ideal landscape photography lens..?

[twistedclocks]

deleted by user.

[RichardTaylor]

What is your budget ($US or $AU)?
What lens do you have now?


Re 18-200mm & 50-200mm:
See the responses in this thread.
please help - whats the significant difference!?

[inkista]

Just a thought, but an 18-55 kit lens is a wide-angle lens capable of landscape photography. Going wider than that is looking for an ultrawide lens.

Technique-wise, you could also consider panorama stitching to cover a wider field of view.

[RichardTaylor]

inkista is correct.

If you want to go wider the Tokina 12-24 F4 is a reasonably priced OK lens (I own one for my Canon). However they start around $AU540, even on EBay.

[Elmo]

That 100mm comment applies to large format, 4x5 or larger. I know of no one who consistently uses that long a lens on any thing smaller..

[Shokinen]

Originally Posted by twistedclocks

every book i read says for landscape photography lens 100mm+ should be used :/.. will lenses up to and over 100mm provide more detail? is that why?? or are they required for zoom?
(i find lenses difficult to understand so i hope i dont say anything to stupid)

People tend to use wide angle for lanscape but it doesn't mean you absolutaly have to.

There is a very nice post on this site about this:
Why you Need a Telephoto Zoom Lens for Landscape Photography

And here is an example of my own, taken at 300mm


Don't worry for the concept behind lens. We all started somewhere. With time, you'll get to understand their differences. Based on your budget the 55-200 may be a nice addition. You'll get more reach in your kit. If you don't want to switch lens, the 18-200 may be a good choice for you but you will have to save a bit more.

Hope this help

[RichardTaylor]

Edit: This was being written at the same time of the posts above.

You can shoot landscapes with any lens you want. It all depends on the effect you want.
However some lenses are a lot more useful than others.

It depends on the camera format.

A "wideish" wide angle lens;
Some examples
10x8 (inches) film format ~180mm
5x4 ............................. ~ 90mm
35mm (= full frame digital) ~ 28mm
APS-C (~1.5 Crop Digital) ~ 18mm (your Nikon D3000)
Point & shoot digital ~ 6mm

Here are some examples from our 2008 vacation.(some pics will have been cropped)

(1) @35mm on a full frame camera (Canon 5D)


(2) @ 70mm on a 1.6 crop camera (Canon 40D)


(3) 6mm on a Canon P&S camera (pic taken by my wife)


(4) 24mm on a full frame camera (Canon 5D)


My Canon 5D "Standard Zoom" is 24-105mm.
That is just a bit wider and 25% longer than your kit lens.
It is good for 90% of my vacation pics (providing I am not shooting wildlife)

===============
Quote
"every book i read says for landscape photography lens 100mm+ should be used "
End quote.

That is true if you are using large format cameras. (=>5x4")

[inkista]

Originally Posted by twistedclocks

every book i read says for landscape photography lens 100mm+ should be used :/.. will lenses up to and over 100mm provide more detail? is that why?? or are they required for zoom?
(i find lenses difficult to understand so i hope i dont say anything to stupid)

No worries. We all feel that way in the beginning: it's a lot of information to absorb at once. I'd recommend starting with this primer on lenses, which describes lenses for dSLRs in practical shooting terms.

Lenses longer than 50mm are usually considered to be "telephoto." Telephoto lenses have a narrower field of view, and bring you "closer" to the subject. They also tend to be easier to make with higher optical quality than wide angle lenses, because light doesn't have to be bent up in and into the corners. Telephoto lenses tend to be sharper, exhibit less CA, and less distortion and vignetting than wider lenses. That's why some folks like to use them to shot stitched panoramas.

But they're not the usual choice for landscape photography, because of two factors: the narrow field of view, and the "compression" of perspective. With telephoto lenses, the space between objects feels reduced--like they're closer together. With wide angle lenses, the space between objects feels increased--which is why rearview mirrors that cover a very wide angle of view tell you that "objects may be closer than they appear."

With most landscape photography, people are trying to describe large vistas--they want to, if anything, exaggerate the space. So, wide angle lenses (roughly, those <~35mm) on full-frames and ultrawides (<~20mm) on crop bodies, are more commonly used for landscape. You'll note that the smaller the sensor, the shorter the lens you need.

You do want to pay attention to the "format" that's being shot when focal lengths are mentioned. Larger formats need longer lenses to achieve the same field of view.

I will also add that an 18-55 kit lens is probably the best low-cost landscape lens you can have. Stop that sucker down to f/8, learn to post-process, and it can do some nice things for you.


Canon 50D. EF-S 18-55 (non-IS) @18mm. f/8. 1/160s. Handheld.

[RichardTaylor]

Here is a very basic intro to lenses (written myself)

Flickr: Discussing (1) Intro: Lenses: in Richard_Taylor

[sk66]

Depends, If I a more moved by "taking it all in" then it's going to be a wide angle (colors etc)...if it's more impressive by scanning the view and seeing all of the details then a longer lens/stitched pano will be the choice...