buying a 350, but need a decent landscape lense, suggestions please.

rlm

rlm

rlm

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Now that the 350D has come down to a more palatable price I've decided that I'm going to buy one, ideally before my holiday to the lake district at the beginning of November. My biggest problem though is buying a lense, I'd like a decent quality one suited to taking landscape pictures while I'm there but I'm not sure what to look at. £400 would be the max I'd really be willing to spend on the lense, can I get a decent one for this or should I just buy a decent high zoom compact for now along the lines of the Panasonic Fz7 etc.

Please give me some suggestions, I've currently got a Sony DSC-V1 that’s served me very well but I'm finally ready for the upgrade.

Thanks.
 
I have just completed a 22 day photography fest in the USA, and the lens that stayed on my camera most of the time was the 17-40 f/4. It's about the perfect width. I never needed anything wider. It has enough zoom to get in for framing etc.

My advice is to not necessarily look for the widest lens. I don't know why there's this thing about landscape=ultrawide lens. A lot of landscape photographers use 28mm and higher. I've seen some Pros use 50mm lenses for landscapes. Since the 17mm is equates to about 28mm on most DSLRs, it works out very well IMO. Plus, in the right light, it's very very sharp.
 
Although I like the idea of a 10-22 or similar my concern is that maybe they're a bit too specialised, I want to avoid buying lenses that are as dedicated as those seem to be. I don't think I was specific enough with my original post. Some general use would be good too, I was looking at the Tamron AF 28-75mm f2.8 XR Di Zoom, I know its way under budget but I think it should be a more varied lense and hopefully still wide enough for decent landscape stuff? I assume 2.8 should be ok.
 
Have a look at the Sigma 17-70 f2.8 (can be had for £240ish), lot of people seem to be having good results. Also the tamron 17-35 f2.8 seems good 2. I think 1 or 2 members here have it.

If you had to go for ultra wide then I would prefer Tokina 12-24 / Canon 10-20.
 
Personally I would invest in a 17 - 70mm f2.8, a flshgun and a decent tripod. That will cover a wide range of photography. You could even get one of those thingy me bobs which lets you detach the flashgun and shoot from the side, forget what theyre called.

King.
 
nomore said:
I have just completed a 22 day photography fest in the USA, and the lens that stayed on my camera most of the time was the 17-40 f/4. It's about the perfect width. I never needed anything wider. It has enough zoom to get in for framing etc.

My advice is to not necessarily look for the widest lens. I don't know why there's this thing about landscape=ultrawide lens. A lot of landscape photographers use 28mm and higher. I've seen some Pros use 50mm lenses for landscapes. Since the 17mm is equates to about 28mm on most DSLRs, it works out very well IMO. Plus, in the right light, it's very very sharp.
Click to expand...
Couldn't agree more :)
 
I have the Sigma 10mm-20mm as well as the Sigma 17mm-70mm, for landscapes I use the 10mm-20mm for extreme skies etc and also for getting things into the frame that a 10mm can.

But for landscapes that suit a more natural layout and look to them I have been sticking to just using the Tokina 17mm prime all the time on my 350D as this equals around the 28mm mark on a cropped sensor or 90mm on a full format film camera.

Infact thinking on this some more I really do only tend to use the Tokina prime lens for my Landscapes...

If I was to recommend a setup for the 350D it would be the Tokina AF 17mm f/3.5 AT-X Pro lens, with a good Manfrotto tripod, a set of HiTech NDGrads (0.3, 0.6, 0,9 & holder) and the Canon remote shutter release.

This setup will put you in good stead for Landscape Photography.
 
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