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Features

Capture Beautiful Fall Landscapes with These Incredible Telephoto Lenses

Brett Day
No Comments
10/02/2020
5 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony 70-200mm f4 OSS review product images (3 of 10)ISO 4001-180 sec at f - 2.8

Telephoto lenses will help you capture fall landscapes in new and exciting ways.

When you think of landscape photography, I’m sure you automatically think of wide-angle lenses. I don’t blame you. For years, wide-angle lenses were my go-to for landscapes. I just love being able to capture sweeping vistas and colossal mountain ranges. However, did you know that telephoto zoom lenses are great for landscapes too? It’s true. You can create some genuinely unique landscape images with telephoto zooms. Landscape images usually have so much going on that gorgeous details get lost. Telephoto lenses will help make those details come to life. After the break, we’ll show you some incredible telephoto zoom lenses that will help you create beautiful fall landscapes.

Captured with the Fujifilm X-T3 and the Fujifilm 55-200mm

Landscape photography looks and sounds easy on the surface, but it can take years to master. There’s so much going on in any given scene that it can be hard to know what to make your focal point. Wide-angle lenses let us capture it all, but some magical, intimate details can be lost. This is where telephoto zoom lenses come into play. Telephoto zoom lenses allow you to easily pick out a tree being hit by a ray of sunlight. They can help you isolate a mountain peak that’s glowing above the clouds. Telephoto zooms can help compress elements in your image, which can make far off objects look larger than life. If you’ve never tried using a telephoto zoom for landscapes before, give it a shot. With the telephoto zooms we have featured below, you’ll be able to capture some gorgeous, intimate fall landscapes with ease.

Tamron 28-200mm f2.8-5.6 Di III RXD

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Small
  • Lightweight
  • A handy range of focal lengths
  • A useful set of apertures too!
  • There’s a lock at the wider end, though it’d be better if it locked at specific focal lengths too.

Cons

  • Believe it or not, this lens could use image stabilization

Buy now: $629

Fujifilm XF 55-200mm f3.5-4.8 R LM OIS

fujifilm lenses

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Excellent image quality
  • A large rubberized zoom ring makes for smooth operation
  • Gorgeous bokeh
  • Affordable at $699 considering what this lens is
  • Faster aperture than its equivalent zooms across companies which usually come in at f4.5-5.6

Cons

  • It is massive for any X-series camera
  • It would’ve been great to see with this with a constant aperture, though that would jack up the price considerably

Buy now: $699

Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 PRO

Fall Landscapes

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Excellent build quality
  • You get an 80-300mm f2.8 lens in the size of a standard 24-70mm f2.8 from other manufacturers
  • Very sharp when wide open
  • The retractable lens hood is very convenient, but if you want to use the lens without the hood, you essentially need to remove it.

Cons

  • Focusing ring can be accidentally switched back for manual focusing

Buy now: $1,279

Sony 70-200mm f4 OSS (Sony FE)

Fall Landscapes

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Superbly sharp wide open
  • Optical stabilization works like a charm even with an older camera body
  • Fast-focusing abilities, again even with an older camera
  • Creamy bokeh
  • Internal zooming
  • Fairly compact size

Cons

  • Only f4; at the time of publishing this review Sony has yet to offer an f2.8 constant aperture telephoto zoom lens for the FE mount cameras

Buy now: $1,398

Fall Landscapes
Captured with the Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 Pro

Pro Tip: Still not convinced that you can use telephoto zooms to capture stunning fall landscapes? You should check out our guide on how to use these lenses to their full potential. Once you’ve read it, you’ll be ready to get out and explore so that you can capture the beauty around you in new and exciting ways.

Canon RF 70-200mm f2.8 L IS USM

Fall Landscapes

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • It’s small
  • Beautiful bokeh
  • Pretty close focusing
  • Nice, sharp images
  • Fast-focusing and tracking
  • Weather sealing

Cons

  • The tripod collar is too large for its own good. Rotating it will only guarantee that it gets in the way of using the lens
  • The control ring should probably be closer to the front of the lens

Buy now: $2,599

Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 DG OS HSM Sports

Fall Landscapes

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Fast autofocus even when adapted to the Canon EOS R
  • Weather sealed
  • Sharp image quality
  • Nice bokeh
  • Price point

Cons

  • It’s big
  • It’s heavy

Buy now Canon EF: $1,179

Buy now Nikon F: $1,162.01

Tamron 70-210mm f4 Di VC USD

Fall Landscapes

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Weather sealing
  • Nice build
  • Small
  • Image stabilization that is very good
  • Good colors
  • Pretty good image quality

Cons

  • Autofocus can be wonky

Buy now Canon EF: $599

Buy now Nikon F: $599

Panasonic 70-200mm f4 OIS Lumix S Pro

Fall Landscapes

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Fairly compact for an L mount lens
  • Weather sealed
  • Very good image quality
  • Pretty close focusing
  • Beautiful bokeh
  • Very usable for photojournalism
  • Not terribly priced at $1,697.99

Cons

  • Still big for Mirrorless

Buy now: $1,697.99

Fall Landscapes

Pro Tip: If you want to create even more stunning fall landscapes, you should use filters. Filters can help you get your image right in-camera. They will also save you time during post. Honestly, some of the effects created using filters can’t be replicated well in software. If you’re not sure which filters to use, check out our guide. This guide will help you understand the differences between polarizers, ND filters, graduated filters, UV filters, and more.

Fujifilm GF 100-200mm f5.6 R LM OIS WR

Fall Landscapes

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Exceptional Sharpness
  • Gorgeous color rendition
  • Great build quality
  • Ridiculously good image stabilization
  • Good autofocusing speeds
  • Weather sealing

Cons

  • F5.6 aperture really limits how and when this lens can be used

Buy now: $1,999

Canon 70-200mm f4 L IS USM II

Here are the pros and cons from our full review:

Pros

  • Sharp output
  • Fast and accurate focusing
  • Beautiful colors
  • Light weight
  • Small, can be stuffed in a bag attached to the camera with ease
  • Weather sealing
  • $1,299 price tag isn’t bad.

Cons

  • Honestly, not a thing

Buy now Canon EF: $1,199

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