Beginner Advice on the best lens for landscape

lukeyboy2606

lukeyboy2606

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Hi all,

I am hoping someone could advise on a good lens for taking landscape pictures. I absolutely love some of the amazing pictures on here when you can see far and wide!
I have a budget of about £200-£300.
Hoping to have some fun learning with these types of pictures!

Thanks for any help!
 
lukeyboy2606 said:
Hi all,

I am hoping someone could advise on a good lens for taking landscape pictures. I absolutely love some of the amazing pictures on here when you can see far and wide!
I have a budget of about £200-£300.
Hoping to have some fun learning with these types of pictures!

Thanks for any help!
Click to expand...

Btw - I have a Canon 60D
 
You can use any lens for landscape - from ultra wide angle to get the whole vista with maximum depth up to telephoto to isolate subjects and compress depth of field.
For ultra wide angle The Sigma 10-20 or better still the Tokina 11-16 is hard to beat though.
 
The best starting point for landscapes is a normal lens which is around 45 mm full frame or 28 mm crop sensor (I don't know which a 60D is). These will give you an image close to what a human eye sees.

A lot of advice is to use a very wide angle lens but these are very difficult to use effectively. The tendency is to end up with an 'empty' image with all the interest in the distance.

My own preference is a 90 mm lens on a crop sensor which brings detail forward and fills the frame with interest.
 
When something's very close to you, it looks bigger than when it's far away. Putting it in a less obvious form, relative sizes are determined by relative distances, and are controlled by your camera position. Distance controls the perspective and how a scene appears; the focal length of the lens controls the angle of view.

Use an extreme wide angle, and you go in close and nearby objects become larger in the frame.

If you start with the lens, you've already effectively ruled out a lot of ways of composiing the scene. Better to decide why you want to photograph it, what the best position is to achieve the effect you want, and only then choose the lens. For what it's worth, most of my landscapes are made with the standard focal length for the format; my next most common focal length is slightly longer. Wide angles don't get much of a look in, But this is down to the way I see; others see things differently.

If you want to copy what seems to be the current fad, you probably need a wide angle. But better (in my opinion) to look carefully and decide how you want to portray the landscape. Take a look at some photographs and crop them down to see how the mood can be changed by simple elimination (such as would be achieved with a longer lens). Then work out how you "see" things, and how you want to make them appear to others.
 
" a good lens for taking landscape pictures" Well how long is that piece of string?

Sorry I don't mean to be flippant, but it is really down to what you are after. For example I find my 16-35 to be great for landscapes on full frame (equivalent to 10-22 on your camera) but my 800mm is good too! Yes I do occasionally use this lens for landscapes:
http://www.canon.co.uk/lenses/ef-800mm-f-5-6l-is-usm-lens/

The best starting point is whatever you already have as there are no rules with focal length for landscapes - it is all down to what you personally are after. If you already have the "Kit" lens (18-55), or similar, then that is a great place to start. Get out and shoot and then see if your current lenses are limiting you. You may want shorter, you may want longer, you may want higher quality or you may be quite happy with what you have? Only after trying out what you have for a while will tell you.

Go and play, have some fun and then think about whether new gear is needed = cheaper in the long run as you won't buy lenses you don't need like I did!
 
johnf3f said:
"Get out and shoot and then see if your current lenses are limiting you. You may want shorter, you may want longer, you may want higher quality or you may be quite happy with what you have? Only after trying out what you have for a while will tell you.

Go and play, have some fun and then think about whether new gear is needed = cheaper in the long run as you won't buy lenses you don't need like I did!
Click to expand...
Great advice.
 
Some people use normal lens and make a panorama - I have been meaning to try this but haven't yet - a possible idea for you to try.
 
johnf3f said:
The best starting point is whatever you already have as there are no rules with focal length for landscapes - it is all down to what you personally are after. If you already have the "Kit" lens (18-55), or similar, then that is a great place to start. Get out and shoot and then see if your current lenses are limiting you. You may want shorter, you may want longer, you may want higher quality or you may be quite happy with what you have? Only after trying out what you have for a while will tell you.
Click to expand...
As said. It's personal. Only you can find out what works for you. My most used landscape lens has always been an 85mm (on 'full-frame') and I've had work chosen for exhibition taken with it. It's not about painting by numbers, it's about what your gut instincts tell you.
 
I presume you have a lens of some-sort for your camera?
If so.... I recommend that one!!!
Go take photo's. Learn to recognise what makes them interesting, or far more often not.
When you get to a point you can hand on heart say that the camera/lens is stopping you get what you want to, not your imagination, know-how or skill with it, THEN you might be in a place to start looking for gear that will 'help' you do the job you want, and probably what that 'helpful' gear will most likely be.. and how you cant afford it! but that last one's just 'life'!
spend more time looking through the camera than at the camera, that's where the photo's are, not in the gadget bag!
 
Hope these information will help you in choosing your required lens.
  • The Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II lens is a great lens if you shoot Canon. Again, it covers a range from wide to standard and has a nice wide aperture for photographing other subjects too.
  • The Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens doesn’t have any zoom, but it’s budget friendly and snaps solid images. It’s got that wide aperture to use for other subjects too.
  • The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens is just a little over $100, but captures some pretty sharp shots. Again, there’s no zoom, but that’s how you get a price so low with an f/1.8 aperture.
 
Remember, you don't always need a wide lens for landscapes. You can do several shots and stitch them together in post - depending on what you're trying to achieve obviously.
 
Have you considered something like a 17-35mm, I bought one once used for about £150, which leaves more spending cash for other stuff or filters etc.
 
I would have to agree with @JulesP. I have the Sigma 10-20mm second hand £120 ish. Great starter lens.
 
Tamar Photography said:
Have you considered something like a 17-35mm, I bought one once used for about £150, which leaves more spending cash for other stuff or filters etc.
Click to expand...

Not much point, it's a crop body so may as well get a crop lens with more useful focal range.

I'll be honest, I have a bit of a pet hate of ultra wide angle lenses as they are so difficult to use effectively and most of the shots I see are very formulaic. Also, the focal length depends so much on the scene that having "a landscape lens" is rather meaningless.

My preferred method (since Lightroom made it so easy) is stitching normal-tele shots:

HK from the Peak by Ned Awty, on Flickr

Grand Canyon by Ned Awty, on Flickr

Bluebells Pano-stitch by Ned Awty, on Flickr
 
Great shots, this is a conversation I was part of in another forum and the advice was very similar. Wide lenses can be difficult to work with and actually make your landscapes seem less epic.
 
Nawty said:
Not much point, it's a crop body so may as well get a crop lens with more useful focal range.

I'll be honest, I have a bit of a pet hate of ultra wide angle lenses as they are so difficult to use effectively and most of the shots I see are very formulaic. Also, the focal length depends so much on the scene that having "a landscape lens" is rather meaningless.

My preferred method (since Lightroom made it so easy) is stitching normal-tele shots:

HK from the Peak by Ned Awty, on Flickr

Grand Canyon by Ned Awty, on Flickr

Bluebells Pano-stitch by Ned Awty, on Flickr
Click to expand...

They are very nice! I'm not familiar with stitching shots, but will take a look. Thanks!
 
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