Lenses Under $Y

Lens mounts can have hundreds of compatible lenses. The sheer number of options can be overwhelming.

Sorting by price and lens type makes a cross system comparison easy to do. Specialty/niche use cases can have large differences in price to performance between systems.

I am starting with lenses that have the broadest appeal. Specific uses for macro, fun/novelty, and action lenses will be next.

Micro Four Thirds Lenses

My favorite because of the quantity of inexpensive quality glass available. Great for the majority of budgets under $750 when considering a complete kit.

Lenses are significantly smaller than full frame or APS-C lenses. There are many pancake and third party lenses available.

Canon EOS EF Mount Lenses (Full Frame)

Not the best system for low end options. Beyond that, there is a huge selection of lenses available. Any specialty need you could have has multiple options.

The price to performance of L lenses like the 85mm f1.2, 135mm f2, 28-70mm f2.8, and 70-200mm f2.8 are possibly the best available.

Lenses are easy to adapt to mirrorless camera systems.

Canon EOS EF-S Mount Lenses (APS-C)

The full frame lenses are better. I would rather use them on a full frame body.

Used Lenses Under $100:

• Canon EF-S 24mm f2.8 STM (pancake lens)
• Canon EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6
• Canon EF-S 55-250mm f4-5.6 IS

Nikon FX F-Mount Lenses (Full Frame)

Arguably the best camera mount.

Nikon F-mount lens compatibility can be complicated. If you are using vintage 35mm film camera lenses, make sure you can identify “non-Ai” lenses. Nikon has an article about lens compatibility.

Used Lenses Under $100:

• Nikon 50mm f1.8D (Requires a motor drive for AF)
• Nikon 50mm f1.8G (No aperture ring)
• Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f4-5.6G (Requires a motor drive for AF)
• Nikon Nikkor AF 24-120mm f3.5-5.6D

Nikon DX F-Mount Lenses (APS-C)

Nikon made 21 DX lenses. There are 16 different focal lengths/ranges.

Full frame lenses can be used, but then why not use a full frame camera?

AF-P versions are not fully compatible with a bunch of bodies. Don’t worry, Nikon has a PDF compatibility chart.

Used Lenses Under $100:

• Nikon Nikkor AF-S 35mm f1.8G DX
• Nikon Nikkor AF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6G DX
• Nikon Nikkor AF-S 55-200mm f4-5.6G DX
• Nikon Nikkor AF-S 18-135mm f3.5-5.6

Fujifilm X-Mount Lenses

Great lenses at not great prices. There is a premium to pay because popularity is outpacing production.

Used Lenses Under $100:

• Fujifilm Fujinon XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6
• 7artisans 35mm f1.2
• 7artisans 7.5mm f2.8
• TTartisan 35mm f1.4

Canon RF Mount Lenses

There are no RF lenses available for less than $100. The least expensive lens would be the Canon RF 24-50mm f4.5-6.3 IS STM.

Canon does not allow third party manufacturers to produce lenses for the RF mount. This limits the options and makes lenses from Canon more expensive compared to open mounts.

Canon RF-S Mount Lenses

These lenses are designed for cameras with APS-C sized sensors. I don’t understand why Canon bothered with the EF-M mount, which was also designed for APS-C sensors.

All 4 Lenses:

• Canon RF-S 10-18mm f4.5-6.3 IS STM
• Canon RF-S 55-210mm f5-7.1 IS STM
• Canon RF-S 18-45mm f4.5-6.3 IS STM
• Canon RF-S 18-150mm f3.5-6.3 IS STM

Canon EF-M Mount Lenses

Canon produced 8 lenses for the mount. They use 43mm, 49mm, 52mm, or 55mm diameter filters.

No surprise it was a short lived system with they kind of planning.

The crop factor is similar to the 1.6x of EF-S lenses.

Nikon 1 Mount Lenses

The system only lasted 7 years with 11 camera bodies and 13 lenses. There are more MFT lenses under $100 than that.

I view this as an enthusiast system. Work is going to have to be put in to find the more desirable lenses due to their limited supply.