Hypothetically... (regarding lens options)

Emancipator

If you had a Tokina 12-24mm f/4.0 and a Nikon 85mm f/1.8D and you were to shoot landscapes... (I know the nikon is for portraits, but just for laughs)
So the Tokina would be your wide lens could the nikon serve any purpose what so ever in landscape?

ziggy53

Landscape images are shot with literally "any" focal length, depending more on the desired field-of-view (FOV).

"Vista" landscapes are what many folks think of when they hear the term "landscapes", but that is just one type of landscape image. Instantaneous vista landscapes are normally shot with a super-wide lens, either a super-wide zoom or a super-wide prime lens.

Even vista landscapes can be represented using a longer focal length lens, by taking multiple images with a panoramic head, and then stitching the images together to make a panoramic image with a wide FOV.

Telephoto lenses, and an 85mm lens on a crop format camera body is a telephoto lens, can be used for landscape purposes if their FOV is appropriate to your needs in representing the scene.

Very long telephoto lenses are sometimes used to provide a vantage which allows the perspective illusion of distance compression.

Emancipator

Great! This is exactly what I was looking for. So at most the 85mm could single out a scene if the given FOV warrented it. Would the 85mm have any problems with clarity at such distances as opposed to the 12-24mm?

ziggy53

Emancipator wrote:

Great! This is exactly what I was looking for. So at most the 85mm could single out a scene if the given FOV warrented it. Would the 85mm have any problems with clarity at such distances as opposed to the 12-24mm?

Depth-Of-Field will vary by focal length, image format (size) and aperture. So "how much" of the image is in focus will vary by those variables.

See this site for more information:

http://www.dofmaster.com/faq.html

... and for a DOF calculator:

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Matthew Saville

I personally really like to shoot landscapes with a telephoto wide open. It's kinda fun.





I think that, if you had to pick just two lenses to shoot ALMOST EVERYTHING, I'd go with either the Tokina 11-16, 12-24, or the Sigma 10-20, AND either the Nikon 85 1.8, or the Sigma 50-150 2.8...Forget the mid-range, it's boring anyways for landscapes and photojournalism... If you plan on going into weddings or something, then yeah lots of people swear by the 50 1.2 / 1.4 as the lens they use 90% of the time, but that's another discussion for another day. And I bet I could shoot a wedding with nothing at all but a 35 and 150 on full-frame, or a 24 and an 85 on crop...

=Matt=

Emancipator

ziggy53, Nice calculator pretty neat and helpful for range. Thanks Matthew, those are wonderful shots! This is exactly the kind of creativity I was looking for. I will use the Tokina for wide landscape. I was looking to use the Nikon 85mm 1.8 for the same use of singling out foreground elements. Obviously you do not recommend going wide open for the lens at that range? How did you capture these? Also, for sunrises and sunsets do you think the 85mm 1.8 would be good because of the low light levels?

Matthew Saville

Emancipator wrote:

ziggy53, Nice calculator pretty neat and helpful for range. Thanks Matthew, those are wonderful shots! This is exactly the kind of creativity I was looking for. I will use the Tokina for wide landscape. I was looking to use the Nikon 85mm 1.8 for the same use of singling out foreground elements. Obviously you do not recommend going wide open for the lens at that range? How did you capture these? Also, for sunrises and sunsets do you think the 85mm 1.8 would be good because of the low light levels?

For those two landscape shots, I used my Sigma 50-150 2.8 wide open, pretty near 150mm, and quite possibly wide open at f/2.8 for both. I have no problem shooting with a lens wide open and forefitting a little sharpness, if it gives me the bokeh I want...

I think it depends on what you shoot more, portraits or candids; which is more important to you, creamy bokeh and low light, or the ability to zoom. Personally, I chose to buy the 50-150 and so I rent the 85 whenever I need it. But the 50-150 is what I use for 95% of my telephoto shots. Especially in the outdoors, when "zooming with your feet" just isn't possible when you want lots of compression for making objects at infinity seem large. (The moonrise, etc...) And yes, the fast prime might come in handy for low-light sunrise photos, if you're into shooting wildlife or other stuff in the pre-dawn light, but in general I've found that my 50-150 2.8 does the trick, all I need is a tripod.



It's your call!

=Matt=

Emancipator

Indeed. Thanks for your help. Love that bokeh! Take care.