John Howard
Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.
I searched the topic and did not find the answer to my exact question. I am an advanced amateur. Not paid but have been published a few times. Over the past ten years have gradually upgraded my gear. I shoot a lot of landscape and use everything from ultra wide (14mm) to long (200mm) lenses for perspective and details. I know with a high pixel sensor I need the best glass. For use with my D810, I am thinking of investing in the most sharp lens I can find so I can capture all the detail and print very large. I think it does not need to be ultra wide as I can do panoramas and stitch the images together. I am wondering what you all think is the most flexible medium wide lens. The primes I currently have are 15, 21, 25, 35, 50, 85 and 90. All pretty good but not great. My zoom lenses run the range from 14 to 400. Again, all pretty good Nikon lenses. I am leaning toward 28mm and want to settle on the length before I look at manufacturers. I am also thinking F2.8 for shooting night sky shots. Thoughts?
I know of no really good 28's ! They have fallen into dis-favor ?
For Panos I would like the Sigma 35 1.4 and for single shots the Sigma 24 1.4 OR 20 1.4 if you like wider and crop if need be .
G Brown
Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK
If you shoot Panoramas your pixel count goes up x number of shots / amount of shot used each time. Therefore you will generally have a big enough pixel count to print large especially if you do two horizontal rows to get a good foreground.
Plus a large print is generally viewed from a greater distance than say a 8 x 4.
With the primes you have I cannot see much benefit between 25 and 28.
Have fun
The Nikkor 20 mm f/2.8 is still highly desired having a 30mm equivalent FOV on a crop famed sensor. Used ones still command a hefty price here in Stumptown.
I think you will find that the new 70-200 f/2.8 FL (some call it the VRIII) will meet your needs. It's probably the best Nikon lens available today – period. I bought it and I am blown away. I have most of the good lenses and I am extremely happy. Check the reviews. For night star shots I would still recommend the 14-24 f/2.8. I use a setting of ISO 3200, f/5.6 and a shutter speed of about 20 seconds on my D810. Good luck.
John Howard wrote:
I searched the topic and did not find the answer to my exact question. I am an advanced amateur. Not paid but have been published a few times. Over the past ten years have gradually upgraded my gear. I shoot a lot of landscape and use everything from ultra wide (14mm) to long (200mm) lenses for perspective and details. I know with a high pixel sensor I need the best glass. For use with my D810, I am thinking of investing in the most sharp lens I can find so I can capture all the detail and print very large. I think it does not need to be ultra wide as I can do panoramas and stitch the images together. I am wondering what you all think is the most flexible medium wide lens. The primes I currently have are 15, 21, 25, 35, 50, 85 and 90. All pretty good but not great. My zoom lenses run the range from 14 to 400. Again, all pretty good Nikon lenses. I am leaning toward 28mm and want to settle on the length before I look at manufacturers. I am also thinking F2.8 for shooting night sky shots. Thoughts?
I searched the topic and did not find the answer t... (
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Glad someone usually fills us in on equivalent crop sensor FOV,even if full frame use is the topic.
DaveO wrote:
Glad someone usually fills us in on equivalent crop sensor FOV,even if full frame use is the topic.
The 20 would be wonderful at full frame.
LoneRangeFinder wrote:
The 20 would be wonderful at full frame.
I have to stop....too many good things out there!
Gene51
Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)
John Howard wrote:
I searched the topic and did not find the answer to my exact question. I am an advanced amateur. Not paid but have been published a few times. Over the past ten years have gradually upgraded my gear. I shoot a lot of landscape and use everything from ultra wide (14mm) to long (200mm) lenses for perspective and details. I know with a high pixel sensor I need the best glass. For use with my D810, I am thinking of investing in the most sharp lens I can find so I can capture all the detail and print very large. I think it does not need to be ultra wide as I can do panoramas and stitch the images together. I am wondering what you all think is the most flexible medium wide lens. The primes I currently have are 15, 21, 25, 35, 50, 85 and 90. All pretty good but not great. My zoom lenses run the range from 14 to 400. Again, all pretty good Nikon lenses. I am leaning toward 28mm and want to settle on the length before I look at manufacturers. I am also thinking F2.8 for shooting night sky shots. Thoughts?
I searched the topic and did not find the answer t... (
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I use a 45mm F2.8 PC-E lens for most of my landscapes on a D800. The shift makes simple panos easy, and the tilt offers some help with depth of field. Also, because the image circle is so large, you get very consistent corner to corner image sharpness and freedom from aberrations that you won't see in most fast primes. I also have the 24 and the 85 - but the 24 is the one I use least. I also have the 14-24 and that rarely comes out of the bag. For most of my landscapes I use the 45, 85, 80-200 and 100-300.
Gene51 wrote:
I use a 45mm F2.8 PC-E lens for most of my landscapes on a D800. The shift makes simple panos easy, and the tilt offers some help with depth of field. Also, because the image circle is so large, you get very consistent corner to corner image sharpness and freedom from aberrations that you won't see in most fast primes. I also have the 24 and the 85 - but the 24 is the one I use least. I also have the 14-24 and that rarely comes out of the bag. For most of my landscapes I use the 45, 85, 80-200 and 100-300.
I use a 45mm F2.8 PC-E lens for most of my landsca... (
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Yes the 45 PC would be a great lens for a full frame landscape & Panos make it even better. Do you generally shoot these in a vertical orientation?
There are some subjects I like ultra sharp, but rarely landscapes! (At least not of the natural sort. Urban landscapes is a different matter.)
I use the 24-70 Nikon f2.8 lens on both my d810 and D800. I regularly print and sell images up to 40" wide with excellent detail. I use it for night skies and printed and sold a pano 8 feet wide and everyone liked the detail. It is the best lens I have ever used. Has excellent contrast and is very sharp edge to edge. It is married to my d800 unless I do night skies, then it cheats on its mate and matches with the d810 because the 810 does not have the low pass filter.
billnikon
Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont
John Howard wrote:
I searched the topic and did not find the answer to my exact question. I am an advanced amateur. Not paid but have been published a few times. Over the past ten years have gradually upgraded my gear. I shoot a lot of landscape and use everything from ultra wide (14mm) to long (200mm) lenses for perspective and details. I know with a high pixel sensor I need the best glass. For use with my D810, I am thinking of investing in the most sharp lens I can find so I can capture all the detail and print very large. I think it does not need to be ultra wide as I can do panoramas and stitch the images together. I am wondering what you all think is the most flexible medium wide lens. The primes I currently have are 15, 21, 25, 35, 50, 85 and 90. All pretty good but not great. My zoom lenses run the range from 14 to 400. Again, all pretty good Nikon lenses. I am leaning toward 28mm and want to settle on the length before I look at manufacturers. I am also thinking F2.8 for shooting night sky shots. Thoughts?
I searched the topic and did not find the answer t... (
show quote)
With your 810 speed of lens becomes a mute issue because it can operate at such a high ISO it takes lens speed out of the equation. My favorite landscape lens is the Nikon 16-35 f4.
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