Economical Landscape Lenses

[dassouki]

Hi all,

I love doing landscape shots and would like to get deeper into it. I currently have 2 crop bodied canons.
I have 10-20 sigma that I love, an 18-200 canon, and I have access too the 17-55 2.8 canon as well. I also just bought the 90mm 2.8 tamron. I have a solid manfrotto tripod with ball head and bubble (but no 360" angle thingy).

All in all, my equipment has served me well; however, I'd like to take my landscape hobby photography to the next level.

Some of the things I like to do are dawn/sunset/fog scenes, urban or rural/natural. I would like to get into panoramas, HDR, and "telling a story" type photos through landscapes. I also love BW dark and gloomy type landscape shots.



My budget is around $1,000-$1,500. What would you recommend?

thanks,
D

[ahab1372]

+1
Circular Polarizer makes a big difference (but will produce uneven sky on the ultra wide lens), solid ND filters for long time exposures (3 stop and maybe 6 or even 10 stop), and graduated ND is where it gets really interesting. There are a few discussion threads here about filters that you might find useful.

[andnowimbroke]

Agreed. Your lens are fine. Accessories are the next step (filters, adapter to compensate for the nodal point, software if you don't have it, ect)

[dassouki]

Thanks for the replies about the filters. I have 2 Kenko Filters, one is a 10 stop and the other a variable filter. Every lens of mine has a CPL on it that I don't take off.

Speaking of filters, what are the CPL II filter that some nikon lenses have?

[Steve U]

It looks as though you have focal lengths and filters covered and you know what you want to photograph.
For the money you want to spend I would suggest getting a prime lens to push, force or inspire your creativity. A prime will make you think more about composition, it will also make you move your feet a little more. Primes also generally offer better, or in some cases unique contrast and image quality.( the Canon 17-55/2.8 also has unbeatable IQ)
Purely to get you thinking I would suggest;
either of the new Canon 24mm or 28mm with IS,
or my personal favourites would be the Zeiss manual focus lenses like the 35mm/f2 or to really stretch/break the budget the Zeiss 21mm.
Budget wise the new Canon 24/2.8IS or the Zeiss 35/2 would be my recommendations, both lengths work great on crop bodies, but also translate well and work great if you ever decide to take the big step towards Full Frame, which is a logical step in the pursuit of better landscape images.

[Agilulfo]

You can also spend the money on travelling and look for a nice landscape. Maybe practice will improve your pictures more than another lens.

[btaylor]

What about a good quality tripod? My tripod was one of the best investments I've made.

[Busted Knuckles]

+5

You can also spend the money on travelling and look for a nice landscape. Maybe practice will improve your pictures more than another lens.

You have more than just the basics, time to take pictures.

[ahab1372]

)))

4 posts and all say ")))". Is someone trying to build credibility to post spam?

[DavidEccleston]

4 posts and all say ")))". Is someone trying to build credibility to post spam?

Perhaps, but because I'm human, I can see through this ruse, and I've already deleted the user as a spammer already. And another spammer did 14 posts of actual spam this morning. I'm so happy the delete user page has a 'delete all posts by this user' button.

After Bryan added some simple human authentication, we had no spam for months, now we get plenty, daily. Not sure what changed.