Is one lens enough for the great outdoors

[Whale]

Dear All

Grateful for your views. Took the plunge into landscape photography and brought the 5D MkII (having had a compact). This was the easy bit (well not the price). Decided on a single lens to get started with. With hindsight should have gone with a canon zoom but put my eggs into one very small basket and got the Zeiss EOS fit 2.8 21mm. Its a wonderful lens and I love the challange of focusing manually using hyperfocal distance. I miss being able to zoom in on a scene - having to pick up the tripod and walk in for a more intimate shot. But this does have a old fashioned large format feel to the process. Is it possible to build up a diverse portfolio with one lens, or am I limiting myself too much. I painted landscapes for many years so feel comfortable with framing and light, I'm just very new to the technology. All views welcome

Steve

 

[Keebsuk]

Hi there Steve and welcome to the forum.

It sounds like you have researched what you wanted and that is certainly a cracking lens.

You can easily get away with just the one lens but I would consider just one more. In addition to a Sigma 10-20 f3.5 I also use the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 hsm OS for landscape work. You will also find a lot using the Canon mk2 version as these allow you to compress the image and get a different feel.

These two lenses will be perfect unless you decide to go down the lines of a MF!!

I look forward to hearing and seeing how you get on.

Andy

 

[macvisual]

Great body and lens choice Steve.

What about (excuse the pun) staying focused with the 21mm/5D Mk2 until you can afford the likes of a 50mm, 85mm or 135mm lens.

Keep shooting lots with your simple set-up, hard to beat, less is more etc.

 

[woof woof]

In addition to a Sigma 10-20 f3.5 I also use the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 hsm OS for landscape work. These two lenses will be perfect unless you decide to go down the lines of a MF!

Just a quick note. I'm sure that the Siggy 10-20mm is a nice lens but it's APS-C and the OP has a 5D.

Personally I'd give a miss to any non macro prime of f2.8 or less but I can see the attraction. As a companion how about a Siggy 12-24 or Canon 17-40 or 16-35mm? and maybe later a Siggy 50 or 85mm f1.4?

 

[LongLensPhotography]

As good as 21mm is you are potentially missing out on too many great shots that can't be taken at 21mm. 24-70 and 70-200 is typically regarded as the gold standard. I tend to agree.

 

[BacktotheFuji]

I have an old Contax mount Carl Zeiss 35-70/3.4 Vario-Sonnar which is amazing on my 5D as a walkaround The other single lens I could get away with is the Carl Zeiss Planar 50/1.4...an astonishing optic! Would love the 21mm Distagon though, or even the 35/1.4

 

[Alastair]

I think one lens, one body could produce a very interesting portfolio.. potentially a lot more cohesive than many others. I'll be very interested to see the results.