Hello and how the hell are you? If this is your first time here thanks for stopping by. In this blog we are going to cover what is the absolute best camera and lens setup for landscape photography. This is a hard question to answer as it will be different for every person that is out there shooting. The one thing that I look for is a good body and a good lens. This comes down to the preferences that you want to use that setup for. I personally am a landscape photographer so the lens and the body play a huge role in what I love to shoot. With all that being said I am going to cover the best crop body setup as well as the best full frame setup that I have shot in the past and present. Between all the writing in this blog I am going to be showing images from both setups that we are going to be going over today so you can see the types of images that you are going to get with each body and lens setup.
To start this off right you have to love the system that you are choosing. This means that the body has to feel good in the hands. The ergonomics of the body has to fit the way that you shoot. The buttons have to be placed to the point that your finger tips fall in the right places. This is a wonderful experience when you find that body that was built just for you. The second thing that you have to look at is the image quality that the body gives you. This will determine the end results and how happy that you are with it. The last thing that you have to look at would be how you feel when you are shooting with it.
The first setup that we are going to look at is going to be the crop body system and for those of you that have followed my blog for some time are going to be shocked with this setup. The Sony a6400 is the body that I have chosen as the best crop body for Landscape photography. This body offers the user the perfect amount of pro features that makes you feel like a pro out there shooting with it. The AF is so fast that you can get your focus stacked images finished in a matter of seconds rather than minutes. The files that come out of that body are so much fun to push and pull in post. The economics of the camera are perfect if you have small hands and in my case the body is way to small for my hands. The overall experience that I had with this body was I actually ditched my tripod for the year that I was shooting with this system. The body and AF was so good that I felt that I didn’t need the tripod.
With all that being said it is the best body for shooting Landscape photography when not using a tripod the images that the body produced were some of the best that I have ever taken. To make this a fast and easy review of the Sony a6400 it is one of the best bodies that I have ever shot with and when you pair it with a great lens you cannot beat the image quality that you will get with that body. This brings me to the perfect lens for landscape photography with the Sony a6400. The one that I would say gives you the most range and the best look that you can get for that system is one that will cover a wide range with little to no comprise.
The Sony 18-105 f4 power zoom is the best Landscape photography lens that you can buy. The cost of the lens is rather cheap when you are looking at Sony lenses for Landscape photography. The sharpness of the lens is good enough for most applications that you will be faced with. The range of that lens is something that you cannot find in the other OEM’s out there. The 18-105 in full frame field of view is 27-158 which is perfect when out shooting all different types of images. The constant f4 is perfect for shooting in relatively low light. Shooting during sunset and sunrise this lens allows the AF to work like a champ and just wow on how fast it is. The focus stacking for my images was performed so fast when using the Sony a6400 with the 18-105 f4. This lens and body setup is the perfect combo for shooting landscape images.
When you want a better low light setup what is a person to do because the Sony a6400 while good there is just too much noise in the images when it comes to shooting in low light. The one fault that I had with the Sony was how much noise that you get when shooting at higher iso’s. The patterns were not bad but there was a lot of it to the point that I was not happy with how some of my images turned out. So I decided that full frame was the way to go. This brings me to the point of talking about what is the perfect setup for landscape photography using a full frame system. The budget minded out there are going to truly love this setup because you can get a pro level system from the body to the lens for under 600 bucks.
The Canon 5D2 to me is the best landscape camera that one can buy. Yes the body itself is over 15 years old and you have to use a CF card instead of a SD card so that brings challenges of its own. The dynamic range from a single image is just awful. The weight of it is very heavy and if you like the light weight of the Sony a6400 you are going hate this setup. The over all image quality from this full frame setup is going to really make you happy. The Canon 5D2 is so good when you bracket your images the dynamic range of it is three times the amount that you will get from a single image from the a6400. With the Canon 5D2 you get a pro level body with the features that truly allow you to just shoot. Yes the AF is dated but it does the job at the end of the day.
The body also gets you back to the basics of shooting because of the lack of the features that it has compared to the a6400. The real prize of shooting with the 5D2 is the fact that it slows you down to the point that you are more focused on shooting rather than feeling like you are in a rush to get that banger of a image. I can tell you that is what I felt like when shooting with the Sony I was rushing around getting good images but not great images. The 5D2 gives you speed but also makes you slow down and truly look for a comp because you will find yourself really working the scene with that body. Now as for the lens that you put on the body. It has to cover a range that will give you the most range and has to be sharp enough to showcase the scene that you have chosen to shoot.
The lens that I found to give me the most range and sharpness is the Canon 24-105 f4 version 1. This alone is the best all around lens for Landscape photography that I have found to date. You get 24mm at the wide end and 105mm telephoto at the long end. When you look at it from the point of view that you are covering so much focal range you cannot beat it. The corners are sharp especially when focus stacking your images. I have found that by bracketing and focus stacking al most all of my images the finished product is on par with the newer models that are out there. The combo of the Canon 5D2 and the 24-105 is the perfect setup for a one lens and one body setup for landscape photography. I truly love the work that I am getting out of that setup.
This has been a fun blog to write I hope that you enjoyed it and found it useful when buying your Landscape photography setup. If you decide that the crop body is the way to go then the Sony a6400 and the 18-105 f4 is going to be the best of the best setup that you could buy. If you decide that full frame is the way to go then the Canon 5D2 and the 24-105 f4 is going to be an outstanding choice and you cannot go wrong. Either way you will be truly happy with each setup and what it has to offer you. Enjoy from St Johns AZ y’all
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