups and have a macro lens for details and have a 100mm macro… or take photos of birds in trees, wild animals in nature and stuff like that and have a telephoto lens, so you’d go for a 70–200mm…
The point is: if you like photography, believe me! You won’t stop at your first lens. But, if you want a versatile lens, the 24–70mm would be definitely my “one to go”.
As I said, when I shoot weddings, I pretty much only use this lens and during a wedding day I get a great variety of situations: portraits, churches and whole big venues, close ups of people, details of the decoration, the party itself… If I only have the 24–70mm with me and an external flash, I’m good to go! It will do the job just fine!
If I travel and want to take photos from a place I’m visiting, just the same! I will be able to get wider shots of buildings, mountains, churches, landscapes in general… and very nice portraits with blurry backgrounds as well. It will do the job just fine!
So if you have the money and you want to invest in some good glass, the 24–70mm is a must have lens to your collection. I strongly recommend it as it is, nowadays, one of the lenses I most use from my kit.
If you want to check out some photos I did with my 24–70mm f/2.8 in all the different situations I mentioned, please check the video above.
