Qualities to look for in a good landscape lens?

[brodie_thomson]

<p>I do apologise if this is in the wrong part of the forum, but i thought it's not really a beginner question, it's more just an annoying 'casual' question. Anyway I have just gotten my macro gear sorted and i'm starting to think about getting a reasonably nice lens for landscapes. I'm wondering what qualities is there to look for in a landscape lens? for example if its a zoom or a prime, and the quality of the glass, but i'm not really sure what else. I'm also wondering what lenses you would reccomend? I have a Nikon d60, but thats irrelevant because i would probably go for a trusted third party lens e.g sigma. I would probably only be wanting to spend around the 500-600 USD mark. And one more question sorry, is there any other equipment needed in landscape photography apart from a tripod? I really haven't done any serious landscape photography but would like to start . Thanks in advance, sorry about all the questions.</p>

[charles_stobbs3]

IMHO, lens speed is not as important as image sharpness. I would suggest the best prime lens you can afford, not a zoom.

[kari v]

<p>Cable/remote release is always good. It's a bit funny to use a sturdy tripod and then push the setup with your finger. Besides, it makes you look pro. ;)</p>

<p>Any lens can be a "landscape lens". Ultrawides are often discussed but sometimes it's telephoto or even normal lens you really want. But I'm gessing you're after ultrawide, right?</p>

<p>With aps-c sensor camera you're limited to zooms, any quality UWA prime that stays wide on D60 will cost you arm and a leg.<br>

Take a look at Sigma 10-20/4-5.6. Starts at 10mm, about cheapest there is ($480) and quality's good.<br>

Wide open performance or wide aperture are not really needed in landscape work but if you happen to want an UWA lens for low light handheld shooting too check out Tokina 11-16/2.8. More limited range, more expensive but constant fast aperture and very good quality. $600 at B&H.<br>

(With practice you can handhold pretty well even at ~1/15s and sometimes it's nice to have some near subject separation with an UWA lens, gives a look you don't often see.)</p>

 

[tobey_bilek]

<p>trusted third party lens e.g sigma. Really you trust them ? My opinion only, but I have read too much here over the years and I know what my local shop owner says.</p>

<p>Most Nikkor micros perform ok at infinity, so don`t put them away. Third party, you test. </p>

<p>The kit lens that came with the camera, 18/55, will do ok at f 8. That is what you need for landscape.</p>

<p>10/24 Nikkor if you want wide, 55/200 VR is a terrific lens for the money.</p>

<p>I will tell you ultra wides arefar less useful than you imagine. If you look at Ansel Adams work, you will see he did not own , in fact none were made, ultra wide lenses. He had a 90 for 4x5 which is about a 24 in 35 mm terms, 16 in DX Nikon terms. I saw one picture made with it. The most useful lens range is the 18/70 on DX for landscape.</p>

<p>Landscape is all about timing and season and weather. This is usually not nice sunny day photowork 9 to 3 PM. You get out of bed at 4 when the fog is low, you schedule trips when the leaves change color, you hurry to the frozen water before everyone else makes foot prints in the new snow. <br>

Any Nikkor lens lens ever made except some fisheyes that need a mirror lock up will mount and take pictures on a D60. They may not meter or auto focus, but who cares for landscape. The chipped AF lenses will meter, but not AF except for the new 50 1.4 and 35 1.8 which is a terrific lens and is standard nornal for DX. Buy a meter with the savings from the first lens. You don`t need a meter for sunlight pics anyway.</p>

<p>Buy a good tripod or none at all. Flimsey cheap ones are worse than none at all. If you bother with a tripod, bother with the electric IR release so you don`t shake the camera.</p>

<p>My most useful kit is 35,50, 105 on FX That is 24 35 70 on a D60</p>

<p>Good luck in your endeavor. </p>

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[vrankin]

<p>I would mention the importance of edge sharpness and correction of chromatic aberration (purple fringing). These two problems can be spoilers in a landscape photo with high contrast edges. I suspect that the best glass is corrected for these two problems. Others who post here can probably recommend their favorite landscape lenses. I recommend staying away from the cheaper third party lenses. I bought a few and they all had these problems I've mentioned.</p>

[Matthew Brennan]

<p>Brodie,</p>

<p>Look for a lens with corner to corner sharpness and no vignetting / light fall off as you want all the detail in every part of the frame to be sharply defined and evenly illuminated.</p>

<p>Another consideration is flare and ghosting control. With landscape photography you are likely to be shooting into the sun and brightly backlit scenes from time to time. Unless you like lens flares it's important to choose a lens which controls flares and ghosts tightly.</p>

<p>As for focal length, don't get trapped by the super wide lenses (Like 10mm - 14mm) until you understand how difficult it is to control composition all of the elements / subject matter inside the vast frame coverage of a super wide focal length. Sometimes a great photograph is made so because of what is left out of the frame rather than what is left inside the frame. With more modest focal lengths like 24mm to 35mm it is easier to get all the composition inside the frame 'just so'.</p>

<p>You have a tri-pod - a great assest for landsape photography, don't fall into the habit of just shooting handheld - use the tripod when you are able to do s0 - no lens will work if the camera body is not stable. After you become proficient with composition and exposure you might wish to consider the addition of a polarising filter and some ND grad filters to your landscape kit.</p>

<p>If you want a specific lens to consider then perhaps the AF-S 16-85mm VR Nikkor may suit you for your intended purposes and budget?</p>

<p>Best wishes for your forays into landscape photography!</p>

[luis_g]

<p> The 18-55 kit lens on a tripod at f/6.3-9 makes a great landscape lens. From there, adding a 55-200 would be a good complement. For a single lens on a DX body, I'd go with 16-85.</p>

[mark_schafer1]

<p>I suggest looking at Tilt shift lenses. Like this you can keep your camera perpendicular to the ground and choose any ratio of sky to landscape. And regarding angles/focal length: it's hard to argue for one or the other, they all do different things to the scene in front of you, but i personally like normal angles (I guess my purist approach comes through...).<br>

And regarding additional equipment i suggest a Pola filter and maybe a Neutral 0.6 gradient filter that can slide up and down (Cokin, Lee).<br>

And please don't go overboard with equipment, a simple approach lets you concentrate on the beauty around you, versus getting caught up in equipment tangles.<br>

Also i want to mention Amsel Adams Book "Examples-The making of 40 Photographs", pretty much the best read and practical book on the subject, along with my all time favorites by AA: The Camera, The Negative, The Print...Happy shooting, Mark</p>

[colin carron]

<p>I suggest the Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 EX DC HSM. It is quite slow but as a result a bit less expensive than the other options. It scores reasonably well on Fredmirandas website and gets quite a good review on Photozone :</p>

<p><a href="http://www.photozone.de/nikon--nikkor-aps-c-lens-tests/316-sigma-af-18-50mm-f35-56-dc-nikon-mount-lab-test-report--review">http://www.photozone.de/nikon--nikkor-aps-c-lens-tests/316-sigma-af-18-50mm-f35-56-dc-nikon-mount-lab-test-report--review</a></p>

<p>As with all ulrawides the perspective can take a bit of getting used to and the key points for landscape are :</p>

<p>1) keep the camera as level as possible unless convergence is part of the shot.<br />2) fill the foreground<br>

3) stop down a bit from max aperture to get best sharpness - around f5.6 to f11 is usualy the best region</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>My 2¢</p>

<p>The "perspective-control" lenses, now with tilts, direct from Las Vegas, are wonderful lenses, but they are sort-of overkill for scenic photography. You will usually be a long way from the majority of the subject matter, so shifting and tilting are simply not needed in the normal course of things. Depth of field will be huge in real terms (so not much use for <em>tilts</em> ), and even if you were real close to the mountain, tilting the back of the camera up to get the top in is not going to be much of a problem in the absence of straight lines (so no <em>shift</em> is needed).</p>

<p>Almost by definition, a "landscape" view is a horizontally oriented picture (in print dialogs and the like, horizontal is often called "landscape" and a vertical view is called "portrait"). Most often, when people think of landscapes, they are thinking of a scenic view with a broad vista. This, more-often-than-not, also means a wide-angle lens. But if you are photographing the Rockies from Denver, even a normal length lens can serve, and if you're still farther away, on occasion, a telephoto.</p>

<p>Tripod, maybe not so important for this application unless you are shooting in low light. When a tripod is needed, people are right that a remote release makes sense. If you have interchangeable viewer screens in your camera, some people like the ones that display a grid -- it helps keep the horizon straight. While this "rectification" can be done in post processing, you will lose a little of your image in doing so.</p>

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[aurel1]

<p>I'd suggest getting a Nikkor 50mm 1.8 until you know what else you want and why - from experience rather than from something somebody else has written. The 50/1.8 is a cheap, quality lens.<br>

Same thing with regard to the tripod. A cheap, light, reasonably tall tripod with a quick release is a fine way to start. Depending on what you prefer for your landscape photography it may be all you ever trust yourself with. Climbing/falling down the side of a cliff with a fifty pound, $400 tripod will be a very unpleasant experience. You can weigh down your tripod with your backpack and have a nice platform to work with. A remote shutter release is very helpful, but wired or wireless makes no difference.</p>

[charles_stobbs3]

A delayed action timer on the shutter will work almost as well as a cable release to trip it when the camera is steady.

[jpo3136b]

<p>If you do this in black and white, I suggest a set of contrast filters. </p>

<p>A wide angle lens and an extreme wide angle lens can be very useful. Really, almost any lens can be useful. Telephotos can help you exclude unwanted parts. 50mm normal lenses (135) are always good. The fast-ness of the lens is not really as important, since many of the setups are deliberate; the widest available aperture is more of an investment in being able to tackle other subjects with a given lens. f/4 is fine for most work anyway. A more specialized application, like wedding work, would probably bring the widest aperture to the forefront. Irrelevant in landscape because of the frequent use of the tripod. </p>

<p>I like to make a lot of pictures outside, I use a little something of everything. My core lenses (645 in 35mm, 80-160mm zoom) are pretty close to the old fashioned 35/50/135 kits. Every so often, I'll also tote along another "variety" or specialty lens; macros, bellows, a prime telephoto; something to jazz it up a little. </p>

<p>Handheld spotmeter is a favorite accessory of mine. I like it for outdoor work a lot.</p>

[Paul Lewis1664881697]

<p>If you plan on shooting anything with straight lines (architecture, interior shots, etc.), absolutely get a bubble level. It's the best $20 I've spent in photography.</p>

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[sandysocks]

<p>You get what you pay for. Beyond this, zooms, especially cheaper ones, come with a lot of problems. The kit lens recommended above has a lot of distortion for goofy horizons and is pathetic stopped down at the widest setting. Some macros do not do well near infinity. Hard to go wrong with most primes though.</p>

[dbcooper]

<p>"I'm wondering what qualities is there to look for in a landscape lens?"<br /> IMO, sharpness, lack of distortion, and a non-weird filter thread size.</p>

<p>"I'm also wondering what lenses you would reccomend?"<br /> You'd be surprised what inexpensive lenses (e.g. 'kit lenses') can do when stopped down.</p>

<p>"And one more question sorry, is there any other equipment needed in landscape photography apart from a tripod?"<br /> As mentioned, a shutter release and a bubble level. A good polarizing filter is important, and graduated ND filters if you like to shoot sunrises or sunsets. Also, you'll need a good alarm clock, because you'll be getting up pretty early to catch good warm early morning light, morning mist/fog, sunrises, etc. A flashlight or banded headlamp will be useful setting up or breaking down your gear in the dark (before sunrise and after sunset).</p>

<p>To get an idea what focal length lens you might use, look at the landscape gallery pics here at photo.net, and see what focal length lenses were used for the pics you like.</p>

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[rossb]

<p>Wide angle lenses are probably the most popular type for landscapes. However landscapes can be taken with any focal length depending on what you want to capture. Also with digital it is very popular to stitch shots together for panoramic photos. So basically there is no one single lens to recommend. But if you wanted a wide angle the Tokina 12-24 AFS f4.0 zoom for about $500.00 would be great. I am not an expert on stitching but I have done a few and the wide angle lens is not the way to go because the converging lines will not line up. I use a 50mm focal length when doing that. But like I said I am not expert on it but I have achieved some nice results using the 50mm f1.8 lens.<br>

Camera, Tripod and a lens goes pretty far. I also use a Polarizer filter which is of not much use on anything wider than about 28mm because of patchy sky (effect is not even). I also use a 2 stop ND graduated filter frequently which does not mind a wide angle lens at all. A 2 sto ND filter also helps to slow shutter speeds down. Very helpful if you want water to show movement. Usually a shutter speed of 1/15th second or slower will be pretty nice. In the absence of a tripod just a sandbag works great to prop the camera from a post or rock etc.</p>