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Home → Cameras and Lenses

Best Nikon Lenses for Landscape Photography

By Nasim Mansurov 284 Comments
Last Updated On February 15, 2019

What are the best Nikon lenses for landscape photography? After I posted my last article on “Best Nikon Lenses for Wedding Photography“, I have been getting many requests from our readers to also talk about lenses for photographing landscapes, nature and wildlife (another post on best Nikon wildlife lenses will be published soon). In this post I will not only talk about which Nikon lenses I believe are the best for photographing landscapes, but also when I use a particular lens, along with plenty of image samples from each lens. Please keep in mind that the information I present below is a personal opinion based on my experience so far, which is subject to change. No third party lenses are presented either, although some Zeiss, Sigma, Tamron and Samyang lenses are phenomenal for landscapes. If you have a favorite lens of yours for landscape photography that is not listed below, please feel free to add a comment on the bottom of the page with some information and links to pictures (if you have any that you would like to share).

Table of Contents

  • Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G
  • Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G
  • Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II
  • Nikon 24mm f/3.5D PC-E
  • Nikon 24mm f/1.4G

1) Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G

I want to start out with a lens that I have a love and hate relationship with. On one side, the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G is one of the sharpest lenses ever produced by Nikon. It has phenomenal optics (center to corner, throughout the frame and aperture range), beautiful colors, super fast autofocus and an extremely useful focal range for wide-angle photography. On the other hand, it is a heavy, bulky and expensive lens that cannot accommodate filters. Sadly, not just circular filters and filter holders but pretty much any kind of hand-holdable filter. Its round front element shape and the built-in lens hood just make it impossible to use filters. Sure, you can buy a filter holder system from Lee and other manufacturers for this lens to accommodate filters, but it is not cheap and you would have to purchase a set of large 150mm filters, so forget about using your existing filters. I really wish Nikon allowed us to use small replaceable filters close to the lens mount, just like on telephoto lenses and this lens would have been irreplaceable.

Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED

If you do not heavily rely on various filters like I do, then you will never be disappointed with this lens – yes, it is that good. If ability to use filters is a must, the only other full-frame lens from Nikon I would consider would be the Nikon 16-35mm f/4 VR lens (see my Nikon 16-35mm VR Review). If you are a DX shooter, the Nikon 12-24mm f/4 is superb.

Here are some sample images from the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G:

San Juan Mountains Hay Sunset
San Juan Mountains Hay Sunset
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G Image Samples (25)
NIKON D800E + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24mm, ISO 100, 1/80, f/11.0

See my detailed Nikon 14-24mm Review for more information on this lens.

2) Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G

Year after year, the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G has been my #1 most used workhorse lens for landscape photography. While its performance is not as impressive as on the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G, especially in the corners at large apertures, it just needs to be stopped down to f/5.6 and smaller to unveil its true performance. It has a lighting quick AF, beautiful color rendering, extremely useful zoom range on full-frame cameras and it takes filters! But similar to the 14-24mm it also has a few problems – it is bulky, heavy, expensive and has no VR.

Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

Ever since the superb Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR (see my Nikon 24-120mm VR Review) has been released, I have been thinking more and more about switching to it. I have not done it for one major reason: lens build and weather sealing. The Nikon 24-70mm is built like a tank and has suffered all kinds of abuse from me. I have dropped it, exposed it to sub-zero / extremely hot temperatures, used it in very windy and dusty environments, exposed it to extreme humidity and the list goes on and on…it has survived it all and it is still performing like a champ. I honestly do not think the 24-120mm would have survived all that.

I would not recommend it for DX shooters, because it has a not-so-useful 36-105mm equivalent focal length due to the 1.5x crop factor, so something like the Nikon 16-85mm VR would be a great low-cost alternative. I had a hard time picking my favorite images from this lens, because there are too many, so here are a couple from this year:

Why I Love Colorado (12)
NIKON D3S + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38mm, ISO 3200, 1/50, f/8.0
Why I Love Colorado (21)
NIKON D750 + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 60mm, ISO 100, 1/3, f/5.6
Why I Love Colorado (5)
NIKON D700 + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 35mm, ISO 800, 1/200, f/5.0
Yellowstone Lake Sunrise
Yellowstone Lake Sunrise

See my detailed Nikon 24-70mm Review for more information on this lens.

3) Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II

I’m sure you saw this coming – how could I not have the whole “lens trinity” with the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II in this article? I was once approached by another photographer, who asked me what lenses I typically take with me when photographing landscapes. When I showed him my lenses and told him that I rarely leave without my 70-200mm, he was rather surprised. He thought that the 70-200mm was too long for landscape photography and asked me why I would even bother taking this bulky and heavy lens. I showed him a couple of pictures from the day before that I shot with the 70-200mm lens and right after he saw my images, he told me that he would buy it as soon as he returned home.

Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

Landscape photography is not always just about capturing wide-angles and endless panoramas. I find myself often discovering interesting subjects that my 24-70mm is not long enough to capture and that’s when I switch to the 70-200mm to get close and tight. The Nikon 70-200mm is not just a portrait lens as you probably have come to known it – its optical performance is phenomenal for pretty much any kind of photography. The only thing you have to be careful about when shooting landscapes, is not to include any foreground elements that are close to you, or you will have a hard time getting everything in focus, unless your goal is to isolate a subject. The lens is ideal for shooting overlooks or other subjects from a distance. Every once in a while, I use the 70-200mm to shoot large panoramas as well. The only downside of this lens is its bulk and weight.

Here are some image samples of landscapes that I have shot with the Nikon 70-200mm lens:

Formations
NIKON D300 + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 86mm, ISO 200, 1/1000, f/8.0
Waterfall
NIKON D3S + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 145mm, ISO 100, 1/2, f/16.0
Best of 2016 - Nasim Mansurov (35)
NIKON D810 + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 120mm, ISO 100, 1/500, f/9.0
Double Lightning
Double Lightning by Nasim Mansurov
NIKON D810 + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 95mm, ISO 100, 30/1, f/5.6

If you have a DX camera, I would skip this lens and rather have a two lens kit comprised of the Nikon 16-35mm f/4 VR and Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR, which would cover most of your needs. These two lenses are also great for full-frame cameras as a lower-cost alternative to the Nikon “trinity”.

See my detailed Nikon 70-200mm Review for more information on this lens.

4) Nikon 24mm f/3.5D PC-E

The Nikon 24mm f/3.5D PC-E is a special-purpose wide-angle tilt/shift or “perspective control” lens that is ideal for landscape photography. One of the biggest challenges of landscape photography is to bring everything from the closest foreground element to the farthest object in the background into perfect focus. While stopping down the lens certainly helps, you will often find yourself in situations, where you have to emphasize a foreground object by staying very close to it and yet stopping down the lens will not provide sufficient depth of field to capture everything in focus. In addition, stopping down lenses beyond f/11 on full-frame cameras and beyond f/8 on cropped-sensors cameras reduces image quality due to an optical phenomenon known as diffraction. Hence, it is often not a good idea to stop down too much. One option is to use a focus stacking technique, where you take a series of images focused at different points and then use post-processing software to combine those images. However, focus stacking only works well if your scene is very still and none of the objects are moving, so wind and immediate changes in ambient light could spoil the result.

Nikon 24mm f/3.5D PC-E

By using a tilt/shift lens, you can tilt the focus plane in such a way that you could bring the entire scene in perfect focus even at large aperture values. The lens physically tilts up, down, left and right to give you full control over depth of field. There are several potential issues with using this lens. First, it is a manual focus lens. Second, it is a fixed focal length lens, which means that you will have to move around to compose your shot. Third, it only properly fits pro-level DSLRs like Nikon D700 and Nikon D3s and has limited movement on smaller DSLRs. And finally, it is not an easy lens to use and you will have to learn how to properly use the tilt/shift capability and compute depth of field depending on the tilt position. Once you master this lens, it is hard to find anything else that could beat it. Needless to say, its sharpness, contrast and colors are top notch.

Here are some of my image samples from this gem:

PC-E NIKKOR 24mm f/3.5D ED sample 4
PC-E NIKKOR 24mm f/3.5D ED sample 4
Sample #10
NIKON D700 + 24mm f/3.5 @ 24mm, ISO 800, 1/25, f/8.0
Sample #1
NIKON D3S + 24mm f/3.5 @ 24mm, ISO 200, 1/160, f/10.0

See my detailed Nikon 24mm PC-E Review for more information on this lens.

5) Nikon 24mm f/1.4G

If you are looking for the sharpest lens Nikon has ever produced, check out the Nikon 24mm f/1.4G – it is practically flawless in terms of optical performance. This is one lens that I would not hesitate using on any camera body, even the upcoming high-resolution full-frame Nikon DSLRs, because it is one of those lenses that will out-resolve any sensor out there. Aside from its astounding sharpness, contrast and colors, it has a very wide aperture range from f/1.4 to f/16, giving you the versatility to use it for multiple photography needs – from landscape photography to portraiture (especially low-light situations).

Nikon 24mm f/1.4G

Some photographers initially complained about autofocus issues with this lens, but I believe that they might have gotten some bad samples from the first batch, because I have shot with three different samples by now and I did not have any AF problems whatsoever. Lola and I rely on this lens quite heavily for our photography work. Here are some image samples from this beautiful lens:

San Juan Streets
NIKON D700 + 24mm f/1.4 @ 24mm, ISO 200, 1/200, f/8.0
Ocean View
NIKON D700 + 24mm f/1.4 @ 24mm, ISO 200, 1/250, f/8.0
Beach at Night
NIKON D700 + 24mm f/1.4 @ 24mm, ISO 3200, 1/8, f/2.0
Great Sand Dunes Sunset
NIKON D3S + 24mm f/1.4 @ 24mm, ISO 200, 1/125, f/10.0

See my detailed Nikon 24mm f/1.4G Review for more information on this lens.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

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Filed Under: Cameras and Lenses Tagged With: Landscape Photography, Lenses, Nikon, Telephoto Lens, Wide Angle Lens

About Nasim Mansurov

Nasim Mansurov is the author and founder of Photography Life, based out of Denver, Colorado. He is recognized as one of the leading educators in the photography industry, conducting workshops, producing educational videos and frequently writing content for Photography Life. You can follow him on Instagram and Facebook. Read more about Nasim here.

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Steve
Steve
August 28, 2022 3:17 pm

Hi Nasim,

I read and value your articles.
You subsequently reviewed the Nikon 24mm F/1.8G ED lens and found that it was actually sharper than the Nikon 24mm F/1.4G. Would you recommend the Nikon 24mm F/1.8G ED wide angle lens for the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks? Also, you reviewed the Nikon 70-200mm F/4 VR (the lighter version of the 70-200mm F/2.8) – Would you recommend the 70-200mm F/4 VR for the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks?
Please respond to both questions. Thank you – Steve M.

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Vikas Saraf
Vikas Saraf
July 5, 2021 10:31 am

These are one of the most beautiful and thoughtful photos I have ever seen!!

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Reply
Seth
Seth
November 11, 2020 2:23 am

Incredible shots you ‘ve shown above there, i see you used a lot of 24mm lens to shoot your subjects. I’m just wondering would the outcome be the same if you used only one lens for all the shoots? I.e 24-120mm or 24-70mm lens only? Thanks

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Reply
Nawaz Khan
Nawaz Khan
August 27, 2020 10:42 pm

I have nikon d 750, Lenses 14-24mm f2.8, 14-70 mm f2.8, 70-200mm f2.8 . 50mm f 1.4,. Fish eye, Micro 105mm f 2.8, Stigma 50-500, f 4.5., Light Metter Sekonic L-758DR, and other accessories Lens. I have hobby in photography.

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Denzil Mason
Denzil Mason
November 21, 2019 3:26 pm

Hi my name is Denzil i have done more weddings than Landscape i used Nikon D3 and Nikon D750 which of these Camera would you use for Landscape i also have the 24-70mm Lens plus the Nikon 24mm- 85mm i some time use the 80mm-200mm or is there a special Lens for Landscape??

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Ramesh Chaudhary
Ramesh Chaudhary
April 23, 2019 4:10 am

Hi Nasim,
My name is Ramesh and I am from Nepal, the land of the highest mountain in the world, cultural diversity and natural beauty. I am a professional ornithologist and mountain guide. I would like to capture majestic mountains in my lenses and share with other people who are not able to come and see. I would sincerely like to request you to guide me in choosing budget best camera and lenses for landscape photography. Thanking you for your anticipated guidelines.

With a high respect for your professionalism,

Ramesh

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Christopher
Christopher
November 13, 2018 9:07 pm

I mostly take a picture of landscape and portrait. What would you recommend, 24-70 2.8G or 24mm 1.8G?

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E. Sabir
E. Sabir
Reply to  Christopher
November 14, 2018 3:32 pm

Christopher,
I own the 24-70 2.8G, but I am not familiar with the 24mm 1.8G you listed for comparison. I do, however, have a 24 mm 1.4G which is super sharp. I like my 24-70 mm lens also, and in fact it is on my camera most of the time. But if you are really into landscape photography, then you must also have the 14-24 mm lens in your bag. That is the best lens I own. It is amazingly sharp. If you are looking for just one lens for landscape photography, that is the one I’d recommend.

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John Kay
John Kay
September 4, 2018 4:47 am

Nasim thank you for the wonderful article. It personifies what the internet is about- people sharing knowledge. Not only that but your thoughtful and patient answers to questions is also helpful.

Great photos and great information- very nicely done

Thank you

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Olivia
Olivia
September 1, 2018 7:03 am

Hiya,

I’m hoping to get some advice on which lens to get, I can only afford one but I really want a lens that’s great for both wildlife and landscape photography, originally I was looking at Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G and Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4E PF ED VR Lens, but I really do not know what to do!

Any suggestions?

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E. Sabir
E. Sabir
Reply to  Olivia
September 4, 2018 12:10 pm

While I am not sure what Nasim would recommend, I am big into landscape photography and I do swear by my 14-24mm lens. It is an amazingly sharp lens edge to edge. I guess you will need to decide what is a higher priority you to you (widlife or landscape photography), but I think 14-24mm will allow you more opportunities for use so I’d suggest you start with that.

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Sam
Sam
March 21, 2018 8:40 pm

It says it’s been updated in February of 2018 but doesn’t appear to have been. Did you fix punctuation or something??

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