Landscape lens

For landscapes I was recommended the canon 17-85mm IS. I remember it being about $800 and now I've seen it for about $600.

I tried to do a search for some reviews here, but there were a lot of other lenses brought up.

So I'm wondering, I have a the canon rebel XT. What would you recommend and what have you used to produce nice landscape shots? The only other lenses I own is the kit lens and a 50mm 1.4 which I love for portraits. I only really want to do portrait shooting and landscapes so I'm trying to figure out a good lens for that and then I'll be set

I'm still a dummy when it comes to these numbers... I've read that this is the equivalent to a 28-135mm. I'm not sure what that really means, and would the 17-85 mm take panoramic type shots? Anyone have any examples? (actually I'll go dig through the landscape forum and see if I can find any)

Thanks in advance.

edit: change all 17-85 to 10-22mm sorry That was the one I meant.

Any lens can take panoramic shots, given that you know how to do it and have a tripod set up for it.
As for landscapes, the 17-85 really isn't going to be any better at those than the 18-55 you have right now. If you want really wide angle landscapes, you might consider the Canon 10-22 EF/S, or the Sigma 10-20.

10-22 Efs / 16-35L/ 17-40 L


I realllly love landscaping shots, and i just picked the 10-22 up for the 20d and have not used it yet since my 20d is at canon right now getting serviced. but this is a great lense from all the pictures ive seen on here.

Here is a shot I recently did with the 18-55mm kit lens (on a tripod). Judge for yourself. But for the record I'm also considering the 17-85mm IS.

that looks good yosemmite

Great shot, Herb. The kit lens is really good in the right situations.

Sorry I goofed and I realized that the 17-85mm is a totally different lens than what I was trying to compare, lol.

soapy wrote:
Well, I know that any lens can take a landscape shot, you need a tripod and the right settings. But what makes a lens that is specific for landscapes better than the usual kit lens?

There has to be a reason for there to be so many different lenses out there, otherwise everyone would just stick to a kit lens. I'm not saying that a kit lens wouldn't work, but if there is a "better" lens out there that makes taking landscapes much easier and just turn out better.

Like if you took the exact same shot at Yosemite with a different lens, it might come out differently. Even though with the kit lens that's still a great shot.

Quality of Glass. and Focal Leingths. the 10-22mm on your camera would crop out to a 16-35.

Ok I'm a dork, the lens that was recommended was a 10-22mm originally. The 17-85 was just a nice lens to have I guess (I got confused). Sorry about that. So I'm guessing that 10-22 comes highly recommended, heheh.

for landscape pictures hell ya. wide angle photography> *

If you want a dedicated landscape zoom for a cropped sensor, consider one of the ultrawides. All are really good.
I like Canon 10-22 for it's range and optics,
Sigma 10-20 for it's price, optics, and 10mm wide end.
Tokina 12-24, built really tough, good price, and optics

Thanks.. the more I look at that shot, the more it becomes one of my personal favorites.

Even a kit lens can play magic!

YosemiteJunkie wrote:
Here is a shot I recently did with the 18-55mm kit lens (on a tripod). Judge for yourself. But for the record I'm also considering the 17-85mm IS.

Nice Shot

Not wanting to steal the thread but here is one from a 17-85 for you to see... Been posted before but appropriate here given the lens questions....I love this lens... FYI...Overland Track Tasmania...World Heritage Region

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