Prime Lenses
Prime lenses give you the sharpest and best results but can often be expensive. Professionals swear by the prime lens. The drawback of course is having to carry around multiple prime lenses of varying focal lengths and not being able to adjust quickly when you need to change from wide to telephoto in a split second.
See the Canon Focal Length Comparison to gain a better understanding of what results each prime lens will get you.
Depending on what type of photography you enjoy from landscape (wide angle) to sports (telephoto) or macro, you will want to get different lenses to cover the range you're looking for. Here's my gear list if you're interested in seeing why I chose the lenses I did.Here are some useful resources for Canon lenses:
The following are lenses that are very popular and highly recommended for SLR uses of any experience level:
Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L USM
The EF 14mm f/2.8L USM lens is ultra-wide (currently the widest Canon L series lens) but ultra-pricey at
$1800.
Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye
The EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye is an ultra-wide lens with a unique spherical effect that allows you to get
creative for about $600.
Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L USM
The EF 24mm f/1.4L USM lens is a high quality compact lens that works well in low-light for
$1100.
Canon EF 24mm f/2.8
The EF 24mm f/2.8 is a light and compact good quality lens with decent sharpness for only
$300.
Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM
The EF 35mm f/1.4L USM is a solid fast lens for low-light (popular wedding lens) and
portraits at $1100.
Canon EF 35mm f/2
The EF 35mm f/2 lens is an inexpensive lens at $230 that is light and compact with decent performance.
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
The EF 50mm f/1.4 has great looking bokeh and is light, compact and very fast for only about
$300.
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
The EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens is a very popular and inexpensive fast lens that everyone should
pick up for its versatility, light-weight, and great value at only $80.
Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L USM
The EF 85mm f/1.2L USM gives you a huge aperture with amazing bokeh (background blur effect) and stunning
sharpness but at the tradeoff of heavy weight and slow focus at a pricey $1,500.
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
The EF 85mm f/1.8 USM is a very popular prime lens because it is very fast and a great value at
about $350.
Canon EF 100mm f/2 USM
The EF 100mm f/2 USM lens is a pretty sharp lens (not L series) with a wide f/2 aperture for a great
price of around $400
Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM
The EF 135mm f/2L USM is an extremely fast prime lens (f/2) with great sharpness (about $900).
Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM
The EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM lens is a great value at around $700 for high quality L glass.
Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM
The EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens is an extremely fast telephoto lens for indoor and outdoor use but with a
hefty wait and
hefty price (about $4,000).
Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM
The EF 300mm f/4L IS USM is a great telephoto lens for sports outdoors but worth looking at
for one less stop than it's big brother (the 2.8), it's less than a third of the price at about
$1,150.