This look is mainly about scene contrast and post-processing, not a special camera. A wide-angle lens is typical, and a stopped-down aperture helps give deep depth of field and can make sun rays more pronounced. Focus carefully because the foreground is close.

The key is that this is very likely a multi-exposure HDR or exposure-blended image. The brightness range between the sun/sky and the backlit foreground is too great for a single exposure to handle cleanly. A graduated ND may help in some situations, but it won’t fully solve a scene with the sun in frame. A polarizer might help a little, but it isn’t essential.

Timing and framing matter a lot. The sun may be partially obscured by a cloud, which reduces intensity and helps keep the bright area under control while still showing rays.

There are no universal “magic settings” beyond using what the scene requires: wide lens, smaller aperture, and bracketed exposures. In post, blend or tone-map carefully to recover foreground detail while keeping the sky believable. For web-sized images, crop vs. full-frame matters less than technique; for large prints, lens quality and larger formats matter more.