Tired of your basic kit lens? As as a beginner, having a small but carefully selected collection of DSLR lenses can really help you improve your craft by allowing you to experiment with different techniques and styles. And of course, having the right lens for the scene or subject you’re trying to capture will certainly help you take better photos.
For those who are new to photography, choosing and buying camera lenses can be confusing and daunting. There are just so many brands, lens types, and focal lengths to choose from, and then of course there’s the fact that lenses simply aren’t cheap. Building a good lens collection is an investment, and it definitely won’t be a small one.
Nonetheless, the good thing about having many choices is that it won’t be difficult to find budget-friendly DSLR lenses that can give you plenty of bang for your buck.
How to Choose Your Next DSLR Lens
The kit lens is one of the cheapest camera lenses and provides enough versatility and usability for a beginner to start their journey. However, once you decide on a particular photography genre or want a boost in quality, you should consider expanding your set of lenses.
For example, you may want to focus on macro photography and thus need a macro lens. Or you may want to take professional travel photographs and thus desire the fastest and cheapest camera lenses with a fixed 50mm focal length. The photographic genre is a major factor in choosing your next lens.
Another factor is the amount of disappointment you gathered over time. You remember that outstanding scene you couldn’t photograph because the focal length range of your kit lens didn’t let you. Or that unique moment you missed because it was dark and the maximum aperture of the lens wasn’t enough. The next lens should fix all these. When expanding your set of lenses, you should chose based on the type of photos you dream of capturing.
If you’re looking to start building your collection, here are the best budget lenses under $300:
Best Cheapest Camera Lenses: Prime Lenses
Every photographer should own a prime lens. Unlike zoom or kit lenses with variable focal lengths, a prime lens is limited to a fixed focal length and is perfectly optimized to perform one specific task. Because they deliver maximum performance for one specific focal length, prime lenses can produce superior-quality images with optimal sharpness, clarity, and contrast, and with less visible aberrations.
Standard prime lenses are popular and an ideal option for beginners because of their fixed 50mm focal length, which offers a more natural perspective that is closest to that of the naked human eye. They’re also relatively inexpensive, making them perfect for photographers on a budget.
Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8
Made for Canon DSLRs with EF mounts, this lens is comparable to the Canon 50mm f/1.8—but for less than half the price. It has a maximum aperture of f/1.8 (making it great for shooting in low-light conditions and producing a shallow depth of field) and a minimum aperture of f/22.
Bonus: Yongnuo also makes 50mm f/1.8 Nikon lenses.
Pentax SMCP-DA 50mm f/1.8
Designed to fit cameras with Pentax K mounts, the fast, lightweight, and well-built Pentax SMCP-DA 50mm f/1.8 offers great low-light capabilities, pleasing bokeh, and impressive image quality. An ideal lens for portrait photography, it has a maximum aperture of f/1.8 and a minimum aperture of f/22.
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8
If you have a more flexible budget and prefer a Canon-branded lens for your DSLR, the Canon 50mm f/1.8 is a lightweight, compact, and relatively affordable, high-performance lens that works best for portraits, action shots, and night photography. It has an 80mm effective focal length on APS-C cameras and 50mm on full-frame cameras, and it delivers amazing color balance, minimized ghosting and flare, and beautiful, creamy bokeh.
Nikon 50mm f/1.8D
The Nikon 50mm f/1.8D is a fast prime lens that offers natural image rendering, incredible sharpness, and exceptional performance in all lighting conditions—at a highly affordable price. Compatible formats include FX, DX, FX in DX Crop Mode, and 35mm film.
Best Cheapest Camera Lenses: Wide Angle Lenses
Wide-angle lenses offer a wider field of view, allowing you to squeeze in more of the scene that you’re shooting into the frame—such as in landscape or real estate photography. But even if you aren’t into shooting landscapes, adding a wide-angle lens to your collection is still a good idea. It offers a different kind of perspective than other types of DSLR lenses, thereby giving you more creative flexibility.
Regular wide-angle lenses have a focal length of 35mm or wider on DSLRs with full-frame sensors, while ultra-wide angle lenses have a focal length of 24mm or wider. There are also fisheye lenses that fall under the ultra-wide angle category.
These lenses can have either a fixed focal length (wide-angle prime) or a variable focal length (wide-angle zoom).
Pentax SMCP-DA 35mm f/2.4 AL
The Pentax SMCP-DA 35mm is an affordable wide-angle lens with a fast f/2.4 aperture. Equivalent to a 52.5mm in 35mm format, this lens is ideal for landscape photos, portraits, and more. Despite the affordable price, the 35mm offers great image quality and resolution, along with superior contrast and sharpness.
Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM
Ultra-slim and lightweight, this wide-angle lens is a great everyday lens due to its versatility, portability, and speed. It is designed for use with Canon APS-C cameras and boasts of sophisticated optics for excellent image quality, specialized lens coating and arrangement to minimize ghosting and flare, and a stepping motor (STM) for smooth and silent autofocus. It also allows manual focus adjustment.
Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX
Made for DX-format cameras, this lens is perfect for users who want something that delivers amazing performance while still being reasonably affordable. Its 35mm focal length resembles the results of a 50mm FX format lens, which offers a more natural, undistorted angle of view that is close to what is perceived by the human eye. This fast and quiet lens delivers phenomenal image quality and integrity, as well as superior color consistency.
Nikon 28mm f/2.8D
As a standard wide-angle lens, the Nikon 28mm f/2.8D offers a suitable angle of view (approximately 74°) without any distortion along the edges. Compared to other wide-angle lenses in its league, it provides value for money with its superb sharpness and image clarity, as well as beautiful, vivid colors.
It’s best used for landscape scenes, street photography, indoor photography, and more.
Best Cheapest Camera Lenses: Zoom Lenses
Another staple in a photographer’s lens collection is the highly versatile zoom lens. While prime lenses have a single focal length, zoom lenses offer a wide range of focal lengths to allow for more flexibility and changes in composition. To put it simply, they are lenses that allow the user to zoom in or out on a scene.
Obviously, a zoom lens is incredibly useful for when you need to shoot from a distance. But in any case, having a zoom lens (whether it’s a wide-angle zoom, telephoto zoom, or any other type of DSLR lens with a variable focal length) in your arsenal is always a good idea, as it will provide you with more options when it comes to perspective, composition, and more.
Nikon 70-300mm f/4-5.6G
Great for portraiture, travel photography, sports, or action coverage, and more, the Nikon 70-300mm f/4-5.6G is one of the most affordable options in the telephoto zoom arena. It’s a good starter telephoto for beginners, as it is highly versatile, lightweight and compact, and relatively easy to use. It features a manual zoom ring for precise focus control, quick and reliable autofocus (supported only in DSLRs with built-in focus motors), a wide range of focal lengths, and Super Integrated Lens Coating for improved light transmission and minimized ghosting and flare.
Pentax SMCP-DA 50-200mm f/4-5.6
Made exclusively for Pentax DSLRs, this 4x telephoto zoom lens is ideal for outdoor photography, as it is weather resistant and features a special protective coating to help repel dust, water, and other elements.
Features include superior optics for true-to-life image color and sharpness and a highly responsive Quick-Shift Focus System that allows for quick switching between auto and manual focus.
Canon EF 75-300mm F/4-5.6
The Canon EF 75-300mm F/4-5.6 is a compact and lightweight telephoto zoom lens with a very long focal reach. It delivers amazing zoom range, sharp image quality, and pleasing bokeh. It also offers a surprisingly wide angle of view (32°) for a telephoto lens, making it suitable for landscape shots.
Affordable and easy to use, this budget Canon lens is a great choice for new photographers who are just beginning to explore other lens options apart from the kit lens.
