Last updated on February 19th, 2024
When capturing breathtaking landscapes, having the right camera lens is essential. You want a lens that can capture the entire scene with sharpness and clarity, no matter how far away the subject is. There are plenty of options when it comes to lenses for your Canon camera, so let’s take a look at some of the best Canon lenses for landscape photography.
But first.
Why Landscape Photography is Beautiful
Landscape photography captivates viewers with its immense beauty and artistry.
A landscape photograph has the potential to capture the grandeur of a vast panorama or the tranquillity of a seemingly still moment in nature.
It allows viewers to pause, step back, and note the incredible details in our natural world.
With the ebb and flow of light across space, a landscape portrait conveys more than just sight alone; it unlocks emotions by creating an intimate feeling for anyone that takes it in.
Truly, landscape photography is captivating — allowing everyone to appreciate nature’s endless beauty through a unique aesthetic lens.
Best Canon Lenses for Landscapes
Canon cameras and lenses are an excellent choice for landscape photography because of their superior range and image quality. With high-quality Canon cameras, photographers have greater control over exposure settings and depth-of-field to create stunning outdoor scenes.
Additionally, Canon lenses boast sharpness and clarity that is ideal for capturing expansive vistas or intricate details with clarity.
Furthermore, Canon camera systems are designed to give the photographer access to various useful features, such as dual-pixel auto-focus, allowing users to get more out of their photography tools.
All in all, Canon cameras and lenses provide landscape photographers with the necessary tools to take their pictures to the next level.
Here is a review of the best Canon landscape lenses to pair with your Canon camera:
1. Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM Lens
If you’re looking for a lens that can capture stunning ultra-wide angle shots, look no further than the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM Lens.
This powerful zoom lens offers an impressive 3x zoom range from 16mm to 35mm, making it perfect for capturing expansive views across vast distances without compromising image quality or detail resolution.
Its fast maximum aperture of f/2.8 ensures excellent low-light performance and depth-of-field control, while its advanced optics help reduces chromatic aberrations and other distortions compared to cheaper lenses on the market today.
The lens also features a rugged, dust and weather-sealed construction with a fluorine coating, making it ideal for use in any environment.
The Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM Lens is the best Canon lens for landscape photographers who want to capture stunning wide-angle shots without sacrificing image quality or detail resolution.
Its advanced optics, fast aperture, and durable construction make it the perfect lens for capturing incredible outdoor scenes from majestic mountain ranges to sweeping shorelines.
Whether you’re an amateur or professional photographer, this lens will help you realize your creative vision with ease and precision. Get yours today and discover why it’s the best Canon landscape photography lens available. It can also serve as a standard zoom lens on Canon full-frame DSLR travel cameras.
2. Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens
The Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens is the ideal choice for landscape photographers looking to capture stunning scenery with a Canon RF mirrorless camera.
This flagship lens in the renowned Canon L-series line offers superior image quality, low-light shooting capabilities, and reliable weather sealing against dust and water.
This premium 15-35mm zoom range provides an outstanding balance between wide-angle shots of sweeping landscapes and close-up details of nature or architecture, all while maintaining sharpness right across its aperture range.
The bright constant aperture of 2.8 makes this lens ideal for low-light shooting outdoors, allowing you to photograph during morning dawns or after sunset without sacrificing color accuracy or detail.
The Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 also features an Optical Image Stabilizer which helps reduce vibration when shooting handheld so you can quickly get sharp net images even if your hands are unsteady or if ambient winds are causing movement in long exposures shots like seascapes or star trails photos at night time.
Plus, it has been designed from the ground up to be highly weather resistant against moisture and dust so that you don’t have to worry about damage due to unpredictable elements encountered during outdoor photography excursions.
In conclusion, the Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens is the ultimate Canon landscape lens for Canon RF mirrorless cameras. It offers superior image quality, a bright constant aperture of 2.8 for low-light shooting, Optical Image Stabilizer for handheld shooting, and weather resistance against dust and water.
With its striking clarity, versatility, and reliable performance in any environment, this Canon landscape lens will ensure you capture beautiful scenic shots with your Canon RF mirrorless camera.
3. Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM Lens
The EF 11-24mm f/4L USM Lens is an outstanding Canon landscape and architecture photography lens.
With its wide angle of view, this lens can easily capture spectacular panoramic shots. Its ultra-wide to wide perspectives allow it to cover huge areas in one shot. The clarity of images that the lens produces is superb thanks to the built-in UD elements, which reduce chromatic aberration significantly, resulting in sharp edges across the whole photo.
In terms of durability, you can trust this Canon DSLR lens as it has been weather sealed against dust and moisture, ensuring maximum protection from external elements such as rain or harsh light conditions like direct sun rays.
Additionally, its constant aperture of f/4 ensures consistently high illumination levels even in low-light situations, so you will only struggle to capture night scenes with a flash or tripod.
To sum up, due to its impressive features and versatility, the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM Lens is an excellent addition for any photographer who wishes to take incredible landscape and architecture shots while having complete control over their creativity at all times.
4. Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Lens
The Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Lens is perfect for capturing wide-angle shots of beautiful landscapes and cityscapes.
This lens features a 4x zoom range from 17mm to 40mm, giving you plenty of flexibility when shooting in different environments.
Additionally, its maximum aperture of f/4 helps ensure outstanding low-light performance and depth-of-field control even when shooting at slower shutter speeds or longer focal lengths.
Plus, its advanced optical design helps reduce chromatic aberration and other distortions to get the best possible image quality out of your photos. This lens also uses a USM motor for fast and quiet autofocus performance, making it ideal for capturing those fleeting moments in nature.
These features make the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Lens an excellent choice for landscape photography. So if you want to add dynamic wide-angle shots to your portfolio, this is a perfect choice.
5. Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM Lens
The Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM Lens is the best budget Canon lens for landscape photography with its wide-angle zoom range and excellent image stabilization capabilities.
The focal length of 16 to 28.8 mm (35mm equivalent) gives you a broad field of view, making it perfect for capturing sweeping vistas or fitting more of your foreground into the frame without having to physically back up too far away from what you’re photographing, something that can be difficult to do in crowded urban streets scenes or when physical barriers are preventing you from getting further back from your subject matter.
The Optical Image Stabilizer helps keep things sharp even at slower shutter speeds and helps reduce camera shake caused by hand-holding the camera during low light shooting conditions, so all those night shots won’t come out blurry due to shaky hands on long exposure times.
And because this lens was designed specifically for Canon DSLRs with an EF-S mount, all the features work perfectly together, so you don’t have compatibility issues between pieces of hardware and software like with other brands that only work okay together sometime.
The new iteration has improved chromatic aberration compared to its predecessor, meaning less color fringing and improved image quality in high-contrast scenes.
6. Tamron 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD Lens
The Tamron 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD Lens for Canon EF-S mounts is the perfect all-in-one solution for any budget traveler looking to capture stunning landscapes and wildlife photography with a Canon DSLR camera.
This versatile lens offers an impressive range, covering 28.8 to 640mm of equivalent 35 mm focal length, allowing you to zoom in on distant subjects while quickly capturing wide-angle shots.
The lens features Tamron’s signature High/Low torque modulated Drive (HLD) motor, which delivers quick, precise, and responsive focusing capabilities no matter how far away your subject is.
With its weather-resistant construction, this lens will help protect your camera against moisture or dust conditions that are common outdoors, allowing you greater peace of mind when shooting in challenging environments like forests and deserts.
Additionally, the uniform sharpness and clarity throughout the zoom range ensure consistently beautiful results for your pictures each time you use it.
Furthermore, despite these great features, this lens comes at an incredibly affordable price, significantly lower than Canon’s L Series lenses, making it ideal for those seeking professional quality images without breaking the bank.
Ultimately if you’re looking to take fantastic landscape or wildlife photos with a Canon DSLR, then the Tamron 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD Lens is the perfect lens to do so. With a wide range of focal lengths, lightning-fast and precise focusing capabilities, weather resistance, and an affordable price tag, it’s easy to see why this lens is the best Canon lens for landscape and wildlife photography.
7. Sigma 12-24mm f/4 DG HSM Art Lens
The Sigma 12-24mm f/4 DG HSM Art Lens for Canon EF is a wide-angle zoom lens with outstanding performance and versatility, making it ideal for landscape photography.
With a full-frame DSLR coverage of 12-24mm, this wide-angle zoom lens extends up to 38.4mm on Canon APS-C cameras and covers various shooting situations with its 35mm equivalent focal length range.
The Hyper Sonic Motor (HSM) provides quick autofocus while remaining nearly silent, so you can capture your subjects without disrupting the moments around them.
The optics have also been designed to achieve remarkable optical results, including sharpness and clarity even at maximum aperture settings making this lens perfect for capturing beautiful landscapes with excellent detail across the entirety of the image.
Additionally built into the design are 3 F Low Dispersion (FLD) glass elements which minimize chromatic aberration, as well as 1 Special Low Dispersion (SLD) element, which further enhances overall image quality by providing better color accuracy in both shadows and highlights, creating images with true vibrancy even in dimly lit scenes or locations where light may be available from various angles traversing through many different wavelengths along its path before hitting your subject matter.
8. Tokina atx-i 11-16mm f/2.8 CF Lens
The Tokina atx-i 11-16mm f/2.8 CF Lens for Canon EF is an excellent choice for capturing stunning landscape photos with your Canon DSLR.
Its wide aperture of 2.8 allows you to capture images in low light conditions, making it ideal for astrophotography or twilight landscape scenes.
The lens also delivers superior image quality by minimizing distortion and producing sharp, vivid colors.
Barely any warp is visible in its images due to the advanced optical system that compensates against aberrations while providing consistent corner-to-corner sharpness throughout the entire range of focus points.
With this level of performance, the Tokina atx-i 11-16mm lens will help you bring out detail even at vast scales with incredible depth and clarity across all areas of your shot — perfect for aesthetic photos of landscapes.
For anyone looking for a reliable zoom lens capable of capturing beautiful shots that stand out from the crowd, look no further than this fantastic product from Tokina.
From landscapes to cityscapes, portraits, and everyday moments around town — let your creativity run wild as you take advantage of this superb piece of equipment to produce stunning visuals each time you click the shutter.
9. Sigma 14mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art Lens
The Sigma, 14mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art Lens for Canon EF, is the perfect addition to any landscape photographer’s arsenal.
With a maximum aperture of f/1.8, this wide-angle lens allows you to shoot ultra-low light shots with stunning clarity and accuracy.
Its Hyper Sonic Motor (HSM) ensures astonishingly quick and quiet autofocusing so that you can easily capture breathtaking moments in nature without disturbing the environment around you.
Integrating Super Multi-Layer Coating into each element further optimizes image quality by reducing lens flare, glare, ghosting, and other optical aberrations, which would otherwise reduce sharpness or damage picture detail when shooting in bright lighting conditions such as during sunset or sunrise.
The combination of its range from f/1.8-f/16 and its constant aperture provides photographers with ample opportunities to compose beautiful landscapes while also providing space for experimentation through exposure control and advanced depth of field techniques like hyperfocal focusing, which allow users to maximize their creativity in terms of scene composition at 14mm focal length, adding another dimension to your photographs.
From high-contrast scenes to low-contrast environments — indoors or outdoors, no matter what type of landscape photography is attempted with this lens, the Sigma 14mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art will deliver sharp and stunning results every time.
10. Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
The Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Lens is one of the most popular Canon lenses for capturing landscapes. It has a vast focal range from 24mm to 70mm, making it ideal for capturing sweeping vistas or closeup details in any environment.
The large maximum aperture of f/2.8 allows you to capture images with great depth-of-field and low-light performance, even in challenging conditions.
The lens also features an advanced optical design and image stabilization technology to help minimize distortion and aberrations while shooting in difficult lighting conditions.
Additionally, the USM focusing system is fast and responsive, so you can capture crisp images of your subjects in any situation.
Overall, the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM is a standard zoom lens for landscape photography that also has the versatility to be used for portraits due to its 70mm focal length.
With its wide range of focal lengths and fast aperture, this lens will help you create stunning images with beautiful detail and clarity. Whether shooting in a studio or out in nature, this lens will help you capture amazing photos of your favorite subjects.
3 Magnificent Places for Landscape Photography
Photography is one of the best ways to mesmerize stunning landscapes. With the right camera and vantage point, you can take a picture that looks like it belongs in a magazine.
And if you’re looking for some of the most breathtaking places on Earth, look no further than Iceland, New Zealand, and the Canadian Rockies.
Here are the reasons for our top three picks for landscape photography with your Canon landscape camera.
1. Iceland
Iceland is filled with snow-capped mountains, cascading waterfalls, volcanic deserts, and more.
It’s one of the top destinations for landscape photographers because of its unique features. The Aurora Borealis is one of Iceland’s most beautiful attractions — and if you have a Canon camera capable of low-light photography, you should be able to capture this phenomenon brilliantly.
Additionally, glaciers and ice caves provide a fantastic backdrop to any landscape photo.
2. New Zealand
If you’re looking for a more tropical destination, look no further than New Zealand.
This gorgeous country offers various landscapes, from lush green hills to snow-capped mountains and everything in between.
The best part about taking photos in New Zealand is that there are so many different spots where you can get creative with your shots–from rolling hills to majestic coastlines.
With your Canon camera at hand, you’ll be able to capture the beauty of this country in all its glory.
3. The Canadian Rockies
Finally, we have the Canadian Rockies — a series of mountain ranges in Western Canada spanning the provinces Alberta and British Columbia, and offering genuinely stunning views.
From blue glacial lakes to towering peaks, this region has something for everyone — and it’s especially great for photographers who want to capture some fantastic shots with their Canon cameras.
Whether you’re looking for dramatic sunsets or peaceful sunrise shots, the Canadian Rockies will provide plenty of opportunities for great photos that will last forever.
Whether you choose Iceland, New Zealand, or the Canadian Rockies, all three locations offer fantastic potential for capturing stunning landscapes.
Plus, each location offers something unique — so whatever type of shot you’re looking for, there’s sure to be something here for everyone. So grab your gear and hit the road.
Conclusion
No matter what type of landscape photography you want — wide-angle shots or telephoto close-ups — a Canon lens is available to help you get the job done right.
The three lenses described above are some of the best options available today if you want top-notch image quality and performance when shooting landscapes with your Canon camera, but there are plenty more out there as well, including prime lenses like the ever-popular 50mm 1.8 STM or telephoto zooms like the 75-300mm F4.5-5.6 III.
With so many great choices, finding the perfect lens for your landscape photography needs should be easy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What lens do most landscape photographers use?
Landscape photography is a thrilling pursuit, but it requires the right equipment to capture moments of majestic beauty just as we see them. Enter the versatile range of lenses available today.
Most landscape photographers favor an 18–35mm lens or even an ultra-wide angle 10–18mm lens to take full advantage of those stunning panoramic vistas.
You will find yourself almost excited when you finally get that perfect shot and can bring a whole new perspective to life.
Whatever you choose, this selection of lenses makes capturing breathtaking landscapes easier than ever.
What is the best Canon landscape lens on a budget?
If you’re looking for a Canon landscape lens on a budget, the EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM Lens is here to save your bank account.
This fantastic lens was explicitly designed for cropped-sensor or APS-C Canon budget DSLR cameras, giving you an unbeatable combination of sharpness and pricing.
From pristinely capturing distant horizons in magnificent high definition to bringing life to nearby fields and trees, this lens can fulfill your creative dreams without breaking the bank.
Liya Kravchenkin is an experienced portrait photographer. She has worked with clients worldwide and has even traveled to more than 50 countries. Liya loves photography because it allows her to capture a moment that can never be repeated. Liya also enjoys traveling, learning about new cultures, and seeing the world’s unique natural wonders. Her favorite travel memories are from swimming with dolphins in the Galapagos and eating cheesecake in New York City.
