RolandDieter

The "walk-around" lens I choose varies by what I will be shooting where I am going at a given point in time. Night shots in Venice: a fast wide angle. Tuscan countryside: a lens with greater zoom range. Sports: a fast longer lens. Etc. All my "walk-arounds" are zooms because my desired focal length will vary from shot to shot.

revhen Loc: By the beautiful Hudson

Mine is the Canon 18-135. When I am traveling, especially, it provides the width for most landscape and enough reach for most distant shots without having to take the time and risking missing the shot to change the lens. Of course, I have several other lenses for specific situations, including primes, macros, a 10-22 for gathering a wide view and a 150-600 Sigma for distant reach.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

When I go walking the streets I don't want to lug my favorite lens, a 70-200 f/2.8. So I opt for a 24-120 or a 24-105. I call them walking-around lenses. I also mount one of them on my D500 because that is my walking-around camera. The name, "walking-around", is not a technical description but a term I happen to like and use. Don't be a Chris T.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

We have trails close by our home. So, if going for a short walk or longer, my “walk about” is a bridge camera. I’m ready for anything!

Steamboat

A walk around lens is your personal choice. It will cover you for the kinds of shots you expect .....on a casual walk.
It is my commitment to my choice that I will work with in in the parameters of a lens that I choose to bring.

For me, its traveling light maybe a 35mm maybe a 50mm
I don't own one but to some it could be a light weight slight wide to normal zoom (28 to 100mm)

A walk around lens is more my commitment to work with what I choose for the days outing. And it has to be light weight.

I have a 28 to70 f/2.8 Nikon Zoom. It is not a walking around lens as it weighs 2 pounds. Its more of a workhorse that I can make work in any situation. And it never just goes for a walk.

Truth is I prefer 2 great lightweight primes as a walk around kit to one crappy do everything zoom

Like I said it personal.

I do have a Leica X2 with a fixed 35mm equivalent lens ....its the perfect "walk around camera" most of the time.But it cant do everything with it.
...I would choose different if I was "walking around" my Grand kids soccer game;-)

I know I went off topic

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

My walkaround lens is a Tamron 16-300mm. The 16mm end allows me to take pictures of tall buildings and wide landscapes with a single shot without getting the fisheye lens distortion. The 300mm end allows me to get close to subject without them hearing the shutter/mirror release, getting scared, and running away. The 300mm lens also allows me to get through most fences when I make an unscheduled stop at the San Diego Zoo or the Safari Park, which I do quite often since I've been a member for 24 years.

Friends who know me well think I have had my camera surgically attached because I'm never without it. Even in my home, my camera is never more than an arm's length away from me in case I need to take that once-in-a-lifetime picture of where the fire started, the meteor crashing through the roof, etc. If I'm going to walk around with my camera, then I need a lens attached to the camera. That walkaround lens is the Tamron 16-300mm. It allows me to do 100% of everything that I do EACH day. For things that I don't do EACH day, like the Zoo, Safari Park, Ramona Grasslands, San Diego National Wildlife Refuge..... I have a Tamron 150-600mm lens. I would never consider walking around with it each and every day because it's simply too heavy, bulky, and awkward. For macro photography in my garden or at the San Diego Botanic Garden, Living Desert, or Huntington Gardens, I have a Tamron 90mm macro lens.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

My walk around is limited to what I can carry.

It ranges from my cellphone camera - which is always in my pocket, to a Sigma 150-600 on a D800/D810 with a battery grip, if I am walking around hoping to get some great bird shots. To others, it's a 20X zoom lens, that generally does nothing great, but they are willing to sacrifice image quality for convenience. So, there is no such thing as a universal definition for a "walk around lens" - other than it be portable.

mrpentaxk5ii

For me I don't have one lens that as people say does it all, to me no such lens has been made, the lens that covers a wide focal length is not wide enough or fast enough. Most people have a lens that covers a high percentage of what they photograph, for me on a APS-C Pentax body it's a Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5. This lens stays on one camera and I find I can shoot most of what I come across while just out walking around with my camera.

Trustforce Loc: Chicago, Illinois

In general, for most in this forum, a "walk around lens" means a one lens attached to the camera, and not walking around with a camera bag filled with small zooms and primes. Most of us would not consider the 24-70 lens (weight 2 pounds 6.4 ounces {or just over 1 kg} for the lens only) a walk-around lens. The term has more relevance to travel photography, where weight carried all day is a consideration. That is why most of us would think of a "walk around" lens to be an 18-200 or 18-300 mm lens in DX, or a 24-120 or 28-300 in FX. Enough reach on the telephoto end, and enough wide angle, and no other lens carted along. A professional would rarely consider a "walk around" due to the trade off in lens sharpness, so they might "walk around" with (to use a Nikon example) a 14-24 f2.8, a 24-70 f2.8 and a 70-200 f2,8--$7100 in glass alone and a lot of weight. But for the rest of us, it is making a decision that we don't want to change lenses in the field and carry multiple lenses on our "trip." One could make a case that using a fast mild wide-angle lens with a camera that has a great sensor so you can crop and see detail in post production will give a lot of flexibility, but I personally don't buy that premise. My walk around lens for my D850 is the Nikkor 24-120mm f4 VR.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

For me, a 35mm lens is a touch too wide as a walk around lens, as I like to be able to do occasional close-up shots of objects, without the need to get extremely close to the subject to fill the frame, and also without too much perspective distortion effecting the close-up subject. As such, I find the 50mm lens usually better suited for this.

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

My 16-35 and 70-200 are my so called "walk-around-lenses"! They cover pretty much anything I come across, so I can just fire away (be prepared so to say)! That's what's on my cameras when I walk around!

repleo Loc: Boston

It depends on where I am 'walking-around' and what I expect to come across. Could be a cell phone or P&S. For travelling it could be A6000 with the kit 16-50mm or 18-105. If the main purpose of the walk is to take the best pictures I can, it would be A7Rii with my new 24-105 - that would covers 98% of anything I will ever want to take, but I wouldn't lug it around going out for dinner in the evening.

Joe Blow

To me, a "Walk Around Lens" is one that is a smaller light weight zoom with enough reach to cover most situations one might see. Often they are kit lenses with plastic components to save weight and costs. Generally, a fairly wide bottom end and comfortable telephoto, in the neighborhood of 18-135 or 18-105.

A Walk Around Camera" would be a DSLR with a cropped sensor or smaller such as an APS-C, 4/3, or bridge camera. The idea is something that will take a decent picture but not be too heavy or large. Full frame cameras and glass specialty and pro lenses are not walking around lenses and cameras.

splatbass Loc: Honolulu

I have one of those for travel in certain situations. It is a good general purpose lens when you don't know what you will encounter, or when you want to only take one lens. I am probably going to Canberra, Australia for business later this year, and because I have never been there and there is wildlife (kangaroos live in the parks in and around the city), it gives me the range I need for everything from landscapes to street to wildlife in one lens.

I have different walkaround lenses for different things though. For street photography I'll generally use a 28mm or a 35mm prime. For a trip to Yosemite last year I took my very sharp Sony 18-105mm f4 lens for landscapes, and it covered everything (including a mule deer doe that was right next to the trail). When I go to Korea (fairly frequesntly) and know I'll spend all of my time in the city I'll often take an 18-55 kit lens.

In short, for me the definition of a walkaround lens changes depending on the circumstances.

Oh yeah, and my all the time walkaround lens (actually camera) to carry with me just in case something comes up is a Canon Powershot G9X II that fits in my pocket. It has a 1" sensor and the equivalent of an 18-55mm lens, takes great pictures, and is TINY.