I don’t know how many times people have asked me which is the best camera to buy or if they have just purchased a camera the best lenses they should get. Frankly a tough question. But it depends on the camera you own, I will assume for now it is a DSLR camera as they are by in large the most popular, although some have the micro 4/3 format or even mirrorless. I will do another blog on micro 4/3 and the pros and cons, and yes it has both pros and cons. What about mirrorless, there are pros and cons there as well, so perhaps another one there. But DSLR you ask, are they all good? Well no there are pros and cons with every format and that even can vary with manufacturer. No I have not used them all, but over the years have had Hasselblad (medium format 6cm square), Pentax, Leica, Canon, Minolta, Sony and Nikon. The one I use today for various reasons is a Nikon, however the actual lens selection will be similar to most other DSLR and mirrorless cameras, what may change will be if you have a full frame or crop camera.
Speaking of full frame or crop the crop has pros and cons like most things in life. The advantages are the camera is generally smaller and lighter and the lenses can be smaller. However the depth of field is different, the bokeh is no where near as good as with a full frame camera and it is more difficult to get a really good portrait lens for that format. Why? Well the general portrait lens for 35mm full frame has been for decades the 85mm lens, which in a crop would be close to a 50mm lens. However the 50mm lens, and the 35mm even more so, will have enlarged facial parts such as ears and nose, not much but noticeable compared to the 85mm or 105mm lenses.
But lets get back to great lenses for a moment. What are there available?
Well despite what I just said, the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D lens is one of Nikon’s least expensive lens and it is also among some of the sharpest. This lens has no distortion and it focuses almost instantly. It is also one of the smallest and lightest lenses you will own.
For DX owners the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 DX is an amazing lens which is very sharp, very fast focus and it is well built. It is a perfect little lens and on a crop will come close to the “standard lens” on full frame or the commonly called “nifty 50”.
The Nikon 18-55mm VR DX II is a very sharp lens and one every DX owner should consider. This lens can focus so close most can forget about buying a macro lens! The downside to it is this is a DX lens and can not be used on full frame cameras.
Looking at lenses which are a bit larger we move to the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, which is an amazing lens with ultra-wide performance. It is ahead of every other ultra-wide on the market. Canon does have a fairly sharp lens but not quite up to the Nikon (especially in the corners) and it only stops down to f/4. In fact Canon users are often buying this lens and using adapters on their cameras. This lens is super sharp even wide open and right out into the corners. This lens works well on DX cameras as well such as the D500 but you really don’t see the full potential until it is on a full frame body.
If you really want to jump to bigger lenses then you can look at the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 ED which is a lens fast enough to use for indoor sports. The focus on it is amazing and the ED glass allows super optical quality.
Yes there are more lenses and even more really good lenses.
What do I use? Well there are a few, but guess the go to would have to be the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8 or 200-500mm f/5.6 depending on what I am doing.
Does that answer the question originally asked? Perhaps partly, but maybe not fully. It really depends if you have FX, DX bodies, what lenses you have now and what your interests are.
I would say for full frame consider something like :
14-24mm, 24-70mm an 70-200mm as three lenses and in crop format perhaps the 18-55mm and 55-200mm or maybe the 18-140mm is another option (although I prefer to stay away from zoom lenses which have a very wide zoom range due to their inherent compromises in design and build which is inevitable) .