Good landscape lens

[ccommins]

<p>I  want to add a good landscape lens to my equipment.  I have a Nikon D80,  the lens I use now is a Nikon 28-80.   Any suggestions.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Well... that sort of depends on what kinds of landscape shooting you like to do. Do you find the 28-80 to be not wide enough? Or... not long enough?</p>

[Matthew Brennan]

<p>Carol,</p>

<p>My suggestion for your D80 is the Nikkor 12-24mm f/4 DX AF-S lens. I used it on a D70, D200 and D300 and was impressed with it's IQ and reproduction. At 12mm it exhibits a degree of barrel perspective distortion which is clearly visible in exposures of close up subjects but is negligable in more distant, broader, sweeping panoramic landscape vistas. At the end of my use of this lens I tended to shoot at 14mm -16mm a lot and did not often go wider than 14mm. It is quite light weight despite it's size compared to my current 17-35mm AF-S and focuses <em>very</em> close to a given subject allowing you to capture close ups of a subject - showing it off in it's broad surrounds.</p>

<p>There are also third party wide angle zooms made Tamron and Sigma and Tokina which are less expensive than the Nikkor descibed above. The Nikkor 12-24mm DX was the first independant lens purchase I made (as my 18-70mm was a kit lens) - this lens proved to be most reliable and a joy to use over 4+ years and set me on a path of purchasing nearly exclusively Nikkor lenses only. I only sold my 12-24mm as I have changed to FX format. I have noted that the price of this lens has fallen considerably since I purchased it in 2004/05 and there are more second hand copies becoming avail. on internet auction sites and in camera stores in the past 12 months.</p>

[ronald_moravec1]

<p>You can stitch panoramas or use a wider lens. You can pick up a tele for some work.</p>

<p>My opinion is there is not much that can`t be done with a 28/80. I go nuts when people think they need every lens in the book. Wonderful landscapes can be done with a standard lens, not even a zoom. I did it when I was in college before there were zooms. Ansel Adams had no very wide or very long lenses, but he knew how to be at the right place at the right time which is what it is all about. You need to study your subject and know when the light is going to be what you need.</p>

<p>When wide lens is used, the picture elements get very small, the foreground and sky get large, two things you do not want. </p>

[carl_becker2]

<p>Any lens you want can be used for landscape. A wide angle is often suggested but tele's can also be used. It depends more on what the photographer has in mind. I don't have your lens but I suspect it can deliver pretty good results when stopped down. If you want to go wider and caryy just one lens then you might want to look at the Nikkor 16-85mm as a solution. There are some very good wide zooms available if you want to go wider with a two lens solution.</p>

[Peter_in_PA]

<p>With a great tripod, any lens can be a good lens for this.<br>

I'd get a 16-85.</p>

[jay_moynihan]

<p>Kind of depends on what king of pictures you want to make. How wide would you like to go?<br>

If i had the money, i would get the Nikkor AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8 D IF-ED. That would be my personal preference. in DX world that would be 25-70mm, similar to my current range, and the range i used to do in 4x5 and 6x7.<br>

I use three lenses landscape on my digital body for that (a D200) now.<br>

Mostly the 18-70mm. Since it is not used wide-open, the distortions at 18mm do not matter. At F-stops for landscape stuff, it is as good as the other zooms out there, short of the lense above, at least according to published, serious, tests.<br>

My second most used is a 35mm f/2 AF Nikkor. Normal perspective (which i do like), and sharp and good tonalities.<br>

Third, on occasion, my old 55mm f/3.5 Micro (that i had ai converted).<br />I also use a TLR in 6x6 format for b&W, which has essentially, a "normal perspective" fixed lense.<br>

Again, depends on the pictures you want to make.</p>

[jay_moynihan]

<p>Sorry, in my post above,<br>

"...in DX world that would be 25-70mm..."<br>

Should be "... in DX world that would be 25-52mm..."</p>

[rossb]

<p>I am going to go to Yosemite this Friday and will take a Tokina 12-24mm f4 lens with a polarizer and a 2 stop ND grad. Also a tripod, a flash to light up the foreground on a shot or two. I will also take 2 other lenses, giving me an adequate range. But the chances are I will not remove the tokina all day. I love the focal length. The lens is very sharp and nice at all focal lengths and f/stops. A good polarizer for the 77mm filter will cost you a fair amount of money. I find it shocking but I forked it over. I use the polarizer on the lens when my concern is reduction of reflection. I think the Nikon slim polarizer II is the best model on the market. It will also allow the use of your lens cap which other slim models do not. It does not vignett with the Tokina lens, D200 combo..I guess that is more then you asked for, but good luck on your selection.</p>

[vrankin]

<p>The 28-80 is capable for much, but maybe not all landscape work. Your vantage point and composition are just as important as is your choice of lens. </p>

[oskar_ojala]

<p>As said, you first need to know what kind of focal length you want. Many landscape photographers want a longer lens, other want a short one.</p>

[kohanmike]

<p>I put a vote for the Tokina 12-24, I think it is just as good as the more expensive Nikkor. I just heard that the engineers at Tokina originally came from Nikon.</p>

[ccommins]

Thank you everyone for your help. I will have to think about it for awhile. I didn' think they would be so expensive I usually don't have a problem with the cost of a good lens, but today is the first day of my retirement.

[lightsmith1]

<p>Landscape images are typically taken with lenses in the 24-35mm range with film/FX cameras, which translates to 17-24mm with a DX camera.Many zooms cover this focal length range.<br>

With zoom lens the smaller the multiplier or zoom range the better. A 17-35mm f2.8 with its 2x zoom range (worth the effort to find a used one) will be better than a 3x 17-55mm zoom, and much better than a 16-85mm (85/16 = 5x zoom range).</p>

 

[jose_perez3]

<p >From experience I can recommend the Nikon 12-24mm f/4 AF-S DX lens. It was my main landscape lens that I used on my D80. This was one of my favorite lenses. I have a D700 now and am looking to buy a full frame version of this lens. As a side note: The Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X came out after the Nikon 12-24mm and some say it is sharper. But looking at the posted photos I cannot really tell. But the Tokina lens is hundreds of dollars less expensive. I am attaching a photo taken with the Nikon 12-24mm. To give you an idea of how wide this lens can take photos, notice the how small the people are next to this rocket (left lower third of the photo).</p><div></div>

[ccommins]

Thank you Bruce and Jose,

Now you have me thinking. I just might reconsider my decision. Jose, that photo is very impressive.

[mihai_alexandru]

<p>You could go with a lot of things . If you can't afford the nikon 12-24 f/4 you can go for the tokina 12-24 f/4 . i have it and i'm very glad of it . it 's almost half the price . regards , alex</p>