Last Updated on July 10, 2024 by Adams
For portrait and landscape photography, a good lens is something that can and should be spent on. Even a beginner’s camera, when equipped with high-quality glass, can take great pictures. On the contrary (fantastic camera with a medium optic) – it will not work. Therefore, instead of spending money on an expensive camera, it is better to invest in a quality lens. We have compiled some of the best canon lens for portraits and landscape in the article. We suggest you have a look at them and carry on exploring more.
The lens is the eye of the camera. Without it, you can get no image. Therefore, our vision of the scene depends on the optic; it also depends on which part will focus and which part you will record, and which will not.
Choosing a lens for portraits and landscapes is not easy, but for now, we will figure out what you need from portrait glass and which lenses are suitable for portrait pictures.
If you are most comfortable traveling with a single lens, then zoom lenses are worth looking into. Glass with a 24-105mm focal length is suitable for almost any shooting.
However, if you are a fan of prime glasses but dream of shooting in different genres, you will have to stock up on a bag and additional lenses. Many professional photographers do just that, changing glass on the run or even using multiple cameras with different lenses.
If you plan to shoot with large groups of people, a wide-angle lens allows you to capture all the characters. However, remember that wide-angle leads to distortion: people at the edges of the frame will be either more prominent or stretched.
Therefore, the width of the corner should not be too big either. Never forget that taking a step back will capture more people in the frame without distorting the photo.
If you are shooting outdoors, there are more options, depending on your preferences. You will have to take a broader glass inside. A 70-200mm zoom lens or a prime 85mm lens is suitable for open spaces. The larger the aperture (and the smaller the number of steps), the more bokeh you get. If you want to take a beautiful, blurry bokeh photo, you can check out the special portrait glasses.
Moreover, lenses that use glass with reduced dispersion feature improved correction for chromatic aberration, the phenomenon of uneven refraction of rays with different wavelengths. It makes your pictures clearer and the colors natural.
Lenses with an internal focusing system are more compact and better protected from dust than lenses with a movable front lens. In addition, with such a lens, it is more convenient to use light filters that require rotation.
The presence of a stabilizer can help you get a sharp shot in low light. It compensates for camera shake at slower shutter speeds; it is nice to have a lens with this feature. Lenses with an aspherical lens design had better cope with optical aberrations, especially noticeable with wide-angle lenses when shooting with a wide aperture.
Remember that the sensor size (crop or full format) will reflect in focal length. That is, different distances will behave differently on different types of matrices. For example, 50mm will look longer on a cropped die.
We know this may sound overkill, but the lens is a significant part of great photography. This statement is repeated because too many photographers pay attention only to the camera itself and the characteristics of the sensors. Megapixels, burst rates, dynamic range. These aspects are relevant and undoubtedly desirable, but we cannot afford to purchase a low-quality lens.
Canon users especially love the fantastic lens selection as they make some of the finest lenses in the world. Therefore, whether you are looking for the best Canon lenses for full-frame viewing or APS-C lenses, there is no shortage of choice or quality.
There are many criteria for choosing the best Canon lenses. Size, weight, features, durability, price. All of these aspects play a critical role in performance.
Best Canon Lens for Portraits and Landscape (Comparison)
| Name | Dimensions | Weight | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L UD | 4.21 x 3.5 x 3.5 inches | 1.81 Pounds | |
| Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II | 4.17 x 3.5 x 3.5 inches | 1.74 Pounds | Check Price |
| Canon EF 100-400mm 5.6L IS II | 7.6 x 3.7 x 3.7 inches | 3.46 Pounds | Check Price |
Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L UD Aspherical
The Canon TS -E 17mm f / 4 L UD is the most comprehensive (consumer) zoom lens on the market – not only in the Canon range but from all brands. The tilt angle refers to the focal plane, which usually corresponds to the sensor plane.
You can tilt the focus to the foreground/background by tilting the focal plane, which gives you a sharper blur effect than conventional lenses – even faster (large aperture). The transition perspective is the management perspective.
This tilt lens is quite sharp and open in the middle. The middle and side corners appreciate slightly narrower openings for their best appearance. It has a decisive advantage. It is noteworthy that the far-reaching corners of the TS-E 17 L do not turn into porridge, even with an opening of 1: 4, but remain sharp.
It gives a noticeable result in the whole picture in both portrait and landscape photography. When replaced, its practical quality does not deteriorate. It also grips very well and has no adjustable distortion or high enough color deflection, although the front looks like a fisheye lens.
In addition, the build quality of Canon lenses is excellent. It is based entirely on a metal frame assembled with very tight tolerances. Of course, this is a prerequisite for a reliable TS lens.
The TS can be locked with two connected levers. You can adjust the Tilt and shift buttons up to 6.5 ° and within 12 mm. The two sub-components of the TS can rotate freely so that the plate and the transport in the direction of travel are combined at 90 °.
The lens has excellent ‘ Tilt and shifts’ distances, and the build quality is excellent when everything is running smoothly. In addition, the tilt and transfer axes may be perpendicular to each other, with some older tilt lenses mounted in one direction or the other.
Although you do not need to tilt and move very often, the 17mm is very sharp and has almost no distortion, vignette, or color deflection. Therefore, even if you have a high-quality fixed focal length wide-angle lens, it is worth buying the 17mm TS-E.
The manual focus looks very smooth. Some people wonder why Canon does not offer backlight protection – because backlight protection blocks light in extreme TS settings.
Technically understandable, the front of such a large lamp remains fragile. A separate lens cover is required to carry the lens. However, the front element seems to be afraid of scratches when used.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Excellent built quality | Manual Focus |
| Controls the vignette well | |
| High quality fixed focal length |
Conclusion:
The Canon TS-E 17mm f / 4L tilt lens controls the vignette well at a focal length of 17mm. Total frame users see about two stops at an f / 4 angle. Although the front element is light shaped, the glass does not reflect even if the sun is inside or outside the frame and shines on the front part.
Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II
The Canon TS-E 24mm II is popular due to its wide-angle tilt-shift lens. It offers a tilt of 8.5 degrees and a shift of 12 degrees. Tilt and shift rotation is independent.
It is a very well made construction. The construction uses aspherical elements and low-dispersion lenses. It is also worth emphasizing the use of rounded diaphragm leaves and Sub Wavelength (SWC) and Super Spectra coatings.
The lens consists of 16 elements in 11 groups and is characterized by a lack of autofocus. It is equipped with an 8-blade diaphragm.
The rubber, the grooved focus ring, is wide for easy sharpening. Right in front of it, a distance scale can be used as a guide when focusing manually.
The lens is not equipped with autofocus. However, focusing is an absolute pleasure with the live-view mode due to the vast and functional focus ring during portrait and landscape photography.
It offers the highest resolution and sharpness with aperture values between 8 and 16. However, at aperture 22, the resolution decreased due to the diffraction.
The TS-E is only suitable for the Canon cameras of the EOS series and offers a pan in the range of ± 12 millimeters. The slope is ± 8.5 degrees. You can adjust Tilt and swivel independently of each other.
Both mechanisms can also be rotated by ± 90 degrees. The aperture of the wide-angle lens is circular and thus creates a particularly harmonious bokeh (blurred image areas). In addition, the lenses are specially coated and therefore protected against stray light and glare reflections. Due to the unique design of tilt & shift lenses, the lens does not have an autofocus motor or an image stabilizer.
Moreover, the Canon 24mm/3.5 TSE works like an optical high-precision instrument. You can shift it utilizing a small wheel to compensate for falling lines. The tilt function swivels the lens and increases the depth of field. Without a doubt, a specialist who, in terms of haptic, is also at the very highest level due to its metal construction.
When stopped down, the lens achieves a consistently good resolution performance and achieves convincing values from f5.6 even in the edge areas. With around 1.5 f-stops of darkening of the edges, the lens still reproduces acceptable vignetting values.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Perspective correction function | Small control knob |
| Miniature effect | |
| Outstanding image quality |
Conclusion:
The Canon TS-E 24mm f / 3.5L II is an excellent tilt-shift lens. A solid and durable structure characterizes it. The lens presents an excellent image quality in the f / 8-f / 11 aperture range, which is most often used in portrait and landscape photography for which glass was made. However, even at the other apertures, its performance is more than decent.
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II
The EF 100-400MM IS II lens is ideal for portrait and landscape shots. It incorporates state-of-the-art technology that gives it versatility, added to an excellent field response and image contrast.
The EF mount for Full Frame sensors has multiple coatings on its optical elements, such as FLUORITE on the front and rear elements to minimize fingerprint marks, as well as air sphere coatings to reduce flare and ghosting during portrait and landscape photography.
The build quality is excellent and much better than the other competitors on the market. However, it is an L-zoom, and today it means that the lens must be weatherproof.
Therefore, there are now solid rubber gaskets at the bayonet and in other places in the construction where moisture can otherwise penetrate. Image stabilization has improved significantly. It now helps to give sharp images at a longer shutter speed than you usually can freehand.
A Fluorite element and a Super UD element increase contrast and reduce chromatic aberrations. There are 21 elements divided into 16 groups and nine rounded diaphragm blades that give a smooth and consistently rounded BOKEH. The ultrasonic focus motor has excellent response and is very quiet. The IS II Optical Stabilizer reduces camera shake by up to four steps.
Furthermore, it is Weather Resistant, and you can remove its tripod collar without removing the lens from the camera body. In an APSC sensor, its focal range transforms into an impressive 160-640mm.
A couple of things caught our attention in a particular way since they were designed in a way that facilitates practical use in the portrait and landscape photography.
First, it has an access window in the hood that allows us to access any rotary filter that we find mounted on the 77mm front ring, as well as a torque adjustment ring that varies the tension of the zoom movement necessary according to the type of shot or taste of the user.
The 100-400mm can focus up to 3.2 feet, even when zoomed in to 400mm. At its minimum focusing distance, it captures images at 1: 3 macro magnification, which will make nature photographers happy. At 100mm f / 4.5, it displays a center-weighted average of 2,770 lines, with very smooth performance to the edges of the frame (2,468 bars). Resolution is roughly the same through f/8, with diffraction set to f/11 and dropping the score to about 2,600 lines.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| State-of-the-art technology | Not very suitable for Beginners |
| Compact and lightweight | |
| Very smooth performance |
Conclusion:
The Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM is an excellent option. It is reasonably compact and lightweight when you consider its scope. Further, it works as a decent macro lens and swiftly adjusts focus, primarily if you use its focus limiter feature.
Final Verdict:
If you want to explore the world in all its details with a single lens reflex camera, you cannot avoid working with different lenses. However, as soon as you have an overview of the variety, you will have a lot of fun experiencing the effect of your technical possibilities on your photos.
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