Landscape Lens Options for Nikon

Today, a reader asked via email "what is a good landscape lens for Nikon digital SLR cameras?"

I decided that this might be a good question to answer for a larger audience, so here goes.

If you have the money to spend (about $900 USD), then you certainly can't go wrong with the Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED AF-S DX Nikkor Wide-Angle Zoom. Yes, it has a terribly LONG name, but we can forgive that since its wide angle of view makes for some spectacular scenic shots.

This lens will work with ANY Nikon digital SLR since it has its own internal focusing system.

If  you don't have that much to spend on a lens, then consider the highly regarded Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro DX Zoom (about $450 USD).

With a zoom range that is almost equivalent to the Nikon and exceptional optical image quality, the Tokina should certainly be a lens that you consider for landscape photography.

NOTE: the Tokina lens will be manual focus ONLY on Nikon DSLRs that don't have focusing motors like the D5100, D5000, D3100 and D3000. However, since you're not trying to photograph moving subjects, being stuck with manual focus might not be an issue.