6 Best Lenses For The Nikon D5600 (…and 3 to avoid)

As a D5600 owner, you’re probably looking to improve your photography and considering an eventual upgrade to a higher-end camera body. To help you on that path, here are my picks of the best lenses for the Nikon 5600.

You shouldn’t be looking for one lens to do everything, you’ll get a lot better results by choosing lenses that do one particular thing very well instead of the “do-it-all” kit lenses. That’s why my top recommendation for your D5600 is the Nikon ASF DX 35mm f/1.8G lens.

If you’re looking to improve your photos, go for more specialized lenses that are exceptional at one or two things rather than the “do it all” kit lenses.

Photography Goals uses affiliate links. When you buy products through the links on our site, we may earn a commission.

I recommend that all my students start with a mid-length prime lens like this 35mm lens. On a crop-sensor camera like the D5600, the effective focal length is 52.5mm.

The wide maximum aperture of f/1.8 also allows you to use a shallow depth of field to create background blur in your portrait photos or to shoot in lower light. This alone actually makes it much more versatile than most kit lenses with a maximum aperture of f/4 or f/5.6.

I also like the 35mm (52.5mm equivalent) focal length as a first upgrade from the kit lens. It’s a middle-of-the-range focal length and a great one to start learning how to compose an image with more skill.

This lens makes a great companion to the D5600 because it is affordable but still has some pro-level features like the f/1.8 maximum aperture and excellent sharpness at all apertures. This means that while you may be limited by the focal length, you can get very high-quality results in terms of image quality.

Finally, the small size makes this lens a great option for travel or simply just taking it with you on a day out for street photography. It pairs well with the smaller size of a crop-sensor DSLR like the D5600.

But, I am sure many of you are interested in shooting landscapes, so check out this next pick…

When you are choosing the best wide-angle lens for the D5600, keep in mind that it is a crop sensor camera so you need a lens that is wider than the usual wide-angle lens if you want that expansive landscape look. That’s why I recommend the Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5.

10-24mm on a crop sensor camera is going to give you an effective focal length of 15-36mm which is perfect for shooting landscapes and other wide-angle photos.

In addition, this lens boasts excellent image quality, especially for the price point.

This lens made my overall list of the best wide-angle lenses for Nikon.

Of course, not everyone wants to spend their days in the great outdoors shooting landscapes and many of you would rather photograph people. If that’s the case then this next lens may be perfect for you…

If you want to shoot primarily portraits, you may want to have a slightly longer focal length than the 35mm lens above. In that case, this 50mm lens is perfect. On the D5600, the effective focal length is 75mm.

The added reach will allow you to fill the frame more and step back a few feet while shooting portraits. This gives the appearance of something we call compression. This generally has the effect of making people’s faces look more flattering and also allows you to more easily eliminate background distractions from the frame.

The 50mm f/1.8 is a simple but vastly underestimated lens. I started my portrait photography business with nothing but a Nikon D5100 and this lens. It has everything you need to grow your photography skills and your creativity.

If you want to shoot sports or wildlife then you’ll need a telephoto lens. Having a zoom telephoto like this 70-210 from Tamron gives you the ability to cover more area as the action moves closer or farther away.

The effective focal length on the crop sensor D5600 is 105-315mm.

This is another lens where you’re getting a lot more value for your dollar by choosing a Tamron lens over a Nikon. Don’t be deceived though, the image quality of this lens is top-notch.

Despite being relatively affordable compared to many similar lenses out there, this is also a full-frame lens. That gives you two positives.

First, because the crop sensor on your D5600 is utilizing only the center portion of the lens, you’re getting the sharpest part of the lens, so you’ll get very high-quality images throughout the zoom range, even when you have the aperture wide open at f/4.

The other benefit is that you’ll be able to continue using this lens if you upgrade to a full-frame Nikon camera. Any full-frame F-mount camera can use this lens natively and it will work on the impressive new Z Mount system with the FTZ Adapter.

This particular lens is one of the standouts of the Nikon DX lenses.

The Nikon 40mm macro lens (Nikon calls it “micro” to be different) is surprisingly fun to use. It’s a bit of a shorter focal length than some other macro lenses but that just makes it a little more versatile.

It’s also one of the most affordable lenses in the Nikon lineup, coming in under $300 MSRP.

It weighs in at only 10 ounces which means it won’t take up much space in your bag or weigh you down on any long hikes. That makes it a great second lens to have in your bag for specialty shots like macro photography.

But it doesn’t have to be a “second lens” or even a macro-only lens. With a focal length of 40mm (60mm equivalent) and a maximum aperture of f/2.8 it would work great as a portrait lens as well.

You don’t have to limit yourself to crop sensor lenses if you’re shooting with the D5600. In fact, many of you probably want to upgrade to a full-frame camera at some point, so getting a full-frame lens now is a great investment.

The Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 is one of the best overall lenses you can buy. In fact, it made my picks for the best Nikon lens overall.

To begin with, this lens covers arguably the most used focal lengths with a range of 24-70mm and it has a wide maximum aperture of f/2.8 that is useful for shooting portraits with a shallow depth of field.

It also boasts excellent image quality with sharpness across the focal length range and minimal distortion. Even when shooting wide open at f/2.8 there is minimal edge softness. As a result, your images are going to be sharp whether you’re shooting portraits at 70mm and f/2.8 or landscapes at 24mm and f/10.

Lastly, it’s about half the price of its 24-70 Nikon counterpart, so you’ll be getting tremendous value for your dollar with this lens.

Lenses To Avoid

Not every lens, even if it’s made by Nikon, is worth buying. There are some lenses that trade image quality just to have a huge zoom range. These might be ok for taking snapshots but as your photography skills improve, you’ll easily see the shortcomings.

Instead of these, stick to the ones on the list above. Here are some of the most popular lenses I’ve seen recommended by other sites to use with the D5600 that you really should avoid…

Nikon 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3G VR

This is a popular kit lens that was bundled with Nikon crop-sensor DSLRs over the years. But at over $600 at most retailers, it’s not worth the money you would spend on it.

It does have a very large focal range of 18-300mm (which is the full-frame equivalent of 27-400mm) but that’s not the entire story.

Any time a manufacturer makes a lens that covers this wide of a focal range, there are going to compromise elsewhere. In the case of this lens, there are a lot of them.

It has significant distortion and poor edge sharpness throughout the focal range. At the telephoto end, the lens becomes noticeably soft. So any benefit of having that 300mm reach is counteracted by images that don’t look all that great. You would get better results just cropping in on an image taken with a sharper lens.

The Tamron 70-210mm lens above is less money and is a far superior telephoto lens.

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED

This lens suffers from almost all the same problems as the one above, just slightly less so. Because the long end of this lens is only 140mm, the negative effects of creating a super-zoom lens are mitigated somewhat. But you are also giving up 160mm of reach on the long end.

The worst part of this lens is that at 18-140mm, you aren’t really getting all that much reach and still giving up a good deal of image quality.

It’s less expensive than the 18-300mm above but only slightly.

Skip this one too. You’ll get far superior image quality by picking up the Tamron 10-24mm and 70-210mm lenses above to cover this focal range. Throw in the inexpensive 50mm f/1.8 for that standard focal length as well.

Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VRII

This lens is just another version of the same kind of lens as the first two. These kinds of lenses are designed with a wide focal length range to make them appealing to the widest range of photographers, but they don’t do anything well.

What To Look For When Choosing A Lens For Your D5600

Some lenses are just better suited for some cameras and while all Nikon F-mount lenses would fit onto the D5600, there are some things you should consider before choosing one.

For more recommendations, check out my guide to the best Nikon lenses.

Autofocus Compatibility

The D5600 does not have a focus motor drive, so if you have a lens that requires one, the autofocus will not work. You can still use the lens in manual focus mode, but that can make things very difficult.

All of the Nikon F-mount lenses made in recent years have the autofocus motor built into the lens. This makes for faster focusing and typically quieter focusing as well.

However, if you have an older Nikon lens, the easiest way to determine whether it is compatible with your D5600 is to check this Nikon lens compatibility chart. The D5600 has full compatibility with AF-S, AF-P, and E lenses. But AF-D lenses will not have autofocus and AI lenses will not have autofocus nor light metering.

Maximum Aperture

If you’re currently using one of the kit lenses that came with the D5600 then the biggest impediment to your photography may be that those lenses do not have a wide maximum aperture. This can hinder your ability to use depth of field in your photography.

So when you’re looking for an upgrade for your D5600, go for a lens with a wide maximum aperture like the 35mm f/1.8 or 50mm f/1.8 above.

Specialization

While kit lenses do usually over a wide focal length range, the lack of a wide aperture and lower image quality often offset any benefits that range gives you.

Instead, look to fill your bag with lenses that do one thing really well. You can use f/1.8 primes for portrait photography, sharp wide angle zooms for landscape photography, and macro lenses for…well…macro photography, obviously.

Taking this specialization approach is a much more effective way to build your collection of lenses instead of overpaying for a lower quality lens that is trying to do everything.

Frequently Asked Questions