As you gaze over the sweeping vistas of the landscape below, you reach for your camera — only to discover you've brought the wrong lens. The question is, which lens did you bring: a wide-angle or a telephoto? It's a debate as old as photography itself. Although most photographers agree that capturing a wide dynamic range is essential for landscape work, they're far less harmonious when it comes to choosing between wide-angle and telephoto. Here, we weigh the pros and cons of each to help you decide on the best lens for landscape photography.
Capturing landscapes with wide-angle lenses
The obvious choice for a sweeping vista is a wide-angle lens. Able to capture a much wider field of view (64° to 180°), a wide-angle lens can take in far more than the human eye can see, making landscape scenes appear more dramatic and expansive. Wide-angle lenses typically have a focal length below 35mm, allowing photographers to fit more into a single frame. When shooting wide, you'll notice that the centre of the image appears further away, creating an exaggerated, immersive perspective.
Wide-angle lenses fall into two main camps: zoom lenses and prime lenses. A prime lens offers the best optical quality and low-light performance, while a zoom lens offers more versatility across a range of focal lengths. There's also a third category — ultra-wide-angle lenses. Shooting at focal lengths wider than 14mm introduces distortion at the edges of the frame, resulting in curved lines and a warped perspective. Also known as fisheye lenses, these can create dramatic and unique images, though they're not to every photographer's taste.
Browse our full range of wide-angle lenses online.
Landscape photography with a telephoto lens
On the opposite end of the spectrum are photographers who prefer to capture minute and specific details within a landscape. Telephoto lenses crop into your subject, eliminating peripheral elements and focusing the viewer's attention on a specific area. By isolating a portion of a landscape, photographers can be more selective with their subject matter and create more abstract, engaging images that invite the viewer to look more closely.
One consideration with longer focal lengths is exposure. The longer the focal length, the smaller the maximum aperture tends to be, which limits the amount of light reaching the sensor. Higher-end telephoto lenses are increasingly offering wider apertures to address this. At longer focal lengths, depth of field is also much shallower, giving photographers the ability to add significant background blur — a creative tool that's less associated with landscape photography but can produce striking results.
Different types of telephoto lenses
There are three telephoto lens categories to choose from:
- Short telephoto (85mm–135mm)
- Medium telephoto (135mm–300mm)
- Super telephoto (300mm+)
In addition to these categories, it's worth understanding how telephoto lenses are constructed. They achieve a focal length larger than their physical size using two methods:
- Refractive lenses contain multiple internal lens groups that manipulate light to achieve magnification, bending the light entering the lens before it straightens out at the sensor.
- Mirror lenses use curved mirrors inside the lens body to bounce light and create magnification. Mirror lenses are typically much more compact than their refractive counterparts.
Which is best for landscape photography: wide-angle or telephoto?
Both wide-angle and telephoto lenses are valuable for landscape photography — the right choice depends on the story you want to tell. If expansive, dramatic vistas are your focus, a wide-angle lens should be your first choice. If you want to isolate distant subjects and create more abstract, compressed images, a telephoto is the obvious pick.
That said, it's worth experimenting with both, or at the very least trying an all-in-one zoom lens to develop a feel for which focal lengths suit your style. While a zoom won't match a prime for optical quality, it will give you a much clearer sense of where your preferences lie.
Browse our full range of camera lenses online, or read our guide to the best landscape photography tips for beginners for more advice on gear and technique. You can also visit a Ted's Cameras store for personalised lens recommendations from our team.
Frequently Asked Questions
What focal length is best for landscape photography?
Most landscape photographers favour wide-angle focal lengths in the 16–35mm range for capturing sweeping vistas and dramatic foregrounds. However, telephoto focal lengths (70–200mm and beyond) are increasingly popular for compressing perspective, isolating distant subjects, and creating more abstract landscape images. Many photographers carry both and switch depending on the scene.
Can you use a telephoto lens for landscape photography?
Absolutely. While wide-angle lenses are the traditional choice for landscapes, telephoto lenses offer a completely different creative perspective — compressing distance, isolating details within a scene, and producing a shallower depth of field. Some of the most striking landscape images are shot with telephoto lenses, particularly for mountain ranges, seascapes, and abstract nature photography.
What is the difference between a wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle lens?
A wide-angle lens typically covers focal lengths from around 24mm to 35mm, offering a broad field of view without significant distortion. An ultra-wide-angle lens covers focal lengths below 24mm (and especially below 14mm), which introduces barrel distortion at the edges of the frame — curved lines and a warped perspective. This distortion can be used creatively (fisheye lenses take this to the extreme) or corrected in post-production.
Do I need a prime or zoom lens for landscape photography?
Both have their merits. A prime lens offers superior optical quality and maximum aperture for its focal length, which is particularly useful in low light. A zoom lens offers flexibility across a range of focal lengths, which is invaluable when you can't change your position — on a clifftop, for example, or in the middle of a river. Many landscape photographers use a wide-angle zoom (16–35mm) as their primary lens and carry a prime for specific situations.
What is the best lens for landscape photography in Australia?
Australia's diverse landscapes — from the red desert of the outback to the rugged coastlines of the Great Ocean Road — suit a wide range of focal lengths. A wide-angle zoom (16–35mm) is the most versatile starting point, covering everything from sweeping desert vistas to dramatic coastal cliffs. A telephoto zoom (70–200mm) is excellent for wildlife and for compressing the layers of a mountain or coastal scene. Visit a Ted's Cameras store for personalised recommendations.