Quality lenses for landscape photography

[JohnBrew]

Andrew, I use a D800 w/21 Zeiss and Zeiss 50 Makro for stitching. If you want to use t/s lenses the Canon is the only way to go.
Also check out Photozone for lens tests. I believe they rank the Nikon 85 1.4G as the highest resolving lens.

[Peter McLennan]

Bill, you're the only guy whose lens opinions I trust, since you own a 55 Micro Nikkor.  : ) 

Do you have any experience with the 105 Micro Nikkor?  Does it have the same magic as the 55?  I'm jonesing for one.

[Graham Clark]

Rather than imparting my opinion, I'll share how Ansel Adams has already responded to this question:

"It is certainly inhibiting to adhere blindly to any existing equipment if one can change to a better selection; it is poor economy to continue the use of equipment on a purely habitual basis." - Ansel Adams   (care nothing of brands, be flexible in your approach)

"It is significant that the greatest creative photographers use simple basic equipment - everything of adequate quality, nothing that is unessential. If the photographer will first think of the camera in its most elementary terms, he will better understand what equipment is most suitable for his needs. Rather than work from the complex down, it is better to work up from the simple!" - Ansel Adams

"As the photographer branches out into his chosen fields, his objective should be to acquire the simplest but most efficient equipment for his purposes." - Ansel Adams

The crux of this could be interpreted that equipment can often times act as a barrier to creative seeing, and that getting the hardware aspect of photography out of the way as soon as possible can be of high value. In other words, just choose something of sufficient quality and move on (and ignore the noise of technical chatter).

Graham

[Ronny Nilsen]

Well, from Canon, there are many excellent lenses for landscape: the TSE series (especially the 17mm and 24mm); the new 24-70L f/2.8 MKII zoom (which is excepcionally sharp); the 70-200L f/2.8 MKII zoom; the 100L f/2.8 macro... the zooms are really very good, equivalent to primes, and offer very useful flexibility for landscape shooting.

I would add the TSE 90mm. Exceptionally sharp and good lens inside the whole image circle, making it ideal for stitching. The image attached is taken with a 5D III and the TSE 90 and is a stitch of three images using the shift of the lens (and some tilt). Only takes me 15 seconds to take and gives me an 40+ mpixels image.

Ronny

[arlon]

I use the D800E too. I've had it for awhile and tried a number of lenses on it and the 28-300mm pretty much lives on the camera. It probably isn't the sharpest lens made but it's the most versitile of the bunch. I mostly hike and sometimes (most of the time) I'm miles from the car. I simply can't carry a basket of primes. I think the 28-300mm on a D800e will give one of the primes on a D800 a real run for it's money. I also carry the 55mm micro around a lot too. It weighs nothing. Several of the old manual focus primes are really good lenses. I carry a 20mm f3.5 a lot too. I have a 16-35 f4 but don't carry it nearly as much as the 28-300..
If you always shoot from beside your car, never mind.. (-:}

I have done a number of 16x20 prints and feel like the printer is a weaker link than the lens. I haven't found a lens yet that didn't perform better on the D800E than any other camera I own (D50/90/100/200/700).  I've shot some pretty decent shots from this camera with a $5 sears zoom I got at a flea market. Maybe not Nat Geo quality at 20x30 but still better than anything from my D700..

[Andrew Makiejewski]

Once again, thanks to everyone for sharing your knowledge and replies to my query.

I have added the relavent information to my spreadsheet. The big step will be deciding between the Nikon D800E and the Canon 5D Mk III. Either way a serious outlay of money for a hobby.

Happy shooting everyone.

[BernardLanguillier]

I mostly hike and sometimes (most of the time) I'm miles from the car. I simply can't carry a basket of primes. \

Com'on... I used to do 5,000 feet elevation a day over 10+ miles carrying a D3x, 24mm T/S, Zeiss 100mm f2.0, 300 f2.8 VR + pano head + heaviest Gitzo carbon tripod. 

Now... the paste tense is important here. 

Cheers,
Bernard

[orchidblooms]

d800 / d800e shooter

using acratec gp-s head

most useful lens so far zeiss 35 f2

most used for pannos 100 makro-planer zeiss

coolest  zeiss 15mm zf.2

just ordered the new apo 135

this first image - d800e was set to max ISO - by accident - and i managed to salvage this shot... zeiss 15mm zf.2

bottom some 30+ frames - zeiss 100 makro-planer

[Graham Clark]

Have been reading a lot on the internet and there is a lot of dribble out there and would like to hear from those that use the right tools in this area of photography.

Canon 17-40mm and 16-35mm 2.8 are great lenses. I prefer the 17-40 for it's lighter weight.

Graham

[NancyP]

The DP2M is a mighty fine small form high image quality fixed lens (30mm f/2. APS-C camera. Go take a look at the DP Merrill threads.