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Best Lenses For Canon 90D (Top 5 Picks Reviewed)

Canon EF S 55 250mm F4 5.6 IS STM

Perhaps owning a Canon 90D is what drove you to search for its lens.

The Canon 90D is a fantastic all-around camera, or as I like to call it, a “take-along-anywhere” camera. It looks like a cross between a mirrorless and a DSLR camera because it has the recording capabilities of a mirrorless camera while maintaining the great stills of a DSLR.

The Canon 90D is an excellent mid-range camera that will appeal to both amateur and professional photographers.

We understand that it is a good camera, but it isn’t enough; you will need a good lens to complement the camera and bring out its maximum potential.

In this article, I’ve put together a list of what I consider to be the best lenses for Canon 90D.

A Quick Look at My Favorite Lenses for Canon 90D

ImageProductFeaturesPrice
Best Value
Sigma 50mm F1.4

Sigma 50mm F1.4

10
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Best for Street Photography
Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8

Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8

9
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Best for Macro Photography
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L

8.6
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Best for Travel Photography
Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS STM

Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS STM

8.5
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Best For Portrait Photography
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8

8.6
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Key Takeaways

  • Canon 90D is a great DSLR camera that works perfectly with native and third-party lenses.
  • The best third-party lens to choose is Sigma 50mm f/1.4, which comes at great value for the money.
  • The main choice known as the greatest one would be Canon EF 85mm f/1.8, which will bring you many great features.
  • On your Canon 90D, you can use both prime/fixed and zoom lenses without any problem.

The Top 5 Best Lenses For Canon 90D

5. Sigma 50mm F1.4 – Best Value

Sigma 50mm F1.4 1

What I Like

  • Sharp
  • Silent and Accurate Focusing
  • Great in Low-Light
  • No Distortion

What I Don’t Like

  • Not Portable
  • No Image Stabilization

Right away, I’m going to show you a lens from Sigma that will provide a lot of value.

The Sigma 50mm F1.4 is regarded as one of the best prime lenses available today and has proven itself time and time again, particularly among Canon users.

Because of the bulky and heavy design, it may not be the most compact and portable lens available. Nevertheless, if performance is your only concern it won’t fail to deliver.

It has a focal length of 50 mm, which is pretty much the closest focal range to the human eye, pictures taken with this Sigma will mostly come as we see them.

Sigma 50mm boasts a Hyper Sonic Motor (HSM) that guarantees silent, smooth, and accurate auto-focusing. It also features Special Low Dispersion (SLD) glass and Super Multi-Layer coating.

The large aperture makes this lens for Canon 90D a splendid low-light performer that also offers a smooth and creamy bokeh effect.

What’s more, even at wide apertures, the 13 elements in 8 groups provide exceptional performance, and close-up shooting is simple with a minimum focusing distance of 40cm.

The only thing this lens for Canon 90D lacks is image stabilization. Considering this is a budget lens, you can’t expect image stabilization, and we have to sacrifice somewhere, right?

With all of that being said, if you’re a photographer who wants to shoot almost everything, this lens for Canon 90D will definitely be your “best friend”.

Why should you buy it?

The Sigma 50mm f/1.4 is one of the most excellent choices if you need a budget-worthy third-party lens. This lens has a great focusing system, and its focal length of 50mm is impressive.

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Sample Pictures of Sigma 50mm F1.4


4. Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 – Best for Street Photography

Canon EF S 24mm f2.8 1

What I Like

  • Affordable
  • Versatile Usage
  • Lightweight-Portable
  • Smooth Autofocus
  • Bokeh Effect

What I Don’t Like

  • No Stabilization
  • Not Great on Manual Focusing

If you are a street photographer or say a vlogger in general, you will sure like this wide-angle lens.

When I think of it, it is a pretty versatile lens it will not only satisfy vloggers and street photographers but It’s also popular amongst astrophotographers and landscape photographers. In other words, a very capable wide-angle lens.

What I like about this lens for Canon EOS 90D besides its performance, of course, it is very lightweight. It’s one of the smallest and lightest lenses available. With a weight of about 125g, this lens for Canon EOS 90D is practically weightless and will make your camera perfect for traveling around.

When it comes to working in low light or managing depth of field, the aperture of f/2.8 hits the sweet spot. The stepping motor allows for smooth and quiet autofocus, which is ideal for videography. Not to mention the optimized lens setup, which highly reduces ghosting and flare.

There’s also the 7-blade circular aperture, which generates beautiful and smooth bokeh backgrounds.

In general, I think that there is no better solution if you require a wide-angle lens for your Canon 90D.

Why should you buy it?

Using a native Canon lens is never a mistake! That’s why, in case you are a street photographer, there is Canon’s 24mm f.2.8 lens which will help you bring out the best of that type of photography.

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Sample Pictures of Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8


3. Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L – Best for Macro Photography

Canon EF 100mm f2.8L 2

What I Like

  • Fast
  • Great Image Quality
  • USM Ring for Focusing
  • Bokeh Effect Included

What I Don’t Like

  • Pricey
  • Made of Plastic

Macro photography is beloved among many people, including me, because it allows us to observe the visual appearance of insects, flowers, and other small natural objects. Canon EF 100mm F/2.8L, is a macro lens that will pay off nicely for macro photographers.

The Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens is the company’s first mid-telephoto macro lens with Image Stabilization.

Although you may feel limited by the fact that it is a prime lens, the 100mm focal length is ideal for macro photography. It allows for magnification up to life-size (1x), which is ideal for macro photography.

Not to mention the ring USM, which provides silent and speedy autofocus as well as full-time manual focusing for those who want it in a manual way. In addition, the ultrasonic focusing motor is extremely precise!

While it is a macro lens that excels at it, that does not prevent you from using it for other types of photography. For example, you can even use it for portraitures, thanks to the fantastic bokeh effect it provides.

There’s no doubt that you’ll get some good-quality shots with this lens, no matter the type of photography.

Why should you buy it?

The fixed focal length of 100mm on this lens will allow you to capture excellent macro shots, and its bokeh effect is unique.

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Sample Pictures of Canon EF 100mm


2. Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS STM – Best for Travel Photography

Canon EF S 55 250mm F4 5.6 IS STM

What I Like

  • Affordable
  • Light and Portable
  • Image Stabilization Included
  • No Flare or Ghosting

What I Don’t Like

  • Not Very Resistant

Oh boy, you sure will love this one if you have a Canon EOS 90D.

I like to refer to this lens for Canon EOS 90D as the “versatility king”. Imagine a cost-effective telephoto lens that includes the perfect focal range; well, you won’t have to imagine anymore since the Canon EF-S 55-250mm offers just that.

This telephoto zoom lens from Canon is a dream come true for photographers and videographers looking to expand their lens collection’s versatility and range. The versatility of this telephoto lens, as well as its low price, led me to recommend it as the best travel lens. You can pretty much just throw it in your luggage and hit it off; you won’t need any additional lenses, so don’t worry about that.

Despite being a telephoto lens it is compact and lightweight and it comes with an Image Stabilization that has up to 3.5 equivalent stops of shake correction.

I am a huge fan of lenses that have an optical image stabilizer. This lens is one of them. The optical image stabilizer in this lens works perfectly and gets the job done better than most high-end lenses out there.

It features one UD lens element that reduces chromatic aberration, helping to achieve excellent image quality with high resolution and contrast.

Enhanced coatings on the lens elements deliver excellent color balance and minimize ghosting and flare, and a 7-blade circular aperture delivers beautiful, soft backgrounds.

While the aperture leaves so much to be desired, this telephoto lens still remains a great pick that I would suggest to any Canon user that is looking for a great lens that also has image stabilization capabilities.

Why should you buy it?

The Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS STM is a lens with an impressive image stabilizer within, and if you have dealt with it as a problem, I assure you that you should consider this one.

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Sample Pictures of Canon EF-S 55-250mm


1. Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 – Best For Portrait Photography

Canon EF 85mm f1.8

What I Like

  • Travel-Friendly
  • Great for Both Beginners and Professionals
  • Perfect in Low-Light
  • Sharp Image Quality
  • Impressive Autofocus and Manual Focus
  • Great Bokeh

What I Don’t Like

  • Not Weather-Sealed

And to wrap things up on the last spot but certainly not least, we have a prime lens from Canon that would work wonders on portraitures.

While you can technically photograph portraits with any lens, including some that aren’t made specifically for portraiture; shorter focal lengths can be useful if you also want to capture the background, or on the other side, if you want to focus on portraitures with blurred backgrounds, I would prefer a longer focal length.

So, when you consider the 85mm focal length, you’ll find that it falls somewhere in the middle, giving us a taste of both worlds: not too distant but not too close either.

Despite being a bit old now, this lens for Canon EOS 90D is still a firm favorite,  because it’s reasonably compact and lightweight, ideal for throwing it in a spare corner of your bag. On top of all that it comes at a reasonable price, nothing that will hurt your bank. Yet again, you might feel limited with it being a prime lens but when you consider the price and the focal length, I think it makes up for it easily.

The only flaw I can see is the lack of a UD coating, but other than that, I can’t think of anything else.

It’s a lens that produces stunning bokeh and generally excellent and sharp images.

Would highly recommend this lens for Canon EOS 90D toward an entry-level photographer who is trying to learn the first steps of portrait photography. Definitely the best lens for Canon 90D when it comes to portraits.

Why should you buy it?

Portrait photographs always require a great lens, and in case you want to take portrait photographs, the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 is the one to choose and use!

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Sample Pictures of Canon EF 85mm f/1.8


Important Things You Need to Know Regarding Lenses

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There’s more to buying a lens than having it written Canon and costing a lot of money. I’ve included three key features to look for when purchasing a lens in general, not just for your Canon 90D.

You want to make sure you purchase the lens that you need for your type of photography, a wrong buy will seriously hurt your bank since lenses don’t come cheap at all.

Zoom and Prime Lenses

Lenses usually come as Zoom Lenses or Prime ones.

An easy way to differentiate them between each other would be to spot the number on the lens name, if there are two numbers it’s a zoom lens if there is one then it is a prime one.

Both lenses have their benefits and drawbacks.

A zoom lens will offer more versatility while lacking in the sharpness of the image and vice versa with the prime lenses, they will limit your focal range to a fixed number but the images will come far sharper than those of their peers.

Focal Length

Focal length is basically the number I mentioned above.

The distance traveled by light from the optical center of the lens, to the camera sensor, is referred to as focal length. It is measured in millimeters (mm) and can be seen on the lens barrel. Also, the lenses are named after the focal length range they cover.

A short focal length creates a more zoomed-out picture while its contrary with a higher focal length since it forms a more zoomed-in picture.

Some focal length numbers will function better in a particular photography field, which is why I tilted some of the lenses above in that way.

Aperture

Aperture is known as F-stop or figuratively as the “pupil”.

The amount of light that enters the camera is determined by the aperture. To allow more or less light to reach your camera sensor, you can reduce or increase the aperture size.

As previously stated, it is measured in f/stops and is commonly expressed as 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, and 16 in numbers; yet again, numbers that you will spot on the lens name.

The higher the f-number, the less light enters the camera; then again, the lower the f-number, the more light enters the camera.

Size and Weight

The lens’s size and weight will always play a key role in portability. While it may not seem significant, you will notice it if you get a camera that is light but has a bulky lens that adds a huge amount of weight.

Even worse, your tripod may not be able to support all the extra weight which leads to unstableness.

So, if you’re a photographer who travels a lot, make sure you always do your “math” on the lens size and weight.

Image Stabilization

Since the Canon EOS 90D does not have built-in image stabilization, you should look for a lens that has image stabilization capabilities.

Most of the lenses i mentioned in this article have image stabilization built-in, but the budget ones lack it.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Which is the best Zoom or Prime Lens?

There’s no best between zoom and prime, they are both good in their own way.

You can go for a Zoom lens if you want more versatility, or if you want a sharper quality but a fixed focal length you can opt for a Prime lens.

What would be a good Focal Range for Wildlife Photography?

When it comes to wildlife you have to go for a telescope lens, one that has at least a 300mm focal range since you don’t want to get personal and close with animals.

Is Canon 90D a Good Camera for Streaming on Youtube?

Yes, it is a superb vlogging camera, and if you can bypass the price, which isn’t that expensive but it is a bit overkill for streaming.

Final Words

I’m certain that you have a decent camera in your hands; just make sure it’s paired with the proper lens.

Do not rush things; first, do your “homework” and then choose a lens.

There are no bad lenses; all of them serve their purpose.

However, what may suit a photographer’s taste may not suit yours, which is why you must first specify your type of lens and photography style before purchasing it. I hope this article helped you find the best lens for the canon 90d!

Further Reading

If you enjoyed what you’ve read so far, you might want to look at some excellent lenses for vlogging or streaming.

No, that isn’t everything. I’ve included several for product photography in case you handle e-commerce, and I’ve also included some for street photography.

If you’ve done with the lens and need a tripod, I recently rounded up some great tripods around $100, and even some under $50 if you’re on a tighter budget.