travel lens

10 Best Travel Lens for Yoga Photography

Recently, yoga photography has gained huge popularity. 

Those who practice yoga or teach it may want to involve more people in the practice and one of the most efficient ways of achieving this is by using beautiful yoga pictures and videos. 

More so, those who’re proud of their yoga achievements may want to have themselves captured in beautiful images and videos (of course).

However, capturing these beautiful poses and images requires the best travel lens. The best travel lens will allow you to shoot almost anything as well as save some space in your bag too!

Are you a photographer and love taking yoga photography? Here is the right article for you! This article presents the best travel lenses for yoga photography for those that love taking pictures. Read on.

1. Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM | C

  • 4-stop stabilizer
  • Compact, lightweight build
  • Good image quality
  • The focus ring rotates during autofocus
  • No weather-seals

We chose the Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM | C over the Canon EF-S 18-200 f/3.5-5.6 IS lens for yoga photography. Though this Canon lens is a good travel lens, it has noisy autofocus and sluggish overall performance. This lens tops Canon for compactness and image quality.

It also weighs less than its Canon counterpart – about one-thirds less – and features a lens hood. More so, its optical path includes three aspherical elements and three SLD (Special Low Dispersion) elements. The only drawback with this lens is that the focus ring rotates during autofocus, so you’ve got to keep your fingers clear.

2. Canon EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

  • Compact and lightweight
  • Near-silent autofocus, and good stabilization
  • Shorter zoom range than rivals
  • Hood sold separately

If you have a full-frame Canon DSLR camera, this Canon EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens is your best option. It’s better than the weighty and highly expensive Canon EF 28-300mm f3.5-5.6L IS USM and Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM, and the Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD with poor sharpness.

This lens is surprisingly lightweight and compact, featuring a refined Stepping Motor (STM) autofocus system and a high-performance 4-stop stabilizer. This travel lens delivers super-sharp image quality for yoga photography.

3. Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM

  • Five stops of image stabilization
  • Compact and lightweight
  • Minor barreling and pincushioning
  • Very minor fringing

If you’re up to the cost and don’t mind the weight, the Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens is also one of the best travel lenses for yoga photography. It’s a versatile travel lens with a fixed maximum aperture.

Canon offers two 24-105mm “RF” lenses for its range of EOS R-series mirrorless cameras –the f/4-7.1 option, which is relatively lightweight and compact, and the more upmarket L-series f/4 option, which we’re considering here.

The Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens is sharp across the board and has a very good autofocus performance when paired with the advanced AF systems of the Canon EOS R6 and Canon EOS R5.

It also features the excellent 5-stop image stabilization system, which when paired with the Canon EOS R6 and Canon EOS R5 delivers about 7.5-stops of compensation. This lens is perfect when you’re traveling and can’t shoot with a tripod.

4. Canon RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM

  • Fast and virtually silent autofocus
  • 5-stop image stabilizer
  • Hood not included
  • Massive distortion if uncorrected

This is undoubtedly the best superzoom travel lens for Canon’s EOS R-series mirrorless cameras. It’s your best if you want something with a longer focal range than the Canon’s two 24-105mm “RF” lenses. It is not overly expensive and the superzoom option (10x zoom range) isn’t so big and heavy.

Aside from being lightweight, it’s also weather-sealed. The Canon RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM lens features a highly effective 5-stop image stabilizer and a Nano USM autofocus system, which is super-fast for stills and aids smooth and virtually silent focus transitions during movie capture.

Although at the short end of the zoom range, barrel distortion is massive and color fringing can be noticeable, these flaws are autocorrected in-camera and when raw files are processed.

5. Nikon AF-S DX 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

  • Very good image quality
  • Refined handling
  • Modest zoom range
  • Fairly pricey

We recommend this travel lens for Nikon DX-format DSLRs. It’s compact and weighs less. Though its zoom range is 18-200mm, it can deliver a generous 27-300mm zoom range in full-frame terms – thanks to the 1.5x crop factor of DX-format cameras’ APS-C image sensor.

Nikon AF-S DX 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II features a ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system, which prevents the focus ring from spinning during autofocus. Its superzoom is amazing for image quality.

6. Nikon AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR

  • Extra wide-angle coverage
  • Impressive handling and image quality
  • Relatively limited zoom range
  •  Lacks long telephoto reach

The Nikon AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR is an ideal travel lens for full-frame Nikon DSLRs. It’s relatively compact and has excellent handling characteristics. More so, it gives users a more generous wide-angle perspective at the short end of the zoom range. However, you’ll lose out on powerful telephoto reach at this point – this is the natural drawback with this lens.

7. Nikon Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR

  • Remarkably compact and lightweight
  • Good zoom range
  • Pricey
  • Has narrow aperture at full zoom

This lens prides itself as the best travel lens for full-frame Nikon Z mirrorless cameras. Though its zoom range is 24-200mm, expect an effective zoom range of 36-300mm when used with the Z 50 camera – thanks to this camera’s 1.5x crop factor.

It’s particularly lightweight and compact than most other full-frame lenses that boasts of an extensive zoom range. It comes in a durable and strong construction that includes comprehensive weather seals and a fluorine coating on the front element to repel grease and moisture.

This lens features one aspherical ED (Extra-low Dispersion) element, two aspherical elements, and two further ED elements, which all aid the image quality.

Nikon’s high-tech ARNEO coating is also applied to reduce flare and ghosting. The stepping motor-driven autofocus system enables smooth focus transitions during movie capture, along with minimal focus breathing and focus shift when zooming.

8. Fujifilm 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 WR LM R OIS

  • Useful 27-206mm effective zoom range
  • Great handling and 5-stop stabilizer
  • Lack powerful telephoto reach

Fujifilm 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 WR LM R OIS is the best travel lens option for Fujifilm X-mount cameras. It’s a WR (Weather-Resistant) lens with about 20 areas of sealing in its construction.

This lens features a fast and virtually silent LM (Linear Motor) autofocus system that’s super-fast for stills and smooth for movie capture. The handling is also enhanced by the “R” control ring, and it has a particularly effective 5-stop OIS (Optical Image Stabilizer).

Fujifilm 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 WR LM R OIS features four aspherical elements and two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements. Its image quality is very impressive although corner-sharpness is a little bit on the average towards both ends of the zoom range.

9. Panasonic LUMIX G VARIO 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 II ASPH Power OIS

  • Super-small and lightweight
  • 10x zoom range, optical image stabilizer

This lens features a highly effective 4-stop optical image stabilizer. The effective zoom range is 28-280mm in full-frame terms, thanks to the 2x crop factor of Micro Four Thirds cameras. This enables the lens to match up with the 18-200mm lenses on APS-C format cameras.

The Panasonic LUMIX G VARIO 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 II ASPH Power OIS even weighs less than some APS-C format 18-200mm lenses, making it more travel-friendly. More so, this lens packs a fast autofocus system and quality glass, which include three aspherical elements and two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements.

Another amazing thing about this lens is that its sharpness is both very good and highly consistent throughout the entire zoom range, making it a superzoom lens.

10. Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III VC

  • Powerful zoom range and stabilization
  • Good price against the Sony equivalent
  • A drop in sharpness at long zoom settings
  • Not the best value everywhere

This is the best travel lens option for Sony APS-C mirrorless cameras. It shares several similar features with the Sony E 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS LE, such as the striking superzoom, weight, size, 62mm filter thread, minimum focus distance, and maximum magnification factor.

Both lenses also feature optical image stabilization and stepping motor-based autofocus systems. This lens is compact, lightweight, and has a powerful zoom range. It is ideal for travel photography and delivers very good image quality.

Are you looking for the best travel lens for yoga photography? With our review above on the best travel lenses for yoga photography, you’re sure to find the most ideal travel lens for you.