Best camera lens options for travel

Posted by Cameron Ewart-Smith on 16 March 2011

I’m often asked which lenses are best for travel photography. Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer – the choice of lens is personal and depends on the nature of your trip and your style of photography.

Some photographers swear by prime lenses (those with a fixed focal length), while others love the versatility of zoom lenses. At Getaway, we use zoom lenses extensively because we have diverse assignments and so need gear to accommodate a wide range of shooting scenarios. (Our photographers have to be generalists!)

To be a great travel photographer, you have to be able to capture a sense of place – you need to be good with landscapes and portraits, wildlife, food, abstracts and architecture. This can mean lots of equipment but, by its very definition, travel photography implies travel, so the lighter and easier it is to carry, the better.

  • In this genre, zoom lenses really come into their own. My favourite zoom range is 24 – 105 mm (or possibly 24 – 70 mm). This is an incredibly versatile range and, on any given assignment, I shoot most of my photos with this lens because it’s a good compromise between image quality and versatility.
  • I also usually carry a 70 – 200 mm f2.8 lens (and matching 2x converter, effectively turning it into a 140 – 400 mm). It’s important to remember that the more lenses you carry, the heavier your camera bag will be.
  • For those looking for maximum versatility but minimum weight and fuss, there are a number of super-zooms available (18 – 200 mm or even 18 – 300 mm). Traditionally, these super zooms have suffered a slight loss in image quality, but there have been signifi cant improvements in recent versions. If you’re severely constrained by budget, or your ability to carry a huge camera bag, however, these are the way to go.

At my photo workshops, I always say it’s the image that counts. Generally – but especially with travel photographs – the subtle difference in quality between lenses does not have the dramatic effect on the image that gear fanatics, or the guys at your local camera shop, would have you believe. A photograph taken with a slightly lower-quality lens beats no shot at all.

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