Kit lenses have a bad reputation. The Panasonic Lumix S 20-60mm F3.5-5.6 is one of the few that deserves a better one. It ships with the Lumix S5II and S9 and sells on its own for about $600, and its trick is the same one that makes Sony’s 20-70mm f/4 popular: it starts at 20mm.

That wider start makes it far more useful for vlogging at arm’s length, interiors, and travel shooting in tight streets. Most kit zooms start at 24mm or 28mm.

For years the Lumix pitch came with an asterisk. Great video, great color, great stabilization… and autofocus that pulsed and hunted. The Panasonic Lumix S5II, launched in early 2023, removed the asterisk. It was the first Lumix with phase-detection autofocus, and it turned Panasonic’s full-frame line into a real option for people who don’t want to babysit their focus.

That one change made the S5II one of the best-value full-frame cameras of the last five years. It launched at about $2,000, below the Canon R6 II and Sony A7 IV, and street prices have only come down since.

The Panasonic Lumix S9 is a full-frame camera that doesn’t look like one. It’s small, flat and colorful, with no viewfinder and a rear screen that flips around. Panasonic launched it in May 2024 at $1,499 for the body, aiming it at people who shoot social content on phones and want full-frame quality without full-frame bulk.

It takes the 24.2MP full-frame sensor and phase-detect autofocus from the excellent Lumix S5II, then strips the body down to about 486 grams with battery and card.

A zoom that opens to f/2 at 35mm and stays at f/2.8 all the way to 150mm sounds like something you’d build out of several lenses. The Samyang AF 35-150mm F2-2.8 FE, from South Korea’s Samyang (now LK Samyang), does it in one. It launched in April 2023 at $1,399 for Sony E-mount, with an L-Mount version following later.

For wedding and portrait photographers, that range is magic. 35mm for the getting-ready shots, 50mm and 85mm for portraits, 135mm and 150mm for the ceremony. All at apertures that blur backgrounds and handle low light.

The Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary is the lens to buy after the kit lens. It covers the same range as most APS-C kit zooms, roughly 27-75mm in full-frame terms, and it does it at a constant f/2.8. That’s up to two stops more light than a typical f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom at the long end, in a lens that weighs only about 290 grams.

Sigma launched it in 2021 for Sony E-mount and L-Mount. Fujifilm X-mount followed in 2023, and Canon RF-mount in 2024 when Canon opened its APS-C mount to Sigma. That makes it one of the few lenses you can buy for nearly every APS-C system covered on this site.

Sigma’s first mirrorless 24-70mm f/2.8 Art, from 2019, was sharp and good value, but its autofocus lagged behind Sony’s own G Master. The Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II Art, announced in May 2024 at $1,199, fixes that. New HLA linear motors make autofocus more than three times faster, Sigma says, and the lens gains an aperture ring and better close focus.

It’s available for Sony E-mount and L-Mount, the system Sigma shares with Panasonic and Leica.