There are a variety of Nikon lenses for landscape photography that will allow you to shoot beautiful and mesmerizing landscapes while going out for travel or adventures. In this guide, you will find the top Nikon lenses for landscape photography of all levels.
Generally, a wide-angle or ultra-wide-angle lens would be suitable for taking photos of landscapes. The focal lengths of these lenses remain in a range of 24mm to 35mm and 8mm to 24mm respectively. They are available as prime lenses or zoom lenses.
Prime lenses come with a fixed focal length but better optical quality, which means they perform well in low-light situations. Zoom lenses, on the other hand, offer more flexibility and provide significant reach to the subject. If you are a beginner photographer, a zoom lens would be a good choice for you.
Now let’s take a look at some of the best Nikon lenses for landscape photography.
1. Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED
The Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G was released in August of 2007 and it’s still a contender with its outstanding edge to edge performance, great contrast, and excellent colors. It’s known to be Nikon’s sharpest ultra-wide-angle lens for landscape photography.
The lens is mostly built with metal while the non-removable front end is made from plastic. It’s been built to withstand harsh treatment and extreme adventures. The body is completely weather-sealed, so there won’t be a problem if you take it out for shooting in a hot, humid, or rainy environment.
Its optical design consists of three aspherical and two ED elements and they control chromatic aberrations very well. Nano Crystal Coat is utilized to reduce flare and ghosting effects for excellent image clarity.
You won’t be able to attach any filters due to its non-removable front element, which is, perhaps, the only downside of this lens. Although you have the option to buy a filter holder from third-party manufacturers, they don’t come cheap.
2. Nikon 12-24mm f/4G
The Nikon AF-S DX 12-24mm f/4G IF-ED is a great choice for photographers with DX-format cameras. It’s a versatile wide-angle zoom lens, which is capable of producing an 18-36mm equivalent focal length range on DX-format sensors. The maximum aperture remains a constant f/4 across the zoom range.
Its optical design has two extra-low dispersion elements to handle chromatic aberrations, resulting in great image quality and color accuracy. The other three aspherical elements significantly reduce spherical aberrations and distortion to produce sharp images with excellent colors.
Super Integrated Coating has been applied to each of the elements to ensure color accuracy and contrast while capturing images in extreme lighting conditions. This coating helps reduce ghosting and flaring effects, which comes in handy while capturing landscapes.
The lens features a Silent Wave Motor AF System, which delivers a fast and quiet autofocus performance.
3. Nikon 16-35mm f/4 VR
The Nikon 16-35mm f/4 VR can be an ideal selection for the shooters who want to use different filters with a lens. It’s a very capable full-frame lens for landscape photographers.
You can use 77mm filters with this 16-35mm lens. One of its most highlighted features is its image stabilization capability with up to 2.5 stops of vibration reduction, which significantly reduces the appearance of camera shakes while shooting handheld. This also helps in difficult lighting situations.
Its optical design has three aspherical and two extra-low dispersion elements while Nano Crystal Coat suppresses ghosting, flare, and internal reflections. Autofocus is driven by Silent Wave Motor for quick, silent, and accurate focusing. The lens is also weather-sealed to withstand extreme conditions.
The Nikon 16-35mm f/4 is designed for FX-format sensors, however, you can also use it with DX-format cameras where it gives a focal length range of 24 to 52.5mm.
4. Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR
If you own a DX-format camera, most likely you will be searching through the more inexpensive Nikon lenses for landscape photography. If this is the case, the Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR would be an excellent and affordable alternative.
On a DX-format camera, it will give a focal length range of 24-127.5mm. It’s an outstanding choice for occasional travelers and adventurers who want to capture their incredible moments.
The lens can be fitted on a variety of Nikon DX DSLRs and the amazing part is, it is also equipped with an image stabilization feature with 3.5 stops of shake reduction. While taking the images handheld it will reduce blurry effects from the images and would also help in difficult lighting conditions.
Other key features are its optical design with three aspherical and two extra-low dispersion elements, a Super Integrated Coating and a Silent Wave Motor-driven AF system.
5. Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR
The Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR gives a 36-180mm equivalent focal length range on a DX-format sensor, so it won’t be a suitable choice for wide-angle landscape photography if fitted on a DX-format camera. In contrast, if you are a full-frame camera user, the Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR proves to be a very versatile lens and is best suited for enthusiast and professional photographers.
Not only would it suit your landscape shooting requirements, but also other types of photography such as portrait, street, wildlife, nature, and travel. Therefore, it may prove to be the best lens for adventure seekers who want to capture high-quality photos with detail and sharpness.
The lens has three aspherical and two extra-low dispersion elements and it uses both the Nano Crystal Coat and a Super Integrated Coating to reduce ghosting and flare. It incorporates image stabilization with up to four stops of vibration reduction and its Silent Wave Motor AF system offers fast, quiet, and accurate autofocus performance.
Picking the Best Nikon Lenses for Landscape Photography
Landscape photography is an amazingly popular type of photography among photographers, and the travel and adventure lovers are always in need to find a quality lens so that they can preserve their great moments. Therefore, Nikon and other top manufacturers have been trying to produce some of the best landscape photography-suitable lenses to meet their consumer needs.
In this guide, we presented some of the best Nikon lenses for landscape photography. These lenses come with great features and photo-taking capabilities, with some of them at a very reasonable price. You can pick any of them considering your budget and needs.
