Which lenses suit a Nikon D5100 for landscapes and night photography?
Asked 4/8/2017
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I’m new to photography and will be traveling around Australia with a Nikon D5100. I’d like lens advice for two uses: landscape photography and night photography. What focal lengths and lens features should I look for on a D5100 for each?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
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Without more information specifically about how you envision "landscape" or "night" photography, no one can really give you a specific recommendation without relying on assumptions or their own personal preferences in these matters.
For landscape, it really depends on what/how you plan to shoot. Some folks use telephotos, others use ultrawides, others do just find with middling widish-to-normal 35e and 50e lenses. Landscape may not be about the lens as much as about what's in front of the lens. :)
With night photography, you probably want a fast lens which opens up to a wider aperture, but again, it depends on what type of night photography you plan to do. Northern lights vs. light trails from car headlights have very different requirements. Milky way vs. night-time street shooting similarly have very different requirements.
I will say, however, that the one thing you could buy that would benefit both of those types of photography, possibly more than a lens, would be a tripod to support your camera. Tripods allow you to use very slow shutter speeds without introducing blur from camera shake into the image. With landscape this means you can use a low iso and stop the lens down for depth of field, and not have to worry about handholding the camera steady. For night-time photography, it can open up entire new areas of long-exposure photography you can't possibly accomplish with handholding.
Originally by user27440. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user27440
9y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
These are really two different needs.
For landscapes on a Nikon D5100, a wide-angle zoom is the usual choice, especially for travel. Something in the standard wide-to-normal range can work well, and an ultra-wide zoom can be great if you want big, expansive scenes. For landscapes, maximum aperture usually matters less because you’ll often shoot stopped down for depth of field.
For night photography, the key is usually a fast lens: the widest aperture you can afford (low f-number), since that lets in more light and helps avoid very long shutter speeds or very high ISO. If you mean handheld night shots, aperture is especially important; stabilization can help too, but fast aperture is often the bigger priority.
The best recommendation depends on what you mean by “night photography.” Night street scenes, light trails, aurora, and Milky Way photography all have different requirements. Likewise, landscapes can be shot with ultra-wide, normal, or even telephoto lenses depending on the look you want.
So in short: look for a wide-angle zoom for landscapes, and a fast lens for night work.
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