The best lenses for landscapes: wide-angle zooms for capturing sweeping vistas

I tend to find that the best lenses for landscape photography are wide-angle zooms. Zoom versatility is great for fine-tuning your composition without forcing you to try and get to inaccessible vantage points.

Top-end zooms will generally have a maximum aperture of f/2.8 through the zoom range – while this is good to have, especially when light gets low, it's less important in landscape than it is in other disciplines, as you'll likely be stopping down to get a large depth of field. Therefore, you may want to opt for an f/4 lens, which will be both cheaper and more lightweight to carry.

I've avoided some of the most 'ultra-wide-angle' lenses, as these tend to have integral hoods that preclude the easy attachment of filters. Filters like ND grads can greatly enhance landscape shots, so all of the lenses I've included below feature filter attachment threads.

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Best lenses for landscapes

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Best Canon EF

This Canon lens has a lot going for it. It’s much more affordable than the range-topping EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM but isn’t just an inferior version of the same zoom range. It's more compact and lightweight, and for many, that combination of advantages will outweigh the extra f/stop in aperture rating of the f/2.8 lens, especially as the f/4 only costs about half as much to buy.

It's a pro-grade L-series lens with build quality to match, being robust and weather-sealed, and with excellent handling. Optical highlights include two UD (Ultra-low Dispersion) elements and Super Spectra coating. Fluorine coatings are also applied to the front and rear elements. Sharpness is great generally but could be a little better towards the edges and corners of the image frame.
Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM review.

Best Canon RF

Considering the zoom range, maximum viewing angle, powerful stabilization and all the other features built into this lens, I'm really impressed that Canon has been able to keep the weight and dimensions down to such manageable proportions. The lens is ideal for travel and hiking out into the countryside for landscape shooting.

The lens does extend when zoomed (the barrel is at its shortest length around the 22mm mark), but it’s minimal and the zoom control is smooth. It also feels perfectly balanced and matched to slimline Canon EOS R system mirrorless cameras. Image quality is superb but, as with many lenses designed for mirrorless cameras, it relies heavily on auto-correction for distortion.
See our full Canon RF 14-35mm f/4L IS USM review.

Best Nikon F

Although fairly weighty for an f/4 wide-angle zoom, this Nikon 16-35mm is nevertheless only about two-thirds the weight of most f/2.8 editions. It certainly feels very solid and comes complete with a weather seal on the mounting plate.

The up-market optical design includes two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements to enhance sharpness and contrast while minimizing color fringing, plus Nano Crystal Coat to reduce ghosting and flare.

There’s a typically fast and whisper-quiet ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system, with the usual full-time manual override. The VR (Vibration Reduction) system is a bonus, although it only gives a relatively meager 2.5-stop advantage in beating camera shake.

See our full Nikkor AF-S 16-35mm f/4G ED VR review.

Best Nikon Z

This Nikon is refreshingly compact and lightweight for a full-frame compatible wide-angle zoom. Designed for full-frame mirrorless Z-mount cameras, it’s only about the same size and weight as the Tamron 10-24mm zoom for DX format SLRs.

It nevertheless packs a lot into its diminutive and weather-sealed build, including four aspherical elements, four ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements, Nano Crystal Coat, and a fluorine coating on the front element.

There’s a fast and virtually silent stepping motor-based autofocus system but, as usual with Nikon Z lenses, this comes without a physical focus distance scale. There’s no optical image stabilizer either but that’s no problem because Z 6 and Z 7 cameras have built-in, sensor-shift stabilization.

Typical of Nikon’s Z-mount full-frame compatible lenses, image quality is exceptional with incredible corner-to-corner sharpness. See our full Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 S review.

Best Sony FE

if you thought all wide-angle, fast-aperture lenses had to be super heavy, think again. Tamron's range of f/2.8 lenses for Sony mirrorless cameras are not only surprisingly lightweight but they're also really good quality with a tough, weather-sealed design.

The lens is made up of an LD (Low Dispersion) and (eXtra Low Dispersion) element which help reduce aberrations while the autofocus is almost silent thanks to Tamron's RXD (Rapid eXtra silent stepping Drive) stepping motor.

This lens is compatible with Sony's sensor-shift stabilization which is just as well since it doesn't have any optical image stabilization. The images produced re sharp from corner-to-corner and color fringing and distortions are minimal even without digital corrections in post-production.

At less than half the price and a quarter of the weight of the Sony 16-35mm f/2.6 G Master - it's a bit of a no-brainer as to which one to choose.

Best APS-C

Lenses with a constant f/2.8 aperture are generally thought of as being reserved for professionals, simply due to cost, but this affordable zoom by Tokina comes at a very reasonable price indeed.

This is a refresh of a lens that's been around for quite some time – and the Nikon-mount version has finally gained an autofocus motor, which was previously only on the Canon version.

Sharpness is excellent in the center of the frame, as we discovered in our lab testing of the lens, though we did also notice some minor color fringing and barrel distortion, especially at the wide end.

Overall though, the lens performs very well, and if you don't mind a slightly restrictive zoom range, this is a highly impressive f/2.8 lens to get for the price. Be aware though – it's APS-C (DX format) only. You can mostly only pick them up secondhand now but the plus side of that is you can save yourself even more!

Best Fujifilm X

Fairly hefty for an APS-C format wide-angle zoom, the XF-10-24mm combines a generous zoom range with a constant f/4 aperture rating. It’s impeccably turned out and the high-end construction looks and feels fabulous.

As signified by the ‘R OIS’ lettering in its title, the lens has a physical aperture ring to enhance handling and an Optical Image Stabilizer, albeit with a slightly mediocre 3-stop effectiveness.

There’s nothing mediocre about the optical path, which includes four aspherical elements and four ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements and delivers exceptional sharpness in the short half of the zoom range, even when shooting wide-open.

At longer zoom settings, it pays to narrow the aperture by an f/stop for real bite. See our full Fujifilm XF 10-24mm f/4 R OIS review.

Best MFT

Ultra-wide-angle lenses represent a real challenge for the Micro Four Thirds system, due to its 2x crop factor doubling the ‘effective’ focal length. Even so, there are high-performance zooms to choose from, including the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 7–14mm f/2.8 PRO.

Unlike that lens, the Panasonic has a separate hood and comes complete with a filter attachment thread, while nearly matching the Olympus for maximum angle of view. Further landscape photography credentials include a tough, weather-sealed and freeze-proof construction.

The lens lives up to its Leica billing with excellent image quality, thanks to an exotic optical path that includes three aspherical elements, two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements, one aspherical ED element and a UHR (Ultra High Refractive index) element.

Lab data and comparisons

The graphs below show the comparative performance of the lenses in this guide, based on our in-house lab tests. All of the lenses in the group put in a good performance for sharpness, although the Canon RF and Nikon Z lenses lead the way for this. The Nikon AF-S 16-35mm relies a little more heavily than some on automatic in-camera correction, while ‘averaged’ distortion results flatter the performance of most lenses at their shortest zoom setting.

Scores for sharpness and color fringing are averaged from data taken across the entire image frame, from the center to the edges and corners, throughout the aperture range. For zoom lenses, the scores are also averaged from data measured at all marked focal lengths, and the same applies to distortion. Bear in mind that these average values don't fully reflect specific areas of performance. For example, a zoom lens might have noticeable barrel and pincushion distortion at its shortest and longest focal lengths respectively, which tends to average out when looking at the data overall. For more detailed graphs of each lens's performance, which give the full picture, check out the graphs in our full standalone lens reviews.

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What to look for in the best lenses for landscapes

One important factor to remember with landscape is that an ultra-wide-angle zoom is not necessarily the best choice, because of how important lens filters are in landscape. Ultra-wide angles tend to have a bulbous front element which physically protrudes out from the front of the lens, precluding the ability to attach a front filter like an ND or a polariser.

• Read more: Camera filters explained and why you still need them

Ideally, a good landscape lens should let you fit in as much as possible into the image frame without too much distortion. A close focusing distance can also be more important than you might think, as you may want to place some foreground interest very close to the camera for maximum impact and exaggerating distance between foreground and background.

If you are a little new to the basics of lenses and need to get your head around certain things – don't worry. We have a general guide to the best camera lenses that lays out everything you need to know about which lens to use for which type of shooting.

With all that in mind, here is our pick of the best lenses for landscapes, to suit a wide range of popular cameras.

How we test lenses

We test lenses using both real world sample images and lab tests. Our lab tests are carried out scientifically in controlled conditions using the Imatest testing suite, which consists of custom charts and analysis software that measures resolution in line widths/picture height, a measurement widely used in lens and camera testing. We find the combination of lab and real-word testing works best, as each reveals different qualities and characteristics, and avoids the results being too biased by the reviewer – who may or may not like the "look" of a certain lens.