Good Lenses?

Ok, I know I am going to get slammed as a newbie, but I am going to ask the question anyway...

When not concerned with being able to shoot at wide apertures or a need to focus quickly (say we are shooting a landscape in good light at f/11, 85mm), is there a significant difference in the ability to get sharp pictures between standard kit lenses and higher end lenses?

No.

http://digital-photography-school.com …-is-better-than-you-think
Tell us what type of camera u have then some of us can give u recommendations

EOS5DC wrote in post #16597092
No.

Agree

Pretty much no.

There can be some differences in color rendering and whatnot that some people prefer, and an f/2.8 lens stopped down to f/4 will usually be somewhat sharper than an f/4 wide open, for example. But, those are things that one can worry about well down the road.

Not worth being concerned about at this point, no.

dhwachs wrote in post #16597075
Ok, I know I am going to get slammed as a newbie, but I am going to ask the question anyway...

When not concerned with being able to shoot at wide apertures or a need to focus quickly (say we are shooting a landscape in good light at f/11, 85mm), is there a significant difference in the ability to get sharp pictures between standard kit lenses and higher end lenses?

Significant difference, no, at F11.

You also don't need autofocus. Manual focus is often better for this too.

Very best,

Which kit lens are you talking about? I have the 18-55IS and it is very sharp. It has high resolution at the wide to middle focal lengths when at F8. However, there are real differences in the images you get from the kit lens and the 17-40L or some other lenses. These differences may or may not matter to you. The 18-55IS has lots of distortion and vignettes badly at the wide end. This can be corrected in camera, but there is a price to pay for this correction. The kit lens has high resolution, but doesn't do so well shooting into the sun, and generally has lower contrast than some more expensive lenses.
I get obviously sharper images from a good prime than from the kit lens, but the L zooms can be harder to tell apart from good primes.
The 18-55IS (first generation) is sharper at the wide and middle focal lengths, but not quite as good at 55 mm. The 18-135IS STM may be better at longer focal lengths. Each lens is different.
Note that the 24-105L is a kit lens for the 6D. The 28-135 IS comes in a kit with the 7D.
Which kit lens are you asking about?
Some people really like the 17-55IS and others swear by the 15-85IS. Any advantages these lenses have over the 18-55IS would be subtle at F8.

@artyH, the kit lenses I use are the EFS 18-55IS II and the EF 70-300 III. I also have been using a Sigma 18-250. None of these lenses open very wide, so I understand the limitations there. The purpose of my question was to make sure that as I work on improving composition and various techniques that my image quality is not somehow limited by the optics of a cheaper lens.

Thanks everyone for their input. It was very helpful. And thank you @Cooperny for that link. I love digital-photography-school.com but had missed that article before now.

Yes, there is a difference between high quality lenses and kit lenses when stopped down. The high quality lenses like the Zeiss 21mm is sharp right out to the corners, not so much with a 17-40 L. We can also talk about contrast and colours which typically shine in the higher quality lenses and not so much in the kit lenses. Landscapes is one of the most demanding types of photography there is and truly there is very noticeable differences with the better lenses, especially if you want to make large prints.

your image may be hampered by the 75-300mm...it isn't considered one of canon's best lenses...so i'd swap that for an equally cheap 55-250IS

also if you're stopping down a lot and mainly taking landscapes, try and get a decent tripod

dhwachs wrote in post #16599031
@artyH, the kit lenses I use are the EFS 18-55IS II and the EF 70-300 III.

A 75-300, I suspect.

DreDaze wrote in post #16599144
your image may be hampered by the 75-300mm...it isn't considered one of canon's best lenses...so i'd swap that for an equally cheap 55-250IS

Or the somewhat better EF-S 55-250 IS STM.

EOS5DC wrote in post #16597092
No.

I agree.

You must be a newbie.

Yes. Most certainly.
A higher quality lens is going to have CA under better control. Chromatic aberration results in permanent loss of some image detail that is not recoverable in post.
And CA correction in post will loose even more.
Although CA is at it's least in the center of a lens, stopping down dose not correct for it.