It’s probably not your camera. The main cause is atmospheric haze: dust, moisture, or pollution in the air scatters light, which lowers contrast and makes distant hills look washed out and gray. This gets worse with distance, so faraway mountains often fade even when the sky looks dramatic.

A few other factors can add to it:

• Focus: if you focused on the clouds or distant sky, the land may be softer than expected.
• Exposure/dynamic range: exposing for the bright sunset can leave the land very dark, hiding detail.
• Composition: in some sunset images the land works better as a silhouette; if it takes up a large part of the frame, viewers expect more visible detail.

How to improve it:

• Shoot on clearer days, especially after rain.
• Focus on the landscape if you want it to be the sharp subject.
• Raise exposure for the land, or bracket exposures and blend them later.
• Use dehaze/contrast adjustments in post-processing.
• If the land is meant to be dark, compose or crop so it reads as a silhouette rather than detailed foreground.