wide angle lens for national park visit?

Mike55 wrote in post #3873921
17-40L. You don't need a super wide angle in Banff unless you are hiking in the canyons. What you do need is a lens capable of capturing the awesome natural colors of the area. The 10-22 will "shrink" most of the mountain landscape possibilites, reducing the impact of the mountains. I have seen so many shots from super wide angles make what were beautiful, impresive mountains turn into ant hills in a field. It's more of a cartoon than an actual nature shot, IMHO.

Trust me, a standard zoom lens will be much more useful in Banff, and will tell the story of that park in a more natural way.

I agree..

Havn't used 10-22 so I can't comment on it. These were taken with 16-35 in Banff:

Mike55 wrote in post #3873921
17-40L. You don't need a super wide angle in Banff unless you are hiking in the canyons. What you do need is a lens capable of capturing the awesome natural colors of the area. The 10-22 will "shrink" most of the mountain landscape possibilites, reducing the impact of the mountains. I have seen so many shots from super wide angles make what were beautiful, impresive mountains turn into ant hills in a field. It's more of a cartoon than an actual nature shot, IMHO.

Trust me, a standard zoom lens will be much more useful in Banff, and will tell the story of that park in a more natural way.

Totally agree. Wide angle lenses are great for wide open spaces where they really can exaggerate the space. For the mountains, you want to show off the magestic peaks and using an extreme wide angle will just do the opposite. It will diminish the size of the mountains...like you said making them ant hills.

I shoot in Banff quite a bit using a 6x7 camera and my goto lens is a 55mm ( 28mm equivalent ). I do have a wider lens ( 24mm equivalent ), but never seem to need it as the 28mm does a great job at allowing me to include the scenery without diminishing the mountains. I'd say get the 17-40 which would be a perfect range for the mountains.