whats the best lens for all around use?

[quattro4life]

Im thinking 18-135mm or would it be better to have a standard 18-55mm and a 70-300 zoom lens?

 

[bitteraspects]

theres no such thing as "the best" lense.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

If you don't want to change lenses much, go for the 18-135mm or the 18-200mm VR.

 

[fmw]

For me it is a wide angle zoom lens. For you, I don't know. But I can tell you that covering a range of focal lengths with more lenses will improve your image quality but cost more. Using fewer lenses to cover the range has the opposite effect.

 

[LWW]

If you want snapshots only then an 18-135ish would be ideal OMHO.

If you want higher quality I think the 18-70 2.8 (or 3.5-4.5) would be better.

LWW

 

[Torus34]

The 'best' lens, as far as focal length goes, probably depends more on your own personal 'style' than on a consensus of opinions. In terms of personality, I tend to be a bit distant and more than a little of a pedant. Most of my work is done with a normal lens [6x6cm or 35mm] or with a telephoto of 100 or 135 mm on a 35mm rig. I rarely use a wide-angle lens.

 

[markc]

If they made one, you probably wouldn't be able to afford it. It would be a high quality zoom, so you could cover a super range of focal lengths and a wide aperture, so you could shoot in low light and have a wide choice in depth-of-field. Such a lens would cost many thousands of dollars. You pretty much have to narrow it down.

For myself, choice of aperture overrides having a zoom, so the best overall lens for me is an 85mm/f1.8 on film, or the 50mm/f1.4 on my 10D. If I were to pick a zoom, it would have a narrow range so that I at least have a chance of getting f2.8. I use these two lenses 99.9% of the time now. For a while, when I was shooting on film, I only used the 85/1.8.

 

[Groupcaptainbonzo]

Lenses depend on what type of image you take, How you view them, how much you can afford to spend,what weight limit you have. etc, etc, etc,

An L series 600mm IS USM is a fine lens. But if you buy one to put on you RZ 67 so you can take macr images on top of a mountain ..........

One of my all time favorites was a minolta Rokor 24mm that I almost had welded to the front of my old X-700. But I found it difficult to take detailed pictures of Sun Spots....

Probably the most versitile, and best value for money,lens would be a high quality standard(50mm equiv in 35mm specs or 80mm in MF), which when added to a good pair of legs to move closer or further away, would undoubtedly produce the finest results.