The Most Popular Lenses With dPS Readers

It’s time to take a look at the most popular lenses, based on the buying habits of Digital Photography School readers over the last three months in 2024.

These lists come from Amazon* data and reveal the lenses most frequently purchased by you, our wonderful dPS family.

For many years, the lists have been dominated by Canon and Nikon lenses, but in recent times, we’ve seen Sony become more and more popular. In fact, in this last quarter, Sony came close to being the most sold lens brand – a handful of lenses behind Canon.

If you count third party lens makers selling Sony lenses – Sony mount lenses easily take the #1 spot.

Note: These lists include lenses for DSLRs and for Canon, Nikon, and Sony mirrorless cameras. We also maintain lists of the most popular cameras.

The most popular Canon lenses

The Most Popular Lenses With dPS Readers

Canon continues to dominate our most popular lens list in 2024. In the top 50 lenses sold, 20 of them are from Canon.

As mentioned above, this list features a mix of both DSLR (EF-mount) lenses and mirrorless (RF-mount) lenses. It’s been fascinating to see the rise of RF lenses on this bestseller list, a sign of the popularity of Canon’s growing mirrorless lineup.

Topping the list is Canon’s “Nifty Fifty,” the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens. These 50mm f/1.8 lenses are hard to beat when it comes to value for money, so it’s no surprise to see one leading the pack. The RF-mount Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens comes in second (and it almost took the #1 position)!

Like Canon’s list, Nikon’s list features a mix of full-frame (FX) DSLR lenses and cropped-sensor (DX) DSLR lenses, in addition to Z-mount lenses for mirrorless cameras.

The most popular Sony lenses

This is the first time that we saw Sony lenses outsell Nikon lenses in this popular lenses list (and come close to outselling Canon).

Again at the top of the list is another nifty fifty lens – they really are the most popular choice in all manufacturers.

Interestingly, the ‘other popular third-party lenses’ list below, featuring lenses from Sigam, Tamron, and other lens makers, shows that lenses with Sony mounts were the most popular.

Our readers certainly do like Sony gear (as do our team at dPS HQ).

The most popular Nikon lenses

Nikon lenses slipped into third place this time around but continued to sell well despite Sony’s rise.

This is similar to what we’re seeing in our popular digital cameras list where we’ve seen Nikon also sliding down the rankings over the last few years.

As with Sony and Canon it is a nifty fifty lens that tops the list and we’re seeing the rise of lenses for Nikons small mirrorless cameras and a decline in lenses for their DSLRs.

Here are the most popular lenses from Nikon for 2024 so far.

Other popular third-party lenses

Also worth sharing are the following lenses made by third-party manufacturers.

There have been a number of shifts happen in this list over the last year. For starters, Sigma seem to be selling significantly more lenses, Sony mounts are most popular and we’re seeing a number of new lens makers join the list (Viltrox, Yongnuo, TTArtisan and Lightdow).

Many of these are designed for the bodies of multiple camera brands, but we’ve noted the popular lens mounts that you’ve been buying over the last few months:

*These lens lists were compiled from reports supplied to us by Amazon.com, where we are affiliates.

One of the ways we are able to cover dPS’s costs and remain a sustainable business is by earning a small commission when readers make a purchase from Amazon or B&H Photo after clicking on our article links (including the links used above).

It adds nothing to the cost of the product but gives us a small kickback to help cover our server, design, developer, and editorial costs.

While we cannot access any personal information from readers, we do get an overall report from Amazon about what was bought, which is how we created these lists.