Whats the best lens for landscape shots w A900

Discussion of lenses, brand or independent, uses and merits
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Muzics
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Whats the best lens for landscape shots w A900

Unread post by Muzics »

Can anyone give some insights on the best lens to purchase for an A900 for taking landscape photos.

Thanks
David Kilpatrick
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Re: Whats the best lens for landscape shots w A900

Unread post by David Kilpatrick »

Depdends on your tastes in landscapes. Most people expect a landscape to have an interesting or strong sky, and to get this you need a lens of 28mm or shorter. There is a compromise between the angle of view of the lens, which will give increasingly dramatic sky and cloud rendering as you go to 24mm, 20mm, 16mm etc - and the scale of background detail in landscapes. Just as the sky is squeezed in, so mountains and high ground are reduced in scale and can become insignificant with very wide lenses. They actually benefit from a slightly long lens, 50-100mm, to emphasise hill country. And beyond this there are many landscapes which benefit from a very narrow field of view, such as sections of rolling fields or receding roads, patterns of crops, etc. For those you might well want 400mm.

I would therefore say the best all-round lens for landscapes must be the 24-70mm CZ. You will want something wider occasionally where the subject of the landscape is a strong foreground and there is a good sky, and something longer for a compressed perspective or to get the most from mountain views. The 24-70mm also has the fine detail contrast and colour quality needed for excellent landscape work at ISO 100.

David
Muzics
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Location: Santa Clara Ca
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Re: Whats the best lens for landscape shots w A900

Unread post by Muzics »

Thanks David

I was thinking about the 24-70 anyway this just confirms it, I have been using the Sony 28 2.8 but it has its gripes on the 900. It works ok I just wanted to know what else would be effective on the 900 platform. Thanks again
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