Landscape lens

Bobbyball

Hi, I recently purchased the D3200 and I'm new to photography. I have purchased your cheat cards which have been of great help. I am interested in taking landscape shots (ie sunrise and sunsets) and would like to improve from the supplied lens.

What additional lens would you recommend?

Many thanks.

ohyeahar

While there are wider lenses available, I feel like the wide end of the 18-55mm kit lens to be sufficient for landscape photography. Since you generally shoot at a small aperture for landscapes anyway, it's not necessary to get an expensive large aperture lens. The 18-55mm is actually quite impressive in terms of sharpness and distortion control.

Moose

Hey @Bobbyball - Landscapes are a bit different than something like portraits. Generally for portraits you want to isolate the subject against a blurry background which requires a bright/fast lens to do it successfully in all lighting conditions. With landscapes, you want to get everything in focus, so paying for a bright/fast lens doesn't make much sense.

For landscapes, the most important pieces of gear are a steady tripod, a remote and possibly a ND and/or circular polarizing filter. When shooting sunrises and sunsets, you'll want to use the "HDR" cheat card in order to get both the sky and landscape well exposed. If you can avoid shooting directly into the sun, it will be easier to get everything nicely lit.

I agree with @ohyeahar, stick with the kit lens for now and invest in the other items I mentioned if you're interested in landscape photography. All the best!

peach68

Great stuff. So that lens would be the one I would use then for landscape slow speed waterfall shots? Should I use the end filter as well then? Just got on this forum I think I finally found my go to place. I'm going to buy the cheat sheets as well. Just wondering, can I use my timer setting for the slow shutter shots of a waterfall instead of a remote?

bruto

Yes, you should be fine for waterfalls and slow speeds with the kit lens. A neutral density filter will be helpful to get slower shutter speeds when weather is bright. You generally won't get best results with an aperture smaller than about f/11, or diffraction will begin to soften the image. So if you need a slower shutter speed, a ND filter gives you more choices.

Although it's possible to use a polarizing filter with the kit zoom, all the 18-55mm zooms before the current VRII version that comes with the D3300 have rotating front elements. This means that if the camera auto focuses it will lose the polarizer adjustment. If you're using a tripod and MF, it's doable.

And yes, you can use the self timer. It resets every time, so you have to reset the release mode for every shot. The remote can be set for repeated use, and also is the only way to get a true time exposure if you're going over the 30 second maximum. On "bulb" setting the shutter button will close the shutter when you let go, but the self timer will leave it open and shut it with a second press. I find the remote very handy, and it's also very cheap, but the self timer works fine.