My first fast lens was the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 lens. I loved the fact that I could stay at a constant f/2.8 aperture throughout the entire zoom range. It really helped me learn my manual exposures because I didn’t have to keep adjusting the shutter speed as the aperture changed. While this third party lens was great on my budget, I believe that my image quality suffered.

Then I purchased my first professional-grade lens: the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR I lens.

I was astonished at how much more clear, crisp, and colorful my images looked with this new lens. I couldn’t explain it except to say that it was well worth the money spent as it paid for itself many times over. It was because of this lens that I decided to only purchase professional-grade lenses by Nikon. The color, contrast, and sharpness is by far the best I’ve ever seen.

In my lists below, I’ve included the professional-grade 70-200mm f/2.8 lens for both Nikon and Canon. However, many people may not have it in their budget at this time but still wish to have a fast, long-range zoom lens. So I’ve included links to purchase the third-party lenses for each brand as well.

 

Nikon Lenses

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Canon Lenses