Lenses for Canon DSLR Cameras

There are a vast array of lenses available for Canon DSLRs. It can get a bit confusing....

There's an excellent article on the lens selection process available at this link. The author goes into much more detail than I have space for on this lens, but I'll give a few pointers here.

All Canon DSLRs, except the single-digit "pro" models (1D, 1Ds and 5D), have a "crop factor" of 1.6, so the lens is effectively longer by that amount. The 1D has a crop factor of 1.3, and the 5D and 1Ds are full-frame sensors. What this means is that a 50mm lens will function at 50mm on the 1Ds and 5D, at 65mm on a 1D and at 80mm on all other models.

Be certain that you're getting a lens that's designed for the "EF" or "EF-S" mount (note, however, that you can't use the EF-S lenses on the pro models). There are a lot of lenses still floating around for older Canon mounts, and they WILL NOT WORK on the DSLRs. I've put in terms to exclude these from eBay searches below, but not all sellers put that information in the auction titles.

In general, you should stick to either genuine Canon lenses or those from the "big three" third-party manufacturers: Tamron, Tokina or Sigma. Many of the lenses made by these three companies are as good as or better than the Canon lenses in the equivalent price ranges. You can get lenses from other makers that will work, and probably pay less, but at what cost to the quality of your photos?

NOTE: lists below are representative of the lenses available from each source. there are often more to choose from if you follow the links and then browse from there.

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