What Length do you Landscapers Shoot at?

[Craggles]

Gday all.

To all you landscapers out there (I'm talking to you Steve Mac), where do you normally shoot? 10mm, 17mm?

I'm tossing up between the 8-16 Sigma or the Canon 10-22 at the moment, I think the extra length on the Canon might be useful at times but I'm buying the lens primarily for landscapes and wondering if I really want those extra 2mm at the wide end or will 10mm be more then enough because ill be shooting at 12mm all the time. Hopefully that makes some sort of sense.

[Tannin]

I advise having it plenty wide, because 50%+ pf your UWA shots wind up being at 10mm. THat's a vote for the Sigma. 8mm? Wow!

I advise having some overlap, just for the sake of lens-swap sanity, and a decent range so that you can be more creative and productive. That's a vote for the 10-22.

[Wayne]

I have the Nikkor 17-35/2.8 and find on both the D3 and D700, both FF obviously, it is plenty wide and more often than not shoot somewhere in the 20-28mm range for landscapes.

[Craggles]

I advise having it plenty wide, because 50%+ pf your UWA shots wind up being at 10mm. THat's a vote for the Sigma. 8mm? Wow!

I advise having some overlap, just for the sake of lens-swap sanity, and a decent range so that you can be more creative and productive. That's a vote for the 10-22.

lol that helps... not :P

[kwokask]

I have a 17-40L on my 5D - I tend to shoot at about 20-24mm range.

[gcflora]

I used some EXIF analysis tool thing a few weeks ago, and this year my most common focal length for landscapes is 22mm (on a full frame, so about 13.75mm equivalent on the 50D), followed by 16mm[1]-17mm (about equal) and 100mm, with small quantities of other focal lengths between and up to 400mm!

Anyway, regarding the 10-22 on your 50D... If it were me I'd go the 10-22mm

[1]16mm = 10mm on the 50D

[ricktas]

I generally shoot at 17mm on full frame (around 12mm equiv on crop), cause that is the widest FF lens I have. On the D200 I generally use the Sigma 10-20 and its often at about 12-14mm cause stacked filters are visible in the frame at 10mm.

[DAdeGroot]

Well it depends on the landscape. I've shot them at everything from 17mm to 400mm on a full-frame, or 10mm to 280mm on a crop.

But yes, the bulk are in the 17-24mm range on FF.

[Analog6]

You do want the wide angle (I use 16-35 on full frame) but you also, as Dave said, want telephoto as well. Totally dependent on the situation.

[Xebadir]

Use a crop sensor on the D300...so generally I am shooting with the Sigma 10-20. Spend most of my time at 12-20 though (effective 18-30) unless I am trying to do something trippy, or not using filters...generally for the reasons stated by Rick above.

[Travelm8]

I love the Tokina 11-16 and primarily take landscapes , off to Cambodia next week and am only taking this and my 18-200. I have been a bit of a lens junky but am documenting all the lenses and settings I use, nearly always comes back to these 2 (the tokina actually gets the biggest workout).

cheers
John

[swifty]

I use to own a 10-20 Sigma and almost everything was at 10mm (cropped sensor) or 15mm full frame equivalent. But then I got tired of the look.
I now only have a 14-24mm on a cropped sensor camera and everything is quite evenly spread between the two extremes.
14mm on DX is still 21mm full frame equivalent and I find that plenty wide. And now 24mm becomes a nice 36mm full frame equiv and is nice for street except for the bulk of the lens.
10-22 = wide enough and versatile. 8mm is extremely wide and that 2mm shouldn't be underestimated but only if u like the look. Personally I don't like that degree of distortion.

[wideangle]

Generally anywhere between 16-40mm in full-frame terms, and more often at the 16mm end. There are times though when a landscape works well with a longer focal length such as 50mm to "compress" the scene and make mountains and the like more dramatic and stand out. Sometimes even a telephoto lens is great for landscape photography.

[ving]

Well it depends on the landscape. I've shot them at everything from 17mm to 400mm on a full-frame, or 10mm to 280mm on a crop.

But yes, the bulk are in the 17-24mm range on FF.+1 on that.... i have done landscapes up to 500mm :/

[Philr]

It can vary depending on the subject and location. I have used anywhere between 16 - 400mm. Generally though my 16-35 is always on one body as that is what I use most. The wider the better in general.

[Craggles]

Thanks for the insight all. I'm definitely leaning towards the Canon, while the 8-16 would give me that very wide option I just dont think I'd use it, I could see myself more often then being lazy and using the longer end of the Canon because I couldnt be stuffed switching lenses.

[RRRoger]

Most of the time I shoot with a lightweight general purpose lens such as Nikkor 18-200 on a DX body or Sigma 28-300 on a 5D2. These are very good for hiking.
My favorite is the Nikkor 14-24 on a D3. I wish I could afford a D3X to use it on.

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day Craggles

I'm a bit like Dave above - I shoot landscapes at anything & everything above 200mm (FF equiv) ... I like the perspective change one gets from shooting "long"; the hills running into the haze, etc etc

So to answer you - yes I shoot (35mm equiv) from 200mmm to 560mm (APS crop = 150 to 400 or thereabouts)

Regards, phil

[Redgum]

What happened to the good old days when you walked backward and forward to frame a subject? The lens size didn't really matter.
Having said that I use my 14-24FX lens quite often for projects from landscape to wild animals and it's perspective is absolutely spectacular.

[ozwebfx]

+1 for the canon lens, I have it & love it .. I think 10mm is as wide as you want to go in 99% of cases.

[Xenedis]

To all you landscapers out there (I'm talking to you Steve Mac), where do you normally shoot? 10mm, 17mm?

I shoot a lot of 'scapes, and I'd estimate I shoot at 16mm (full-frame) a good 98% of the time.

I personally like a wide vista. I occasionally shoot at 35mm, but not often.

Edit: I'd be interested in the Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM if there was a way to use my Lee creative filter system with it. I chose the 16-35/2.8L II because I considered it a more versatile lens, but 14mm would be nice.