Why buy expensive lenses and use small apertures for landscape photography

3 years 6 months ago #695680 by Thura-Oo
I'm just getting started into photography. I see landscape photographers buy expensive lens to get the maximum aperture like f 2.8, 2.0 and so on. Aside from astrophotography, when they shoot landscapes, for the sake of DOF, they have to shoot at small apertures like f 8.0 or 11.0. If they are going to shoot at those small apertures, why buy expensive wide apertures lenses from the start? Can I just shoot at 15mm f 8.0 with my original kit lens and get the same result as shooting with expensive lens on the same settings?


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3 years 6 months ago #695696 by Nikon Shooter
Aperture, like many other features in photography, is just
another way to spell tool.

I am guilty as charge of owning the brightest version of all
the lens I have but there is more than what you mentioned.

Zone of sharpness, DoF in hyper focaldistance applications
(the two are not the same!) bokeh, AF performance in low
light situation, etc.

Sure, one can do without but is quickly facing a wall of limi-
tations and that can be very frustrating.

Light is free… capturing it is not!
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3 years 6 months ago #695817 by fmw
Your dive into an understanding of the exposure triangle will tell you that aperture controls depth of field.  You will want to dive into depth of field as well.  The purpose of fast lenses is to provide for an expansion of the lighting conditions under which you can make the image you want and for an expansion of the available depth of field.  Two lenses of the same quality and focal length are likely to product a similar result at f8 regardless of the maximum aperture of the lens.

As an aside, it is possible that the slower lens may outperform the faster lens at f8 assuming the same quality and focal length.  The reason is that the slower lens has less correction required for the various aberrations that exist in optics.  But the reality is that the faster lens is likely to be of higher quality than the slower lens.hence a part of the higher price.

My advice is don't overthink things and just go make the most interesting images you can manage.


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