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Old 15-08-2013, 05:40 PM
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iceman (Mike)
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Landscape lens for my wife

Take 2 on this thread

My wife has a Canon 5D (full frame) but only portrait style lenses (50mm and 100mm primes). She wants to start doing landscapes, so I'm after suggestions.

The obvious choice is the 17-40, but that's $750 new and $500+ second hand.

Are there any other reasonable zoom lenses that work on a FF camera?
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Old 15-08-2013, 05:53 PM
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I'll sell you a VERY little used 28-105 USM if that will suffice. I have used it on the 5D MkII with nil vignette.

Not exactly a landscape lens, but...
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Old 15-08-2013, 06:10 PM
adman (Adam)
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Hi mike, I have no experience with them, but what about something from sigma or tamron - or are you looking to stay with canon?

Adam
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Old 15-08-2013, 06:37 PM
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It can be Sigma or Tamron. Ideally I wanted to spend no more than $300-$400 at most.
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Old 15-08-2013, 08:02 PM
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Of course the best would be an 18-35ED, but if that's out if the price range, try looking at the Camera Exchange in Lonsdale st. Melb's website for a used fixed 18mm or equivalent.
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Old 15-08-2013, 09:09 PM
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What about a Samyang 14mm F2.8 - hang on a moment - you've got one of those. Why can't she borrow that one?

Some legacy lenses are good but manual focus.

I got a lovely Minolta Rokkor MD 50mm F1.4 with terrific bokeh. It was under $300. You need an adapter. Ebay has them. There was a thread on another site about bokeh and posting the best example and some of the absolute best of any lens were from the Rokkor 50mm F1.4 which is why I got one. It renders blues very nicely as well. Other lenses are a tad sharper but it has lovely rendering, quite unique.

Nikon 28mm F2.8 AIS is common legacy lens lusted after by the Nikon crowd. Under $200. Adapter off Ebay under $25. It has an aperture ring.

Contax G Zeiss 28mm is a lovely lens. Needs a Fotodiox adapter ($80) and they run about $450 or so. There is also a Contax G 35mm which is usually cheaper.

Samyang 35mm F1.4 gets good reviews. Comes in a Canon mount. I have the Samyang 24mm F1.4 and its a good landscape lens but its more like $650.

keh.com is a good resource for 2nd hand lenses and they rate the condition of the lens very conservatively.

http://www.keh.com/Camera/format-35m...c=81079&r=WG&f

Voigtlander lenses get good raps. There's a 20mm F3.5, a 28mm as well a 35 and a 40. They are made by Cosina in Japan the same high end lens maker that Zeiss uses to make their lenses. They are a cut above many other lenses and 2nd hand you could pick one up for around that money.

Greg.

Last edited by gregbradley; 15-08-2013 at 09:29 PM.
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Old 15-08-2013, 10:15 PM
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Octane (Humayun)
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For a landscape lens, it would be remiss not to get the 17-40mm.

Spend the extra few hundred bucks, otherwise, she'll get frustrated with the lack of zoom for landscape. It's not like portraiture where you can use a fixed focal length lens and then use your legs as the zoom. Most of the time the landscape elements are too far away.

My two cents.

H
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Old 15-08-2013, 11:14 PM
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Just to throw a spanner into the thinking – I've taken many wide angle, ultra-wide angle and even fish-eye landscape shots, but (somewhat to my surprise) the very best out of my few good ones were taken with normal or tele lenses.

What I find most important in a landscape lens is ultra-high resolution. Because of that my favourites are the 40mm DX Micro and the 17-35mm (both Nikkors, so inconsequential to the original question).

Cheers
Steffen.
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Old 16-08-2013, 06:36 AM
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I don't want to get her a fixed lens for landscapes, she'll need the flexibility of a zoom.

I know what you mean, H, i'm leaning towards that too. I'd offer her to borrow mine, but what if I want to use it?
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Old 16-08-2013, 07:51 AM
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xstream (John)
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Get her the 17-40mm Mike. She'll love you that little bit more!
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Old 16-08-2013, 09:46 AM
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Mike,

You'll just have to get yourself a 16-35mm.

H
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Old 16-08-2013, 11:11 AM
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That was my other thought, H.

I'll get the 16-35 and she can have my 17-40
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Old 16-08-2013, 11:53 AM
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I think that sounds like a plan.

H
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Old 19-08-2013, 01:35 PM
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I'll get the 16-35 and she can have my 17-40 [/QUOTE]\\

The 16-35mm doesn't review that well.

http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff..._28_5d?start=2

Also $1700 is getting up there in cost. That's getting close to the Nikon 14-24mm F2.8 which is still king in this lens category (at least until Canon brings out a competitive wide angle 14-24 at some point but it would also be even more expensive more than likely). The Nikon 14-24 outperforms a Zeiss 21mm prime which is considered one of the best Zeiss's. My main checking point of these types of lenses is whether they show coma wide open, for suitability for nightscapes. Most of them seem to and that's not something easy to work around unless you plan to crop a lot and then why bother with the wider aperture.

Its heavy, it can't take filters without expensive adapters but it is one awesome piece of kit.

Adapters are plentiful. I have a nice Novoflex one that has aperture control and is very well made.

Or get a Zeiss 21mm with a Canon mount. The Tokina 11-16 seems to do well and is worth looking at.

I'd go the Nikon or the Zeiss.

Greg.
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Old 19-08-2013, 02:02 PM
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It mightn't review well, but, if anyone bothered to use the DLO module in DPP, then, all the softness and aberrations would disappear. Also, many, many world-famous landscape photographers who sell prints for a living, use that lens.

Exhibit A: http://users.tpg.com.au/hqureshi2/dlo.html

H
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Old 19-08-2013, 02:17 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman View Post
That was my other thought, H.

I'll get the 16-35 and she can have my 17-40
Quote:
Originally Posted by Octane View Post
It mightn't review well, but, if anyone bothered to use the DLO module in DPP, then, all the softness and aberrations would disappear. Also, many, many world-famous landscape photographers who sell prints for a living, use that lens.

Exhibit A: http://users.tpg.com.au/hqureshi2/dlo.html

H

Impressive example. Good point! Admittedly reviews aren't always the best guide. I agree looking at sample images from many users is a more reliable approach.

For nightscapes I think coma and chromatic aberration wide open are the 2 key critical performance criteria which is different to daylight terrestial imaging. There's not much you can do about coma except stop down. Chromatic aberration is correctable but always leaves a degraded image to some degree being a desaturation routine. Vignetting is easy to correct. Not many lenses perform wide open and are widefield. So that was my main point.

How does this lens do from that viewpoint?

Greg.
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Old 19-08-2013, 02:43 PM
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I'm sure it has horrible coma at the edges.

I guess it's because traditionally lenses aren't really designed to resolve point sources of light. We're a special bunch who scrutinise lenses in this way. It would be really nice if Canon gave us a lens like the Nikon 14-24mm. As mentioned before, I have seen the patent application for the Canon version. I'm hoping it's not too far off from the shelves!

H
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Old 19-08-2013, 03:15 PM
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Yes I am sure Canon will do a good job of it as the obvious comparisons will be made. The price though if the trend continues may be highish.

Greg.
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Old 19-08-2013, 03:22 PM
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How about Tokina 16-28mm f2.8? Its physically an exact copy of the 14-24mm, the IQ isnt as good though (obviously).

or how about give her a nifty fifty and teach her how to do panoramas . The money can then be spent on a nodal ninja instead.
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Old 19-08-2013, 03:31 PM
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Does that Tokina work on a FF body?
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