Best landscape zoom lens(Nikon)

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

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My other half is looking for a good Nikon zoom lens for landscape photography - the ability to use in street/city photography would also be ideal. She currently has a 50mm prime which is just too zoomed. That and the 18-55mm prime isn't the greatest for quality.

Trouble is, I'm not sure what to advise here. I'd have thought a 17-50mm but would a wider range be ideal e.g 10-100mm? Although, you'd presumably have to put up with a loss of quality in the latter?

We're going to Finland/Lapland in December, it would be great to take in as much of the scenery/landscape as possible.

:)
 
What about the 18-55mm is she finding not up to scratch? Kit lenses are generally very good these days in terms of image quality and unless you view at high magnification it will be hard to tell the difference between them and more expensive lenses.

What you get by changing to a better zoom lens is different focal lengths, wider apertures, better build quality and in some cases faster focusing but not always better image quality.
If it was me I'd look at the Nikon 16-85mm if the 18-55 is not good for you, the Tamron is good yes and so is the Sigma version but I'd take 16mm (24mm eq) all day long over the the 26mm eq 17mm offers, its a bigger difference than you may percieve.

Initial advice however would be to make sure the 18-55mm is absolutely not suitable by getting it out there and working with it. I got some cracking images from mine and I'd have no reservations in taking one on holiday with me.
 
As above,mid you can't get good images from the kit lens atanlamdscape apertures either the lens is broken and needs repaired or there is a technique issue.
 
As with everything photography, it depends what you want to spend.

Speaking purely Nikkor glass, if you want the best pure landscape lens money can buy the 14-24 f2.8 is the pick.

If you want something less pricey and a little more flexible range wise the 16-35mm f/4G ED VR is great.

There is also an 18-35? I believe which is cheaper again.

Lastly if you/they like prime lenses, the 28mm 1.8 is very popular for street stuff.

I have the 14-24 and adore it, be warned if you wish to use filters you will need to drop ~500 quid extra for a filter system + filters as traditional screw on ones don't work due to the protruding bulbous nature of the glass and as such pricey 3rd party bolt ons are the only option.

Im unsure about 3rd party offerings of late, but the sigma "art" range is highly rated, in some cases outclassing nikon in terms of optical quality AND price. Might be worth looking to see what they have in the wide end of the scale.

(the above is all assuming you are shooting FX format, not DX, if you have DX grab a 10-24)

EDIT: Something I always recommend to people before splashing out big money is to visit flickr and use their search to look for a certain lenses "community" group and have a browse through what people are achieving with those lenses. Youll find 99% of the time people are producing images that are out of this world with what you believe to be the lesser option at least going by the price.
 
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The OP talks about a crop camera, the FX lenses just don't make sense in this scenario.

The 18-55mm kit lens is perfectly adequate. When I was on crop I did like the 16-85 to beta true 24mm FF equivalent, makes a big difference to perspective over 18mm. Going much wider than than that is not so useful. I had a Sigma 10-20mm but I hardly ever used it, really difficult to get a good composition. For a beginner I think a 70-200mm makes more sensor for landscape work TBH, combined with a 16-85 type lens.
 
Irish_Tom said:
Where? All he says is the 50mm feels too zoomed, not necesarily as a result of a cropped camera.

If it is a crop then the 18-85mm has to be a good shout.
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His wife has an 18-55mm DX Kit lens, that would be pretty strange on a FF body. He is looking at the Tamron 17-50mm, which would be equally useless on a FF body.
 
Steve M said:
He asked for the best Nikon landscape zoom.

That will be the Tamron 15-30.
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Debatable if it is noticeable any better than the kit lens used on a crop camera at landscape apertures, plus very impractical compared to any of the 10-24mm type lenses.
 
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D.P. said:
His wife has an 18-55mm DX Kit lens, that would be pretty strange on a FF body. He is looking at the Tamron 17-50mm, which would be equally useless on a FF body.
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Good point! :o

The 10-24mm is close in terms of focal length to the 16–35mm on an FX Camera ins't it?

In which case, I'd say it's good for landscapes based on my experience with the 16–35mm.

I've read that there's quite a bit of distortion on the 10–24mm but that can usually be fixed in Lightroom.
 
10-24mm is 16-35mm on Nikon crop, so is fairly practical but the wide end is veyr hard to use well.

These lens often have distortion but it rarely matters much for landscape work. A lcik in LR mostly corrects it, the remaining higher frequencies don't matter at all
 
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