Newbie question - low light on 550D

Y

YLK

New member
I've read some articles which recommended using bright/fast lenses to get the best video quality. I'd like to shoot landscape with 550D and have been thinking - if I use 50/1.4, then the DOF will be very thin. To get it as deep as possible I should turn F to the highest possible number. However by this I will be limited the quantity of light entering the camera, so will loose the original advantage of the lense.

Please kindly advice how to shoot landscapes - what lenses should be used, what camera setting.

Apologies if this was discussed in the past.

TIA!
 
Landscape = Usually Wide shots, so you need a wide lens.

One of the best lenses IMO is the Tokina 11-16mm @ f/2.8


Personally when shooting landscape only do it when there's light or magic hour, anytime after that you wont be able to see anything if the environment is not lit up. Fast aperture lenses are good for when you are shooting still objects or telling a story in a certain "concentrated area". Since your focus plain is very thin you really cannot move when shooting at any aperture below f/1.8
 
Thank you for swift response.

There is aperture of the lense and the one that can be set in the camera. The Tokina 10-16 has fixed aperture but I understand that I can change it to any other one in the camera and hence get deeper DOF (which seems to be the main requirement for landscape photography). Is it recommended or not?

Can I shoot at 11mm and F=10 (provided there is enough light)? What if I use 15-85 at the wide end and F=10?

What about Canon 10-22? It is lighter than Tokina, but aperture is not fixed. Or Sigma 8-16?
 
of course you can set your aperture, "constant aperture" here just means that maximum aperture is the same across the zoom range (from 11mm to 16mm)

if you're planning to shoot with a deep field, you don't need a fast lens, you just need a lens that is sharp and nice at the aperture you're going to set it at

the "get a fast lens" advice usually comes because a) you'll need it for low light, b) you'll need it for shallow depth of field, and c) good lenses are usually faster than bad lenses

but c) is not a universal rule: there are great slow lenses, and I know that my leitz elmarit-r 35mm f/2.8 is sharper than its faster and more expensive sibling, the leitz summicron-r 35mm f/2.0

you may want to visit this site for lens comparisons:
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/...meraComp=474&SampleComp=0&FLIComp=0&APIComp=4
as you'll see on that link, at 16/17mm and f/8 the tamron 17-50 f/2.8 non-VC is actually sharper and displays much less CA than the widely appraised tokina 11-16 f/2.8; what it doesn't do is go down to 11mm

consider what kind of images you'll want to get out of it, and get the lens you need
 
Thanks a lot for the explanations and information - very, very helpful! Finally I know what the reason for purchasing fast lenses was.
I will check the website you provided link to - thank you!

I wonder if there is any kind of tutorial concerning landscape shooting - any information would be appreciated!
 
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