Favorite landscape lens on a FF - Full Frame

What is your favorite landscape lens on a Full Frame?
There are a lot of options!

We currently own crop bodies and her go to is the 24-105 f/4 while mine is the EF-S 10-22.

The wife and I decided to pass on the 5D3 since Canon's MAP pricing has moved the prices back up. Instead we will be buying matching 5D2's for just a little more than the price of 1 5D3.

17-40

70-200 in VT, otherwise 24-70

What is your budget?

If you can spring for the Zeiss 21 or Canon 17/24 TS-e, those are probably the best wide angles out there. If telephoto is more your thing, the 70-200 f4 IS is a great choice.

Otherwise, the 17-40 is tough to beat at it's price point. IMO, the 16-35 is not worth the price increase over the 17-40 since you're paying for the larger aperture which you won't use.

Split between 17-40L and 24tse.

If you want to nail it down to just one lens, the 24-105L.

If you want to cover any requirement, 17-40L, 24-105L, 70-200L. I'm actually playing with the idea of just taking out the 17-40 and 70-200 as I hate carrying gear I don't use and this would mean I only had 2 lenses to lug around.

I dont use my 70-200 as much as I should.

Thinking of adding a 40stm for that range and leaving the 50/1.4 at home most of the time.

TS-E 17mm by far. Works great with a 1.4x TC and for me it's acceptable with the 2x TC as well which basically covers the range of the 17-40. Sharp, versatile and generally just awesome. I also jimmied up a rig to use a polarizer with it, which I find essential for landscapes, even at 17mm.

SO tempted with the 17, enjoying the 24.

MNUplander wrote in post #15283998
What is your budget?

Since we saved 2k+ by going with the 5DII's ($1,699) over the III ($2,700+), not really setting a budget.

I should of mentioned we already have:

24-105 f/4L IS
50 f/1.8
70-200 f/2.8L IS I

I'm going to test the 24-105 on the 5DII once they arrive. I really am not keen on the barrel extension and I absolutely hate how the barrel fully extends while walking around. But, it is 77mm which will make use of the current LEE ring adapter, sharp, cheap, and nice focal range.

I have really enjoyed the EF-S 10-22, so that has me leaning toward the cheap and light 17-40. I have a feeling the 17-40 on a crop will be a superb walk around daytime lens too.

I don't see myself being happy with a prime wide angle. I find myself shooting any/everywhere in the 10-22 zone.

Thanks for the feedback!

In that case, I'd probably stick with the 17-40 - it just can't be beat for the money and flexibility. Maybe try out the Samyang/Bower/Rokinon 14mm in addition to that lens to try out REALLY wide.

Prime lenses and landscape photography are simply not a great combination, unless you want to carry around a whole lot of lenses. Shooting landscapes so often necessitates a particular positioning in order to get the right alignments in a shot, so "zooming with your feet" is rarely an option. Until Canon comes out with a better UWA zoom, the 17-40 can't be beat for landscape work, not only because of its relatively low price, but also because of its relatively light weight.

Of course there are specialty applications: night photography that requires a wide aperture, or the rare scene where you really do need a TS-E lens to get the DoF that you want. So if you have room in your pack for a prime in addition to a zoom, great, but I wouldn't recommend one as your main wide angle lens.

Phrasikleia wrote in post #15294177
Prime lenses and landscape photography are simply not a great combination, unless you want to carry around a whole lot of lenses. Shooting landscapes so often necessitates a particular positioning in order to get the right alignments in a shot, so "zooming with your feet" is rarely an option. Until Canon comes out with a better UWA zoom, the 17-40 can't be beat for landscape work, not only because of its relatively low price, but also because of its relatively light weight.

Of course there are specialty applications: night photography that requires a wide aperture, or the rare scene where you really do need a TS-E lens to get the DoF that you want. So if you have room in your pack for a prime in addition to a zoom, great, but I wouldn't recommend one as your main wide angle lens.

Completely agree. I'm curious with folks who use prime lens including TS-e, how do you achieve your composition when "zoom with your feet" is not possible with that fixed focal length? Do you crop afterwards? Many situations dictate that wide angle zoom to be more versatile. I understand that specialized lens like the TS-e has superb sharpness etc. I used 10-22 extensively when I had crop body, but now I've been using 24-105 and have no complaints. Though I'm thinking 17-40 would be a sweet addition for landscape shootings.

g0bl0k wrote in post #15295040
Completely agree. I'm curious with folks who use prime lens including TS-e, how do you achieve your composition when "zoom with your feet" is not possible with that fixed focal length? Do you crop afterwards? Many situations dictate that wide angle zoom to be more versatile. I understand that specialized lens like the TS-e has superb sharpness etc. I used 10-22 extensively when I had crop body, but now I've been using 24-105 and have no complaints. Though I'm thinking 17-40 would be a sweet addition for landscape shootings.

Phrasikleia wrote in post #15294177
Prime lenses and landscape photography are simply not a great combination, unless you want to carry around a whole lot of lenses. Shooting landscapes so often necessitates a particular positioning in order to get the right alignments in a shot, so "zooming with your feet" is rarely an option. Until Canon comes out with a better UWA zoom, the 17-40 can't be beat for landscape work, not only because of its relatively low price, but also because of its relatively light weight.

Of course there are specialty applications: night photography that requires a wide aperture, or the rare scene where you really do need a TS-E lens to get the DoF that you want. So if you have room in your pack for a prime in addition to a zoom, great, but I wouldn't recommend one as your main wide angle lens.

I think we're in different camps then - I've owned several 17-40's, 10-22's and used a handful of other wide zooms. I've always been disappointed with every one of them on 20x30 prints, which is the size I prefer to print.

I shoot landscapes exclusively with primes and wouldn't have it any other way. After a time using them, your eyes learn to see compositions in the FOV's you have available in your bag and it becomes natural. It's not much different than any other type of photography where you make the choice to switch to primes, really. If you demand the critical IQ from a prime, you'll work around it's limitations - fixed focal lengths, manual focus, etc.

Aside from the IQ boost you get over zooms, it's also easier to remember where to set your focus on a prime for a given aperture since you only have one focal length to remember it for. On a zoom with those terrible focus windows, it becomes more of a trial-and-error guessing game to set your focus for each scene. With my primes, I set my aperture based on how close my nearest foreground object is and I know just where to set my focus for that aperture for critical sharpness.

Phrasikleia wrote in post #15294177
Prime lenses and landscape photography are simply not a great combination, unless you want to carry around a whole lot of lenses. Shooting landscapes so often necessitates a particular positioning in order to get the right alignments in a shot, so "zooming with your feet" is rarely an option.

I have to disagree and I think Ansel Adams would too.

Phrasikleia wrote in post #15294177
Until Canon comes out with a better UWA zoom, the 17-40 can't be beat for landscape work, not only because of its relatively low price, but also because of its relatively light weight.

In the area of UWA zooms for landscape work, I definitely agree. The 16-35L II is completely overrated for landscape work. The price and weight of the 17-40L makes it the clear winner in my opinion. I am waiting for Canon to release something that can rival Nikon's 14-24 f/2.8 though.

g0bl0k wrote in post #15295040
Completely agree. I'm curious with folks who use prime lens including TS-e, how do you achieve your composition when "zoom with your feet" is not possible with that fixed focal length? Do you crop afterwards? Many situations dictate that wide angle zoom to be more versatile. I understand that specialized lens like the TS-e has superb sharpness etc. I used 10-22 extensively when I had crop body, but now I've been using 24-105 and have no complaints. Though I'm thinking 17-40 would be a sweet addition for landscape shootings.

It was weird getting used to not being able to zoom when I started shooting with my TS-E 24mm but I really believe it has made me a better photographer, taking more care in composing my shots. There isn't a lot of zooming with the feet... it's hard to explain, but once you start using a lens, you know where your tripod is going to go before you even pull your camera out of the bag. Of course, there is always going to be fine tuning adjustments once you look through your viewfinder, but nothing major or limiting to my work. I almost always do slight crops in PP, but I almost always crop no matter what lens I'm shooting with.

For landscape photography, I love my current set-up and each lens does a job in which the other one couldn't. These aren't the best photos, but just examples of each lens serving a different purpose.

Primary lens:
Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II
I would consider this the "ultimate landscape lens" for any landscape photographer and there are too many reasons to list why. If you get on the lens sample photo thread and start taking a look at some photos that people do with this lens, they are quite amazing.

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR