Canon DSLR Portrait Lens

A lot of people write in to the Digital SLR Guide asking which lens they should get for their camera.

These are folks who started out using the kit lens that came with their camera, but have a sense that there might be something a little bit better out there.

Today, I'll begin a series of posts on the lenses that I find most interesting for all of the different camera manufacturers.

To kick it off, I'd like to talk about my favorite Canon DSLR portrait lens: the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD.

There's a lot that I like about this lens:

• Zoom Range: 28 to 75mm is a great range for portrait photography, allowing for large group shots as well as individual head shots
• Wide Aperture: the f/2.8 maximum aperture lets you take pictures in very dim available light without having to boost your ISO too much
• Constant Aperture: the aperture is constant throughout the zoom range and doesn't change once set
• Superb Image Quality: the sharpness and color capture of this lens rival some that are significantly more expensive
  

Finally, there's the price: you can pick up a new version of this lens for about $430 USD, which is extremely reasonable given the quality and the performance that this lens offers.