Equipment, Reader Questions

Reader Questions: Landscape Lenses

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From time to time I get questions from readers, and I usually like to share the answers so that other might learn something, too.

Recently “Gregory” wrote:

I just read one of your articles on appropriate lenses to use for landscape photography. I’m a hobbyist photographer in California that has a passion for landscape photography. I sold my Canon equipment and will be purchasing some Nikon lenses and camera body. I wanted to get your input as to what the majority of landscape photographers use – prime lenses or zoom lenses? Based on my limited budget, here is what I am thinking of:

Option A — Primes: 20mm, 28mm, 50mm, 85mm
Option B — Zooms: 24-70mm, 70-200mm
Option C — Zooms: 16-35mm, 24-70mm

I don’t have the budget to purchase both a super wide zoom AND a telephoto. I’ll have to settle for one of these and then acquire an additional zoom later on. I’m thinking the primes maybe slightly sharper in the borders and lighter to carry, but what about the hassle of constantly switching lenses back and forth? Not sure I want to do this. I would appreciate any recommendations/suggestion you might have.

Before I reply here, let me share a couple of articles that I wrote about more or less this topic:

By the end of this article… I probably will not tell you which lenses to select! But perhaps I’ll help you consider factors that will assist in making a good personal decision that is right for your photography.

To a great extent, many of these decisions are personal and they come down to your own personal preferences and the ways in which you approach your subjects. Some people have reasons for preferring prime lenses, some have reasons for preferring zooms, and others have good reasons for wanting both. Some are comfortable working with a relatively narrow range of focal lengths, while other feel the need for a wider range. Some have a predilection for wide-angle lenses, while others are drawn to longer focal lengths. And this doesn’t even get into the questions about tilt/shift lenses and other variables.

I mention this for a couple of reasons. First, there are going to be people who disagree with my preferences — listen to their perspectives, too, and then use your own judgment. Second, consider your own preferences at least as much. For example, when it comes to a question such as the relative merits of wide-angle versus telephoto lenses for landscape photography… it is your preference that matters the most. People do excellent landscape photography with both. (If you don’t yet have a personal preference based on your experience shooting with different focal lengths, you may have just discovered a great reason to start with zooms.)

As for the zoom versus prime question, let me share my perspective on that, and acknowledge that others may disagree. I started photography at a time when zooms were essentially unavailable and for a long time I shot only with primes. Then for some time I used both. (I still do use both, but for different kinds of photography.)  But over time I found less and less reason to use primes for landscape photography, and I eventually moved completely to using zooms for this purpose. Yes, primes are smaller and lighter (though a set of primes rarely saves you much weight and bulk over a single zoom), they often provide larger maximum apertures (though most often you don’t need them for landscape), and they can provide somewhat better image quality (though this is less and less true, and at typical smaller landscape apertures there is often no significant difference.)

Today’s zooms provide exceptionally good image quality. I regularly make very large prints from photographs that I shoot with good zoom lenses. With the exception of those who sometimes use tilt/shift lenses, I rarely see other landscape photographers that I know shoot shoot with primes. As you allude to, primes are more complicated to use in the field, requiring more frequent lens changes (and increasing the opportunities for dust on your sensor). They are less flexible. With the primes you have no choice but to work with the focal lengths they provide, but with zooms you have much greater control over aspects of composition related to focal length. In addition, any image quality advantage that a prime has (which generally doesn’t amount to much these days) is negated or reversed if you have to crop your photograph to get the ideal composition.

So I’m pretty much completely a zoom lens shooter these days, at least when it comes to photographing landscapes. (I use primes for street photography and some similar things, where working fast and light can be more important than working carefully and slowly.)

As to your two zoom options, you basically are augmenting a mid-range zoom with either wide-angle or telephoto coverage. You are probably the person best equipped to know which fits your personal shooting preferences best. That said, there are a few things to consider. You could consider the combination of the ultra wide 16-35mm zoom, the 70-200mm telephoto zoom, and a light 50mm prime for occasions when you need something in between. Some backpacking photographers use exactly that setup, and it also does give you one low light large aperture lens. I also see that you mention a f/2.8 24-70mm lens. I’m not familiar with the Nikon lens lineup, but if you were a Canon landscape shooter I might urge you to instead think of one of the f/4 alternatives — either the 24-105mm IS  lens or the 24-70mm IS semi-macro f/4. These are fine lenses, they cost less, and they are either smaller and lighter or provide a bit more versatility.

If I were to consider a four lens prime-only setup, I’d consider a few variations on your list. Your list could work well, but you may find that you don’t need to have lenses that are so close together in focal length. (Or, if you do, you are perhaps even more of a candidate for zooms!) I’d consider replacing that 85mm focal length with something longer — either a 100mm or 105mm focal length or perhaps the venerable 135mm length. You could consider a 35mm lens rather than a 28mm, though that is a bit less clear.

When I talk to people who aren’t certain what focal lengths they want, or who are going with the lengths that someone else tells them they should get rather than basing the decision on their own experience, I counsel them to start with a zoom (literally one zoom) and shoot it a lot to develop a good sense of how the different focal lengths work and which they favor. In this way they either discover which focal lengths will be best if they still want primes… or they find out that the zoom really does a fine job after all. While doing this test, they also get a much better sense of whether they most miss having wider or longer focal lengths… which seems to be your fundamental question when it comes to the zoom options.

Finally, you did not mention whether you are shooting a cropped sensor or full frame camera body. This makes a significant difference in the angle of view coverage that you’ll get from these lenses. Basically, the options you list look like common choices for people shooting full frame cameras. If you are using a cropped sensor body the 1.5x (on Nikon) crop factor will give you the angle of view coverage of longer lenses — in other words, you’ll have less wide angle coverage and more long lens coverage with these focal lengths.

Gregory and others: Good luck with your lens decisions… and with your photography!

Also see:

Articles in the “reader questions” series:

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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