Walk Around Camera Lenses

One Good All-Purpose Lens Means Having Less To Carry

You will see the term "walk around camera lenses" on a lot of forums and other photography websites, but what does it mean?

Pretty straight forward really, but what is a good lens to have for simply walking around with? Which lens will cover the focals lengths required to capture images of the everyday objects and scenes that we see all around us? Nothing special, just landscapes, buildings and architecture, people, portraits, family events, fun events, snapshots and so on...general stuff.

If I am just popping out somewhere non-photography related but I want to take my camera "just in case", I normally plonk on a 24-70mm lens to my full frame DSLR. It covers wide-angle to short telephoto meaning that should I come across something worth snapping, I am ready.

The 24mm end is great for landscapes, interiors, exterior property shots and so on, and the 70mm end is excellent for cropping in that little bit which is particularly useful for portraits.

To be honest, the 24-70mm L F2.8 lens stays on my Canon EOS 5D Mark II 90% of the time, especially at weddings and is by far my most used lens.

I have gone out with just a wide angle or just a telephoto lens before, and found myself out on a limb without the correct lens focal length..

Other decent walk around lenses include;

• 28-80mm
• 28-135mm
• 28-300mm

Although the last 2 are quite heavy on your camera and the last one...in your wallet.

Personally, as I own Canon cameras, my favourite walk around lens is the Canon EF 24-70mm L 2.8. It has weather sealing and ultra quiet movement in the focussing. It is fairly robust and once fell out of my camera bag onto a marble floor from 1m up and survived quite well, all it had was a slight dent on the filter ring.

Bear in mind that this is quite a hefty lens but well worth the extra weight due to the amazing image quality.

One other nice point about this lens is that is has reasonable macro facilities, you are not able to get as close as pure macro lenses, but good enough none the less.

• Does quality matter?
• What lenses do I need? - Wide Angle, Telephoto, Zoom, Standard, Prime
• "Walk around camera lenses" - You are here
• "How many" do I need?
• "How much" will they cost and where can I buy them?
• "Is it safe to buy online?"

Walk Around Camera Lenses