The Wild Photographer
Learn techniques, tips, and tricks for improving your wildlife, travel, landscape, and general nature photography with Court Whelan. Whether you consider yourself a beginner, serious hobbyist, or advanced professional, this is the way to rapidly understand and implement new skills to elevate your photography to new heights.
The Wild Photographer
A Beginner's Guide to Picking a Wide Angle Lens
The wide angle lens is a thing of beauty--it's probably the most crucial piece of any photographer's gear bag. They're a must for landscape photography, but also really excellent at travel and cultural photography, and even wildlife photography if you get the right one. Plus, they give you a lot of bang for your buck and are often a beginner photographer's first entry into high quality lenses due to relative affordability.
In this episode I dive into everything that makes up this category of lens, including zoom range and ideal focal lengths, aperture ratings, overall quality, focus motor, image stabilization, and even prime lenses and ultrawides.
If you're thinking about upgrading or simply wanting to know more about the abilities and flexibility you have with your wide angle lens, this is a packed episode full of photography goodness.
My top pick for a wide angle lens: 24-105mm f/4
Canon
Nikon
Sony
Other considerations
Canon 24-70 f/2.8
Sony 24-70 f/2.8
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
Rokinon Page
Canon Page
Hey folks, welcome to the Wild Votographer. Today's episode is for the beginners out there and maybe even the intermediates that are looking to buy a wide-angle lens. This might be their first wide-angle lens. It might be a big upgrade. Today's episode is an attempt to give you pretty good detail on the ins and outs of why you might want to look at this as your first really big upgrade or really your first purchase of a solid lens the why's, the how's, the what's, kind of everything that you want to know about it. Again, from the idea of selecting slash purchasing maybe first, maybe an upgrade, let's start off with why they're great, why we need them, why I personally view this as probably, even as a wildlife photographer, a good, solid wide-angle lens might be my most important lens in my kit. Well, they're great for just walking around. They're great for all the in-between shots. They're great for practicing. They're great for landscapes and travel shots and cultural shots. They can be very, very good for wildlife shots, whether it's close wildlife, big wildlife, wildlife in landscapes, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. When we talk about telephotos, it takes thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to get to that point where you have tip-top quality in your glass, for wide-angle lenses not so much. You can get a really, really solid wide-angle for eight, nine, $100, $1,000, and it's gonna be among the best for your camera system. So there are many, many reasons why you need these. If we get into the videography aspect, they're kind of like the go-to for most videography as well. So there's just a litany of reasons why you need a great wide-angle lens, and I'm gonna tell you what to look for going forward in terms of sussing out the aperture, looking at the billed quality, the focal lengths, the range, et cetera, et cetera. We're also gonna touch on prime lenses as well.
Speaker 1:I mentioned a wide-angle lens. I didn't say wide-angle zoom lens. Zoom lenses mean those that have ranges, but in this case we're just talking about all of them. So let's get further into the different focal lengths to start off with. So your focal length range is essentially the range.
Speaker 1:If I were to look at a, say, 18 to 55 millimeter lens, that 18 to 55 is the zoom, it is the range, and what I'm trying to get across to you here is why bigger range isn't always better. I think it's really tempting for beginning photographers to look at these 18 to 400s or 28 to 200, 28 to 300s, and say, oh, one lens that does it all. I don't wanna change lenses. This is a lens that I could use for everything and it seems to be pretty good quality. Well, while there is some real solid founding in those thoughts there, you're gonna get significantly better quality and probably a quite better aperture range if you go for a smaller range. So there's always a balance. There's a yin and yang here where if you select those lenses with a more narrow range, like an 18 to 55, like a 24 to 70, you're gonna get special benefits that you're not gonna get from the big 24 to 240 lenses. So this is really just to say that bigger range isn't always better. The classic ranges that I'm talking about here that I really look for in a wide angle is gonna be like your 24 to 105s. That's probably the biggest range I'm gonna personally use. 24 to 70 is a very, very venerable lens, a very venerable range. I have seen the 18 to 200s from Tamron. They're pretty darn good. Again, if you are just adamant about not changing lenses, it's a pretty good coverage across the spectrum for everything except for really kind of prime wildlife photography. And then you also have the prime lenses of like the 24 1.8 or 24 1.4, the 35 1.4, even though 35 isn't super wide, I would still consider it on the wide end of the spectrum. And then, last, we're going to do a little bit of a deep dive later in the episode about the ultra-wides like the 16 to 35 f2.8s. Those are really really great too, but honestly, most of this episode is going to concentrate on like the 24 to 1.5, 24 to 70, which in the crop frame equivalent would be like your 18 to 55s, 18 to 70s.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's dive into probably the most important other number to look for when you're shopping for a lens, and that's aperture. This is your f number. This dictates the maximum aperture which lets in a lot of light, which gives you that beautiful blur in the background. Now, it does a lot of other things aperture that is, but really what we're looking for is the smallest f number possible. This correlates again to letting in as much light as possible, but also means that when you're getting that great portraiture work, a lot of these wide angle lenses can be great portrait lenses. If you're shooting in an f4, it's quite different than an f2.8. An f2.8 is going to be a lot more blur in that background and foreground. So generally what we're looking for the correlation with quality here is a low f number.
Speaker 1:The other thing you're going to see oftentimes, especially with zoom ranges, when you have an 18 to 55 or 24 to 105, or especially the bigger ranges like the 18 to 200s is you're going to see either a fixed aperture throughout, so you're going to see f slash in just one number, or you're going to see f slash a number, a dash and a second number. That's a. It's an aperture range and so basically what it means is like a classic example is the 18 to 55 that comes with most kits. It's going to be an f 3.5 to 5.6. That means somewhere along the line it's going to change from 3.5 at the widest end of the spectrum, so at 18 millimeters, and as you zoom in it's going to change steadily from 3.5 to 4, from 4 to 4.5 all the way to 5.6 at the maximum focal length. So don't worry about exactly where it changes.
Speaker 1:The idea is that you just won't have a constant aperture throughout. I think it's a little bit frustrating to have that. It's not a deal breaker whatsoever. Most lenses, especially introductory lenses, have that range, but it's really really nice, it's a luxury to have a constant aperture throughout, because you can make better predictions and calculations based on light. In addition, the higher end lenses will usually have a constant aperture and it'll usually be a pretty low F number, or what we call a big maximum aperture. The reason that the small number and the big aperture are the same thing is because aperture really refers to the opening to the lens, and the bigger that opening to the lens, the more light it lets in and essentially the smaller number that that correlates to Just something you have to memorize. There's not a ton of rhyme or reason around it. Again, small F number means big aperture, but the really high quality lenses have small F numbers.
Speaker 1:The 24 to 105 that I use and shoot with most often as my wide angle zoom, is a constant F4. I can't go to 2.8. But also I can keep it at F4 all throughout that range. If you're shooting on like at 18 to 200 or some of the really really big ranges like 18 to 400, you might start at 3.5, which is pretty decent, but then you might go all the way to 5.6, 6.3, sometimes even 7.1.
Speaker 1:And this has to do with the amount of lens elements and construction. It's just hard to have your cake and eat it too. If you were to have an 18 to 200 F2.8 throughout, the lens would be four times the size and cost 10 times as much. I don't think it even exists. But just to give you an idea that yes, it'd be nice to have that small F number for those big ranges, but what we usually see is those small F numbers with the more conservative ranges, like the 24 to 70s versus the 24 to 105. In fact, canada just came out with, I believe, the first ever 24 to 105 F2.8 throughout. The thing looks like a bazooka. It's not a big wildlife lens but it looks like one, simply because the amount of glass and construction needed in all the elements and in the workings of the lens. So anyway, it's really worth understanding that you can't always have every element of a lens in the package. You kind of have to balance it and give and take a little bit.
Speaker 1:So anyway, moving on from there, we're going to go into this quality discussion, and this is another big part. So there's a really easy way to figure out whether one lens is better quality from a photo standpoint than the other, and that's price. A more expensive lens is going to be higher quality in some way, shape or form. But quality is really in a number of buckets. One sense of quality is that aperture. So you can have two very similar lenses, but one shoots at a 2.8 and one shoots at a 4. The 2.8 is always going to be more expensive. Now, that being said, it's almost always the case that the lens that goes down to 2.4 is going to be better quality as well. So there's a really high degree of correlation there.
Speaker 1:But if one lens is $500 and one lens is $1,000 and the focal range is the same and the aperture is the same, there's probably something else going on in there, and it's usually just the quality of the photo. It's better sharpness, it's better contrast, it's better colors. It sometimes is also better build quality. Now again, all these things usually come into one package. But, for instance, the Canon L series lenses, which are really their top of the line, their highest quality, they also come with really high build construction, and that means it's going to be a magnesium alloy frame and barrel versus plastic. The rings, the focusing dials, are going to be a little bit better constructed, sometimes a lot better constructed, and then ultimately they're going to be probably weather and dust proof.
Speaker 1:None of these lenses are truly waterproof and you certainly can't submerge them. But having some pretty darn good gaskets and seals on lenses, especially if you're shooting nature and wildlife travel, is going to be really really well worth the money. Not worrying about a little speck of dust getting into your camera when you're on Safari, not worrying about a little, mr Rain, when you're in Alaska, makes a big difference. You do have to pay for that, but again, what usually happens is once you go and bump up to any brand of cameras, top the line lenses whether it's Sony, olympus, canon, nikon, any of them there's going to be a pretty big price bump. You might be wondering well gosh, everything looks really really similar. The only thing different is the F number and just the look of the lens, and it's going from $400 for the inexpensive version to $1,200 for the top of the line. Well, it's probably waterproof, it's probably dust proof, it's probably a significantly better image and it probably has a better aperture rating. Even if a small difference again, like F4 to F2.8, it makes a really big difference for professional photographers and it's something that you might want to consider getting into.
Speaker 1:One quick side note here it's oftentimes a lot to swallow if you're a beginner photographer in looking at a big investment. You might have paid less for your camera than the lens you're about to buy. But I will tell you that lenses at the top end of quality very, very often hold the vast majority of their value as long as you're buying them, not when they're just about to be replaced by the camera manufacturer with a new version. You know something like if they're within the last four or five years, you can probably resell them at some point for 70, 80% of their value, which means that when you go to make this big investment yes, it's money out of your pocket, but it's not like it's out of your pocket forever You're going to be able to recoup all that.
Speaker 1:And sometimes you know I've done calculations of my lenses over the years and I've essentially rented a great lens for $400 for four or five years because I buy it for 1200, and I sell it four or five years later for 800. And it's still worth that amount of money. I'm not pulling a con man thing over anybody. It's still worth that amount of money. People are willing to pay for it because you bought the top of the line, less expensive lenses. If I were to buy a $400 lens, the chance of selling it for 350, four or five years later, very, very slim. Cammin manufacturers replace those lenses more often in terms of newer, better versions and generally you're just not getting a lot of people looking for used lenses at that more beginner category. They do look for them, but you might buy a lens for 400 and be able to sell it for 100 or 150, something like that. So, again, really nice to recoup that investment and just knowing that when you're making that initial decision of you know how big are you going to go, I think makes a big difference.
Speaker 1:Now the next thing we're going to talk about is weight and size of your lens and as a beginner you're going to really want to consider this because you're going to have to travel with it, you're going to have to hold it, you're going to have to put in your backpack, you're going to have to put in your carry on. So the weight and size makes a big difference. I will tell you, personally it's something that I rarely, rarely consider and look at. I know that the weight and size is going to increase with quality lenses, especially when you get into those lower F numbers, those bigger maximum apertures, if you take two lenses and one is an F4 and one is a 2.8, it's going to increase by 50% weight, 100% weight, it might you know, it might truly double. Like I just said, from this example, the 24 to 105 that Canon has, the F4 version looks like a quote unquote normal lens. The F2.8 version looks like a bazooka. So just know that that is a factor when you get into these lenses. Obviously, when you're thinking about a bigger range, an 18 to 200 is a heck of a lot bigger than an 18 to 55. Interestingly, when you compare the 24 to 105, the 24 to 70, that 24 to 72.8 is actually bigger than the 24 to 105 because well, you guessed it, it's F2.8.
Speaker 1:Now the other thing I want to talk about is you know, I'm just sort of getting in my mind to the idea of these prime lenses, girls. We're talking about weight and space and size. If you're the kind of person that wants to absolutely be minimal and are willing to sacrifice some flexibility pretty much all the range, meaning you're not going to be able to zoom, you're stuck and fixed at that focal length you might want to consider looking into prime lenses and when we're talking about wide angle lenses for beginning photography of landscape, travel, even wildlife in landscape, usually what I'm looking at is, on a full frame camera, something around 24 millimeters, and for a crop frame camera, something around 18 millimeters. That's sort of the the nice wide end of the spectrum, such that you don't really need to go wider unless you're in really special circumstances. Like I said, we're going to get into those ultra wides in a second.
Speaker 1:But as far as prime lenses, what are you going to get with a prime lens that you don't have? With the range, what is? What is the quid pro quo? What is the balance there? Well, the first thing you're going to get is a better price Usually prime lenses, because they don't have as much tech and development and inner workings. You're going to get a really high quality lens for maybe half the price, or at least the same price as one of these zooms, but you're going to get a significantly better aperture. You're going to get significantly better glass quality. So by sacrificing that range, you do bump up other parts of your lens that are really really nice to have. So, for instance, a 24 to 1.8 or 1.4 might be five or $600, but it's going to be the same quality as a 24 to 105. That might be $1,000 or $1,200. What are you not going to get? Well, you're just not going to get that range. It's going to be smaller, it is going to be lighter, you're going to get a better aperture and the quality is going to be very, very similar.
Speaker 1:Now, one other thing I haven't talked about much and it's just donning on it on me to mention this now is the idea of image stabilization. This is now a pretty commonplace thing in photography and that's something you want to absolutely be on the lookout. When you see the focal length of the wide angle lens you're looking at, picking out, and all these numbers and letters behind it. We talked about aperture, so that f slash number is your aperture. What we didn't talk about is the IS or the VR. Canon uses IS, nikon uses VR, I think Sony uses VR, and they are all just basically acronyms, initials for their vibration reduction system or image stabilization system, is for image stabilization. Having it is really really, really, really nice. Not many cameras are without it.
Speaker 1:Most cameras have image stabilization or, sorry, most lenses have image stabilization these days, so it's not something that you need to intently look out for, and you probably won't be weighing a lot of differences, apples and oranges, between two lenses and one that doesn't have IS and one that does. But be careful when you get in especially. The reason I'm mentioning this now, especially in a prime lenses, is that oftentimes they're such niche lenses that they may or may not have image stabilization. And if you say, oh gosh, well, I don't need to zoom and I want a small package, I want a really, really great aperture, I'm going to pick up this, this 24, this 20, those are the category of lenses that sometimes that image stabilization or that vibration reduction drops off. So just be aware of that.
Speaker 1:The final thing we're kind of on this nomenclature thing I want to talk about is the focus and mechanism. So obviously all these lenses nowadays are going to be autofocus. There are very, very few camera manufacturers that stick with manual focus and they're more for niche category of lenses like astrophotography et cetera. Samyang and Rokinon they make a lot of really great, affordable lenses in the prime range, like 20 millimeters, 24 millimeters. They don't zoom, they're you're stuck at that focal range, but extraordinary apertures like 1.8, 1.4, sometimes 1.2, at pretty affordable prices like less than $500. What do you not get with those? Well, you don't get image stabilization and you probably don't get autofocus.
Speaker 1:To me, autofocus is a must for this category of lens. It just saves me so much time. It's more accurate oftentimes than what I can see in the back of the screen or through my viewfinder to manually focus. It's just a pretty crucial thing. But what you will often see when the lenses are being named, or the actual writing on the barrel of the lens, is it might say USM or other various acronyms that stand for the type of focus mechanism.
Speaker 1:Now every camera manufacturer has a slightly different way of explaining their nano focusing microgear technology. I just want you to be aware that with the advent of new cameras and new lenses, these lenses are getting better at focusing. They're more silent and they're quicker. So I didn't mention this when I was talking about quality, but that's another real, real benefit of a high quality lens is focusing speed, autofocusing speed. You can usually get a much faster focus with a high quality lens. So I know. I'm a Canon guy, so I know Canon has a USM designation, which stands for ultrasonic motor. I think they even have a faster one like STM that stands for something fancy. These days I don't really get into the weeds of the category of fancy autofocus speed, but I do make sure that I'm considering that when I'm looking at the price versus the range, versus the aperture, am I getting all of this or just part of it? And what is most important to me? Usually that quiet focusing motor is most important for videography, but oftentimes they are associated with the fastest autofocusing speed as well. So, yeah, if you're getting a new lens with new tech, you're probably going to be getting one of those really nice quiet focusing motors, but again, something as a beginner to keep an eye out for when you're shopping for a lens.
Speaker 1:Okay, last but not least, I told you we're going to talk a little bit about ultra wide angles. So ultra wide angles are those that are even wider than your classic wide angle lenses. So I keep on going back to like the 18 to 55 on crop frames, the 24 to 70 on full frames. An ultra wide would be like a 10 to 22 on a crop frame or a 15 to 35 on a full frame. You wouldn't think that that you know nine millimeters or eight millimeters of difference in the number makes a big difference, but it absolutely does. There's a disproportionate effect of each unit. As you go towards the lower numbers, the wider angle of the spectrum. So, yeah, a 10 to 22 gives you a lot wider shot than the 18 to 55. It makes quite a big difference.
Speaker 1:So, uh, do I recommend them? I don't think they replace your general wide angle lenses, your your multi purpose wide angle zooms. They're really really nice to have. There was a period of my life where I was shooting mostly on my 16 to 35 and and kind of keeping my 24 to 105 in my bag. But honestly, now that I'm shooting more and more in far flung destinations, that extra reach is hugely important for me. I just prefer to have that on because if a wildlife spectacle does present itself and I'm stuck with a 16 to 35, I can probably photograph or film the reactions of people around me, but I'm definitely not able to zoom into that animal unless it's like an elephant 20 feet away. So I like them a lot, but they have much more niche applications for, like indoor photography.
Speaker 1:They're really they are great for people photography, because people you can get really close to and oftentimes, especially in travel photography, you are in closer quarters, you're in vehicles, you're in boats, and so they're really great for documenting the action and the vibe of an experience. They're really great for big landscape photography. But oftentimes people think, oh yeah, big, beautiful landscapes, let me get my ultra wide angle out. Ironically, sometimes those big landscapes necessitate zooming in a little bit, so an ultra wide is not always the best case for big landscapes. To boil it down, an ultra wide angle lens is really great for if you are in tight quarters or photographing the aurora borealis. That's kind of what a boils out to. If you're photographing Northern Lights, heck yeah, you want as much sky as possible and ultra wide is fantastic. In fact, I'm heading to Iceland soon to hopefully photograph Northern Lights. But yeah, you know, you kind of want to be judicious in considering an ultra wide versus a wide angle, because there are merits to each. But I don't think an ultra wide replaces a wide angle lens. And there you have it, folks. That's. That's my deep dive on all things. For a beginner, shopping for a new, new, upgraded or just brand new first time general wide angle lens.
Speaker 1:If you have any additional thoughts or questions, please do not hesitate to email me at thewildphotographerpodcast at gmailcom. Again, thewildphotographerpodcast at gmailcom. We'd love to hear from you ideas for new episodes, questions that are burning in your mind. If you want deeper information on anything I've talked about here, this is how I get fuel and inspiration for future episodes, so please don't hesitate to give me an email and, of course, if you would like to leave a rating on Apple podcast or Spotify or wherever you're listening to, that's the way to support me and help me best in my podcast ventures. So thank you so much for leaving a rating and possibly even a comment. You can leave up to a five star review, and it does indeed help get my reach out there and support the podcast. So thank you so much and we'll talk to you next time.