Your expert recommendation for next lens

I bought my first camera Canon Rebel EOS T3i with Canon EF 50mm 1:1.4 lens. I love the camera and the lens. However, now I am looking to shoot with the ability to zoom in and out as it becomes very difficult to take a picture of a group of people up close. Since there are so many option with zoom lens such as 18-55, 17-85, 18-135, I am not sure which one to go with. I want a quality lens. Please advice. Thank you.

What is your budget?

It really depends on how much of a zoom range you require, what lighting conditions you tend to shoot in most, how you define a 'quality' lens and how much money you're willing to spend. For example, the 18-55 kit lens that typically comes with Rebel cameras will get you the wider FL required to take group shots of people, but the image quality from it won't be comparable to your 50mm f1.4. I've never used one, but many people feel one of the best general focal length zoom lenses available for Canon APS-C cameras like your T3i is the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM, but it costs roughly $1,000.

Yeah, one thing you have to be aware of is that the 50mm F/1.4 is a pretty good lens. The average "kit lens" will be a step down in terms of quality. If you want to maintain a similar level of quality but have only one zoom lens, I would agree with the suggestion to go with a Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM. It is expensive but if you are selling your 50mm, you'd offset that.

Aside from that, if you are okay with swapping lenses, you could keep the 50mm and get one wide angle prime. Maybe something like the Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM or Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM would work. The advantage of the wide primes is that you will maintain similar quality as what you have now but be able to get wider shots for groups, etc.

15-85
17-55 or
Sigma or Tamaron 17-50

All will give IQ from the lens

Remember you have to 1.6 X what ever you buy because of your sensor .

example
15-85 on crop body with what you have is really 24-136

17-55 if the budget permits. there is no better lens for the 7D! f/2.8, IS and perfect FL for a cropper.

Bianchi wrote in post #14930860
15-85
17-55 or
Sigma or Tamaron 17-50

All will give IQ from the lens

Remember you have to 1.6 X what ever you buy because of your sensor .

example
15-85 on crop body with what you have is really 24-136

Yes, that is true. Thank you Bianchi!

Thank you all for your quick responses. Would you recommend wide angle prime over zoom lens as Tiger suggested? I don't mind swapping. However, I am also using my camera for video recording and I want to be able to capture from a reasonable distance. That is another reason why I was thinking about zoom lens.

daziguy wrote in post #14930936
Thank you all for your quick responses. Would you recommend wide angle prime over zoom lens as Tiger suggested? I don't mind swapping. However, I am also using my camera for video recording and I want to be able to capture from a reasonable distance. That is another reason why I was thinking about zoom lens.

answer bob_r's question if you want suggestions....

DreDaze wrote in post #14931280
answer bob_r's question if you want suggestions....

I don't have a set budget yet. Just wanted to see what was available out there and what your recommendations were. I would however want to stay within a thousand dollar range but that may change if the product is worth extra money.

are the majority of your shots going to be people related? if so i'm not sure how much you'd need the wide end of an 18mm...something like a 24-105L could be good

daziguy wrote in post #14931297
I don't have a set budget yet. Just wanted to see what was available out there and what your recommendations were. I would however want to stay within a thousand dollar range but that may change if the product is worth extra money.

At ~$1000, you could also consider the 24-70 F/2.8 L. But... you'd have to get lucky on a good price used or increase your budget. This one sold a few days ago around $1350:
https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1222446

With this option you could reasonably switch to a one-lens-only setup unless you really wanted/needed the 50mm as a fast prime.

Some might consider 24mm not wide enough on a crop body but I think it would work for what you want to do. I mainly use prime lenses now and I never liked going below about 30mm on APS-C when I was using zooms.

DreDaze wrote in post #14931359
are the majority of your shots going to be people related? if so i'm not sure how much you'd need the wide end of an 18mm...something like a 24-105L could be good

I would not recommend the 24-105 F/4 L (despite being $800 new all the time), because F/4 would be too slow on an APS-C camera IMO unless you mainly shoot in daylight or used flashes.

SoCalTiger wrote in post #14931361
I would not recommend the 24-105 F/4 L (despite being $800 new all the time), because F/4 would be too slow on an APS-C camera IMO unless you mainly shoot in daylight or used flashes.

too slow for what? he never said he's shooting indoors...even f2.8 isn't fast enough indoors imo...if he wants to shoot indoors a flash will be better than an f2.8 lens

DreDaze wrote in post #14931387
too slow for what? he never said he's shooting indoors...even f2.8 isn't fast enough indoors imo...if he wants to shoot indoors a flash will be better than an f2.8 lens

Good point there, at $800 for the 24-105mm F/4, he'd have money left over from his $1k budget for a nice flash.

I had the choice for the 17-55 or the 24-105, i went with the latter because i was finding the majority of my previous shots being at 55mm or close to............. Fantastic lens