Total beginner here, looking to buy my first camera and looking for a lens that would be able to deal with the widest range of situations (a zoom one) all in one package. I’ve got about 600usd to spend on it and I’m fully aware it’s not much, but I want to get a good start.
I can’t buy used ones where I live (even from online platforms around the world), so it’d have to be new.
At the moment my goal is to take photos of pretty much everything: nature (apart from moving animals), landscapes, streets, portraits, objects (large and small), architecture, and I also plan to film videos quite a bit. Nothing fast moving and no sports though.
I’d love to shoot in close-up macro, too, but I understand it’s not possible within one lens.
What could you recommend?
Canon has been very strict about their RF mount and has only just opened it up to third parties, and even that is only for their APS-C, named RF-S, cameras like the R50 or R100. Because of this, there aren’t that many lenses available for that camera/mount/format. Even Canon themselves don’t have many lenses for their APS-C cameras as they originally had a different mount for their mirrorless APS-C cameras, and are pretty early in their RF-S story. You can certainly buy full frame RF lenses from Canon but they will be more expensive. Of course, if you decide to purchase a full frame Canon later, after you get more comfortable, these full frame lenses will work just fine and won’t need to be replaced.
With that said, there aren’t that many options, unfortunately:
Canon’s own RF-S 18-150mm f3.5-6.3 IS or Canon RF-S 18-45mm f4.5-6.3 IS are your only options, if you want first-party.
The only third-party zoom option that should work for your needs is the Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 DC DN Contemporary (https://www.sigma-global.com/en/lenses/c021_18_50_28/)
These are the only RF-S options.
The Canon full frame RF 24-105mm f4-f7.1 IS (or RF 24-105mm f4 L IS or RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS) are also available but price, size and weight might not fit your current needs.
Again, the RF mount as a whole just doesn’t have that many options, and RF-S is even more limited.
Edit: removed the bit about Sony. I see now that the R50 is cheaper than anything Sony offers.
So the Sigma lens that is of high image quality but it doesn’t have Image Stabilization. Would that be a concern with R50 without IBIS?
And is the 18-150mm lens much better than the basic kit 45 one?