For tripod landscapes on a Canon 7D, should I buy a 24mm prime and crop, or a 15-85mm zoom?
Asked 9/27/2010
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I shoot mostly nature and landscapes on a tripod with a Canon 7D (18MP RAW). Most of my prints are 12x18 inches or smaller, usually black-and-white on matte paper at about 200 dpi. I don’t really need image stabilization, autofocus, or a very fast maximum aperture.
Would I get better results from a high-quality 24mm prime and cropping when needed, or from a good midrange zoom such as a 15-85mm? My concern is whether the prime’s higher optical quality would outweigh the loss of resolution from cropping, especially since I don’t print very large.
I’d also appreciate any practical guidance on how much cropping is reasonable before image quality drops below what would matter for prints of this size.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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With landscapes you are going to be shooting at fairly small apertures so a medium range zoom will do the job very well actually. Even cheap lenses are sharp when used at the optimum aperture (usually f/5.6 - f/8). What you pay for with the 24 f/1.4 among other things is the very wide max aperture, which you don't really need. It may be sharper at say f/2.8 but you are going to lose the advantage quite quickly when you start cropping.
Originally by user1375. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1375
15y ago
0
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For your use, a good zoom is usually the better choice.
In landscape work you’ll often shoot around f/5.6 to f/8, where many zooms perform very well. The big advantage of a 24mm f/1.4 prime is its very wide aperture, which you said you don’t really need.
The main issue is cropping cost. Cropping a 24mm image to match an 85mm field of view throws away most of the pixels: on an 18MP 7D, that leaves only about 1.4MP. That’s far too little if you want the flexibility of 85mm framing. Even for a 12x18 print at 200 dpi, you only have limited room to crop before resolution becomes a problem.
A rough guide from the answers: with 18MP and a 12x18 print at 200 dpi, you can crop by about 1.4× and still have enough pixels. So a 24mm shot might crop acceptably to roughly a 35mm equivalent, but not anywhere close to 85mm.
So: if you mainly need one focal length, a prime can make sense. But if you use a range of focal lengths for landscapes, a quality zoom is far more practical and will likely give better overall results than heavy cropping from 24mm.
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