sinwp rss feed for PI Articles

articles/Landscape/tools-of-the-land

Tool of the Land - Landscape

by Mike McNamee

Tools of the Land Cameras and Gear for the Landscape

Paul Gallagher talks to Mike McNamee about equipment for going into the landscape

Any type, size and shape of camera gear can take a landscape. However, the serious landscape photographers have gravitated towards a certain collection of gear and type. But what are the other options?

Camera Gear
Nothing competes with bigger chips and more pixels! The most natural cameras for the serious landscape user are the Nikon D800/810 or the Canon EOS 5D SR. Both have full-size chips and truly massive pixel counts. There is little to choose between them in terms of functions and lens armoury. The D700 is also listed as it has regularly been used to create stunning landscape prints easily up to A2 size - D700 pixels punch above their weight.

All the features of these three cameras suit landscape. They are mid-sized, reasonably light, robust and proofed against most adverse weather. If you need to save weight you could drop to an APS-size chip as the camera weight stays similar, but the lenses are lighter. If you really wish to save weight you jump drop all the way down to a compact system camera bringing benefits of weight-saving to both body and lenses (but with no tilt/shift options available).

Lenses
The first consideration is the aperture that you need. Wide-aperture zooms (ie f2.8) are very much heavier than their f5.6 counterparts. In most landscape work people are seeking depth of field and tend to use their lenses at close to the diffraction limit, this is around f13 for a full-size chip and between f5.6 and f8 for 4/3M and APS chips. For a 20-inch print and a nominal 24mm (full frame) lens, the depth of field and limiting apertures are as follows:

If zoom lenses are anathema (and to some zealots they are!) then prime lenses will have weight, size and resolution advantages; you may then need to move about more, ie zoom with your feet.

In terms of focal length there are a couple of sayings which hold true even today. The first is that the best focal length for landscape is 90mm. The second is that the best view of a mountain is from halfway up the one opposite. There are contradictory views to this, of course, one of which says that the best lends is the one in your bag, rather than the one you always leave behind in the hotel/car/campervan! It all depends upon the foreground detail available; if there are interesting boulders or rock pools then that is a quite different scenario to a high mountain pass with nothing but air right in front of you. If, however, the foreground is good then you might want to explore this at different focal lengths to change the relative scale of the rocks in front of you. One reason that 90mmis favoured is because the restriction of content creates a simpler image.

Users of 24mm tilt/shift lenses tend to produce the same style of picture which concentrates heavily and relies upon interesting foreground shapes and detail. Their work is often allied to Lee Filters, Big Stoppers and huge tripods. If the sea is also involved then you must be prepared to get your feet into water and that goes for the tripod's legs as well. Tilt/shift lenses are expensive and many people will only have one, most frequently the 24mm. Overall the use of lenses such as this pushes the user to a slower and more considered approach to their composition. A tripod is a must.

The juggling of lens options is a game for a wet January evening. If you look at the table for street prices of Nikkors you will see that you can have 20, 35, 50 and 85mm lenses for the same outlay as a 14-24mm f2.8 Nikkor with a marginal weight penalty. Or you can follow the writer and purchase both the 24-70mm f2.8 and the 14-24mm f2.8 and always leave the 14-24mm behind to save lugging it up a mountain!

The Software Solution
One thing that modern software provides, which has a bearing on lens choice, is the ability to stitch images. This has become trivially simple and very effective. Today's programs are smart enough to cope with more variation in alignment, you can correct distortion and unaligned horizons and, if needed, you can also bring HDR to bear on high-range shots. Whereas the software often used to crash when using Photomerge in Photoshop, today it rarely does (although it can still be an issue with lower power laptops). This stitching ability can be used to increase your field of view without the need to have a wide-angle lens.

The difference between a stitch and a straight shot should be relatively small if you use cylindrical geometry to your panorama assembly but even with other geometries and their loss of image, top and buttom, the latest Content Aware Fill can recover many situations. The shots and screen grabs show fields of view for a 14mm straight shot and a seven-image stitch with a 38mm focal length. Although perspective depends only upon viewing distance, the slight down-tilt of the 14mm lens has dramatically distorted the palms at the edges, even though the gazebo in the centre has retained the same perspective with the building on the horizon. The stitch is 13,800 pixels across, the 14mm single frame is 4,256 pixels, 34MB playing off 174MB. Had we done a two-row pan stitch then the file size would have been proportionately greater.

Panorama Gear
As we said earlier, Photoshop or Lightroom do a terrific job stitching images together these days but if you are chasing the ultimate in quality and the maximum file size, then some technology is going to be needed.

For hand holding, a grid on the viewfinder is useful if there is a horizon to track along. A rotating head will enable you to level things up and it's vital to be used with a tripod if many shots are to be stitched and particularly if you need to do any HDR work on your pan. For the ultimate ease of use you can go all the way up to the Gigapan systems which move the camera about in a highly organised way and also come with some of the best software around for grinding up the massive pan files.

People have been using larger and larger image counts to make their pans and the world record image has just been lifted to 70,000 images for a picture of Mont Blanc in the French Alps. This was made by in2white and can be seen at www.in2white.com. The claim is made for 70,000 images to deliver a 365 gigapixel image. A Canon 70D was used with a 400mm F2.8 lens and 2x extender. The shooting took 35 hours and the post production two months. We did some back-calculating to work out the frame count. The aspect ratio of the image is about 4:1 and so 550 columns by 130 rows would produce 70,000 frames. However, the field of view of an 800mm rig is 2.6° by 1.7°. With a 20% overlap this means that 175 frames in horizontal mode or 262 in vertical format would be needed to cover 360°. This suggests that there was more overlap or some HDR work done with the image shooting.

Regardless of just how it was done, the image itself is endlessly fascinating. Careful looking reveals a number of climbers and skiers in action, but one which took our fancy was a pair of climbers below the Aiguille du Midi who appear to be practising their crevasse rescue techniques. We think it was a practice because a video camera can be seen, set up a safe distance from the edge of the crevasse. To emphasise the scale of the image, we lost our bearings and it took a full hour to find the crevasse scene for the second time to make the screen grabs.

Filters
The serious game in town is the Lee Filter system which is now available in both 100mm and 75mm sizes, the latter being specific to the CSC cameras. Most photographers will get by with a grad filter, and one of the 'Stoppers' - Big for cloud and water movement, Little for water movement, leaving the clouds generally untouched. Many people add a polariser to this list. Hard Grad filters are preferred along with a density of 0.6 (two stops).

When using 'stoppers' you have to gauge your exposure by experience rather than calculation due to some of the variables around. Usually you have to work the grad filter first and optimise the exposure settings before adjusting for a stopper filter. Always shoot Raw because the stoppers have a habit of skewing the colour temperature.

Tripods
This entire feature could be devoted to tripods and we might still be short of pace. Like ladies' handbags, one is rarely enough! The first decision is about weight and method of transport. Your tripod and head is almost invariably the heaviest piece of kit in/on your bag and this even applies to the smaller travel tripods such as the Manfroto 190 or say the Sirui 1204X. Both are carbon fibre and both pack down to the height of a camera rucksack. If transport is removed from the equation then the best option is the tallest and biggest tripod you can lay your hands on. Although a tripod that towers over your head might seem excessive, if you are working on a beach or close to water you often need to immerse the tripod legs a couple of feet into the water bringing the tripod back to more normal eye level if the photographer is on dry land. Such a tripod will weigh at least 7lb including even a modest head and will be too long for most rucksacks.

Leg length and closed height of the tripod determine the number of joints required. Fewer sections are better for stability and require less taper in the leg diameter. The method of locking the legs can be snap levers or twist locks. Each has its pros and cons; snap locks can be operated two or three at a time but have more working parts. One consideration is the cleaning of the legs after beach use. Salt water and sand are corrosive and abrasive but this should not deter making the tripod work for its living, if it needs to go in the water, get it in there! The Sirui is particularly easy to clean in this regard. Note: as we finished this piece Sirui announced a new w-series tripod range that has waterproof/dustproof twist locks - see call-out.

When it comes to the tripod head, weight is once again the driving force in the decision. Also, two vital attributes are a spirit level and a rotating base for panoramas. A ball head provides a versatile and light-weight solution but if weight is no object the luxury of a geared head is hard to resist. Our Manfroto 410 heads are a joy to use although the knobs are a little fiddly if your hands are gloved. Prices vary from a little over £100 to more than £500; weights range from 200g to 2.25kg. Payloads go up to 50kg.

Cable Release
This is one area where you can skimp if you wish because kit failure will not be a show stopper - you can always go back to using your camera's timer release in an emergency. That said, if you need to time your shot because of a blustery wind then a cable release is useful. The Hama, shown here, is light and versatile as it will even peform time lapse exposures.

Clothing
There are specialist outdoor photographic-clothing companies. Such clothing tends to carry a premium price tag but Páramo, one of the major players, has the advantage of being a very ethical company in its outlook. Their production started in Bogotá, Colombia in 1992. There Nick Brown found a workshop employing some dozen ladies using two sewing machines. It was run by the Miquelina Foundation which, led by Sister Esther Castaño, helped desperate women (most facing no alternative but prostitution) to learn a trade and earn money. About 80% of Páramo clothing is now made in Bogotá. Buying Páramo makes you feel warm inside and keeps you warm! Cotswold are one of the stockists of Páramo gear and if you need to save money you can come out with a smaller dent in your pocket and plenty of really solid advice. Staff at Cotswold are almost all users of the equipment that they sell and are very knowledgable on the matter of keeping warm and dry.

The policy at McNamee Towers has always been to pay the extra for Gore- Tex as it is more waterproof and more durable - Mrs Editor's Gore-Tex jacket has just been retired after 25 year's of service. Today Gore-Tex is available in three grades with improved durability available at the higher end. Sadly Gore-Tex gear is also the most expensive!

The New Sirui Waterproof Range
SIRUI W Series Waterproof tripods expand the capabilities of outdoor photographers and videographers like no other tripod. While most tripods warn against use in or near water and sand, the W Series welcomes it!

The SIRUI designed WPS Waterproof Sealing System has a series of waterproof rings that prevent water from seeping into the tripod leg tubes and locks and causing damage.

The SIRUI designed waterproof leg locks incorporate waterproof and leak-proof materials used in the automotive industry. The rubber locking components firmly grasp the legs without any gap when they are tightly locked - preventing water, dust or small particles from entering the legs or the locking system. This waterproof (not just water resistant) system lets you safely shoot in extreme environmental conditions (also ideal for use with spotting scopes and binoculars).

Equally impressive is SIRUI's ability to extend and contract the legs as smoothly as their standard models. And with ½ twist leg locks, setup and break down is fast and easy.

Using the highest quality materials and precisely manufactured leg tubes lets SIRUI achieve uncompromising stability! The SIRUI W-2204 extends up to an impressive 70.9in. (180cm) - vital when shooting in deeper water or to keep your equipment away from splashes and salt spray - while folding down to only 20.5 in (52cm). It weighs just 3.7 lb (1.7kg.), but, holds up to 39.7lb (18kg)!

The redesigned leg angle locks make adjustments faster and easier than ever before. Push the lock and it stays open until you select the desired position. Extremely convenient with wet or gloved hands! The slip-resistant rubber feet can be replaced with stainless steel spikes (included) for added grip and stability.

Carrying Gear
Having decided upon the kit that you need for the landscape you now need to get it there. If you are to work close to a vehicle then your normal bag will probably suffice or even the simpler method of carrying your camera attached to the tripod. For the more adventurous, things need more planning and more specialist packing. Now you have to consider the camera gear but safety is important and so you will need maps, compass, guides, rain gear, drink and food. A smaller tripod is also going to be needed unless you have the strength of a young bull! One thing that is really useful is a rain cover for your sack. Not only does this keep things extra dry but if needed the cover can be used as a kneeler of a safe surface to place kit upon while you mull over the lens and filter options.

We have been using f-stop bags at Aspect2i for some years now, a Satori and a pair of Tilopas. They have proved to be very functional and easy to use in the field. Manfroto also have a good range as do Lowepro. BMM showed us some interesting bags at the Convention.

Meters
Despite the facilities on the backs of today's cameras many landscape photographers still prefer a separate meter. There is no doubt that it is far more pleasant to measure and assess light from a standing position rather then squatting down at a low-level camera with an LCD in bright sunlight! Also for landscape photography the more considered approach of measuring light and assessing the exposure strategy should lead to a better quality result. For those of us with varifocals and poor near vision, the 10mm numerals on a meter are a much easier read. In particular the use of a hand-held meter is an advantage with a tilt/shift lens where the auto exposure facilities of the camera may be compromised.

For the purpose of this feature Sekonic offered us two meters. The slightly older L-758 DR is a combined spot, incident and flash meter with additional facilities for triggering flash and performing camera profile calibrations. The smaller, lighter L-478 DR is an all whistles and bells jobbie with a touch screen and built-in facilities for controlling up to three flash-head groups of Nikon, Canon or Elincrom manufacture via a Pocket Wizard module. The L-758 is a joy to use outdoors with its large display numerals and no-nonsense dials. The L-748 is much more at home in the studio.

You have to do your homework with these meters and although they are superbly accurate, they are only as good as the person pointing them. We set both meters up in a viewing booth and obtained an identical reading from both meters of 2s @ f16 for 200 ISO and an incident reading. We then set the camera to these values and made a shot using manual exposure. The delivered Raw file was too light and a correction of 2.3 stops was required to bring the target mid-grey to the aim value of 120 RGB points. This has always been a beef in these parts; intuitively you would expect such a meter reading to be accurate at least for the mid-grey.

The camera profile target which is available as an optional extra is a beautifully made grey patch set in A4 format with a full-coverage 50% grey on one side and patches on the other. It provides an ideal control for both exposure and contrast range. As you might expect, we did check its accuracy. The greys returned a value of 49.8%, within a half point of neutral and with an exceptionally low metamerism. This is why the chart retails at £95, although we did find it on offer for £25.

Model Price L-758 DR £499 L-478 DR £325

If you look at the URL below, it takes you to a video by Mark Cleghorn made at photokina which tells you all about using the L-478 in the studio setting: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvBWgNZwj9Y

Paul Gallagher recently led a field trip on Arran and Kintyre, and we arranged for him to shoot this image of photographer Christine Le Heup at work. It shows much of what we have been discussing: Christine is using the Sirui T-025x lightweight, carbon travel tripod which packs down really small and in the foreground is her F-stop Tilopa bag. Despite the proximity of the summer solstice, we note that she is also wearing a lightweight down jacket which is both stylish and superbly efficient (I have four down jackets! Ed). The prices of these range from around £15 for a down gillet from Costco to a full jacket from Cotswold for up to £200. Using a layering method for clothing, a light down under a quality waterproof will keep you warm and dry all day! Christine's lovely image from Kintyre back towards Lochranza. Arran is shown above.



Updated 27/04/2026 16:44:22 Last Modified: Monday, 27 April 2026