Choosing a Lens

How to Choose a Camera Lens

The Big Three Camera Lenses

The trilogy of zoom lenses that are popular with landscape photographers are (for full-frame): a 16-35mm wide-angle, a 24-70mm standard, and a 70-200mm telephoto. Those ranges vary somewhat by brand and, of course, APS-C cameras would have correspondingly shorter focal lengths. For the beginner, I feel these zooms should be your first lenses (starting with the standard zoom) and they will likely satisfy all your needs.

Buying Considerations

Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish

Optics have a relatively longer life-cycle than camera bodies. You can argue how much to spend on a camera because of obsolescence fears, but a good lens is likely to be around for many years before a significantly better model supersedes it. I recommend building a repertoire of high-quality lens over time rather than acquiring several lesser lenses at one time.

Consider the slow lane

While needs vary, I favor slower f/4 rather than f/2.8 zoom lenses. They maintain equivalent optical performance while being both lighter and less expensive. Since the bulk of my landscape photography is shot at small apertures for extended depth-of-field, a slower lens isn’t a limitation to me. In addition, slower lenses accommodate smaller filter sizes that are also lighter and considerably less expensive.

Don’t get a lemon

When you buy a new or used lens, I strongly advise that you give it at least a rudimentary test. Tape some newspapers on a wall and check for consistent sharpness from corner-to-corner. I often read lens test reports that complain about centering problems. In some cases, they have to test two lenses and average the results to get an overall performance rating. Furthermore, don’t think because you bought a “pro” lens that you are immune from such quality issues. I had an off-axis problem with one of my pro lenses that I didn’t detect until after the warranty expired — and it was an expensive repair!

Standard Zoom

For full-frame cameras, 24-70mm is the most popular range for standard zooms, though some extend a little further out, such as the Canon 24-105mm and Nikon 24-120mm zooms. Regardless which variant you choose, the standard zoom will likely be your most used lens. Comparable zooms for an APS-C camera are available in the 16-85mm range (approximately 25-130mm full-frame equivalent). I don’t recommend zoom lenses with a wider range such as super zooms (aka “all-in-one”) that extend from wide to 200mm and beyond. They are popular with APS-C camera kits; but in my opinion they stretch optical compromise too much, particularly at the long end.



Canon EF 24-70 f/4L Lens: This is the lens I use for the majority of my shots. Note that it’s f/4, but provides comparable performance with less weight and cost than it’s more popular f/2.8 version.

Wide-Angle Zoom

I primarily use a wide-angle lens not only to gulp in a lot of scenery, but also to emphasize close-up foreground subjects by exaggerating the perspective. They can be a bit tricky to use and you need to be careful about flare, uneven polarization when using a polarizer, and vignetting. For an APS-C sensor, a similar zoom range would be 10-22mm.

I recently upgraded my trusty old Canon EF17-40mm f/4L for Canon’s new mirrorless RF14-35mm f/4L zoom. The EF17-40mm is still an outstanding value for an L-Series lens, but the RF14-35mm is truly dazzling. It is optically superior and even with the extended wide-angle range, it still accommodates 77mm filters and doesn’t have any significant vignetting issues when using a square filter holder along with a UV protective filter.



Canon RF 14-35mm f/4L: Compared to its bigger RF 15-35mm f/2.8L sibling, It’s less expensive, over 0.6 pounds lighter, and uses smaller 77mm filters. It also has image stabilization.

Distortion

There is, however, one annoyance with this type of zoom and that is pronounced barrel distortion at the widest-angle. Normally, that isn’t an issue since most landscape scenes lack a visual reference, such as a building, to notice it. Still, it doesn’t take much of a visual cue to see that something is amiss, as illustrated in the photo below. Fortunately, Photoshop’s Adaptive Wide-Angle filter can fix the problem.



Wide-Angle Distortion: Shot at 17mm, the bench (circled red) is a telltale sign to an optical distortion problem. This can be fixed with Photoshop’s Adaptive Wide-Angle filter.

Telephoto Zoom

When I can’t adequately encompass a sweeping vista or I’m looking for a compressed perspective, I reach for my telephoto to “pick off” a piece of the scene instead. The full-frame 70-200mm zoom is a popular telephoto range for landscape photography. That translates to a 45-130mm range for APS-C cameras, except that range isn’t commonly supported. The closest matches are the Sigma 50-100mm F/1.8 DC HSM (75-150mm Nikon DX equivalent) and the Tamron 35-150mm f/2.8-4 Di VC OSD (53-225mm Nikon DX equivalent). You could opt for an “all-in-one” class lens (for example the Nikkor AF-S 18-200mm f/3.5), but now you sacrifice some image quality. Another option, and assuming you already have a 16-85mm standard zoom, is to add a full-frame 70-200mm zoom. The combination provides you with gapless coverage from 24mm to 310mm (full-frame equivalent).



Canon EF 70-200 f/4L: This is the lens I use. A great L-Series value at half the cost of Canon’s IS version. But with f/4 speed and no image stabilization, I wouldn’t recommend this lens for sports or wildlife photography.

Prime Lenses

If you need a really fast lens or low optical distortion, then a prime lens (fixed focal length) may be the only option. Personally, all the conveniences of using a zoom outweigh any small optical improvement with prime lenses. My exception is the need for a fast wide-angle prime for astrophotography that I’ll cover later in Chapter-9.

Tilt-Shift Lens

A variant of prime lenses is the tilt-shift lens that I’ll discuss more in Chapter-9. They provide the ability to greatly extend the depth-of-field. Tilt-shift lenses are expensive, but to a well-heeled photographer they are certainly worth considering and are used my many pros. A lesser-expensive option is to consider the tilt-shift lenses offered by the Korean optics company Samyang (aka Rokinon). The general consensus of reviewers is to expect competent optics, but not to the same level as Canon or Nikon. Also, don’t be confused by some lower-cost lenses that are shift only and lack the necessary tilt function for landscape photography.

Macro Lens

Another type of prime lens is the macro lens. Anyone with a passion for macro photography needs a dedicated macro lens. Focal lengths ranging from 90 to105mm are the most popular, providing good camera-to-subject working distance and also serving as an ideal portrait lens. If you want to first dabble with macro photography before investing in a macro lens, then consider either close-up lenses or extension tubes. Close-up lenses are the least expensive option and I had surprisingly good results with them. They typically come in a set of three diopters (magnifying power) of +1, +2, and +4. They screw on the lens like a filter, can be stacked to increase the diopter value, and they don’t affect the camera’s focusing or metering.



Macro Photography: Suggested macro accessories are a ring light, diffuser, reflector, and a Wimberley Plamp (to secure wind-sensitive subjects).