Nature photographer Radomir Jakubowski uses a range of Canon lenses for landscape photography, including the ultra-wide-angle Canon RF 15-35mm F2.8L IS USM. "It's one of the best lenses I've used for sun stars," he says. "When you're shooting into the sun, it's incredible how well it corrects lens flare." Taken on a Canon EOS R5 with a Canon RF 15-35mm F2.8L IS USM lens at 15mm, 1/8 sec, f/16 and ISO100. © Radomir Jakubowski
Landscape photography can place you in some unforgiving climates – just ask wilderness photographer Valtteri Hirvonen, who regularly shoots in conditions as low as -35°C from his base in northern Finland. "The camera and lenses are tools for me, and I don't baby them, so weatherproofing is important," he says. "The most epic moments happen when the weather isn't perfect – quite the opposite. When there is a storm, when everyone else stays home, that's when the magical moments happen in nature. I want my gear to work in those situations."
Radomir Jakubowski is a nature photographer and Canon Ambassador who firmly agrees with Valtteri. "There is nothing more boring than blue sky – I love storms, I love the rain, I love light that changes before your eyes," he says.
Canon’s L-series RF lenses offer new degrees of creative freedom to landscape photographers, and not only because of their pro-level weather-resistance and robust construction. Compared to their EF lens predecessors, RF lenses deliver technical advances including better image quality, closer focusing, less focus breathing (which is ideal for both filmmaking and focus stacking), enhanced image stabilisation (IS), plus a quicker autofocus motor.
Here, we'll look at the best RF lenses for different kinds of landscape photography, from ultra-wide-angle lenses such as the Canon RF 10-20mm F4L IS STM for capturing a broad field of view to telephoto lenses such as the versatile Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM for isolating small details from a distance.