Benefits of Using a Superzoom Lens for Landscape Photography

Many of us are used to pursuing landscape photography with focal lengths that range from ultra-wide to midrange to telephoto. Nikon users often carried a 14-24mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm lens, dubbing those a “holy trinity” of lenses for landscapes. On Canon, I carried a 16-35mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm lens, with the flat front on the 16-35mm being convenient for using screw-on filters.

Lori Hibbett recently borrowed from Nikon their new Nikkor Z 28-400mm f/4-8 lens on one of our trips to Death Valley along with the Z8 mirrorless body, and I was able to use that combination for a few of days. Your subjects and compositions change at the extended range of 200-400mm. One of the most important features of the Nikkor Z 28-400mm that I used in Death Valley in December was simply removing barriers to carrying and putting on a lens that reached that far. Concerns over weight, space, dust when changing lenses in a dry, dusty environment, all gone.

At the end of the six-day trip, we each wanted the lens, but we couldn’t decide who would primarily get to use it on future trips. Then Nikon came out with a discount and a 0% financing deal at the same time. Problem solved: we each got one! Lori has been using a Z6-II for a while, but she enjoyed the higher resolution of the Z8. I needed a Z8 in order to use that new lens. So we got two of those as well!

We’ve already gone back to Death Valley with our two new matching rigs. In the few days that I’ve had the Z8 with the 28-400mm lens, I definitely captured a range of images that I wouldn’t have managed without the range in that one lens:

a briefly available wildlife shot,
brief storm light on a distant mountain that lasted seconds, compositions at 400mm that I would not have pursued via a lens change when dust was in the air, and
images that I would have missed if the main option was to carry a full camera bag of lenses.

I find that I like keeping this camera-lens combo close by when driving to be able to pull over and hop out for ephemeral light or wildlife, and it’s convenient to have around my neck when walking around spectacular landscapes.

I’ll be particularly liking the “entire rig in a fanny pack” option in March. We have two different itineraries in Death Valley, as the daytime heat creeps up into the 80s and 90s. As temperatures approach the 90-100 degree range, afternoon and sunset shoots can be a sweaty mess with a full backpack on, especially on the salt flats and sand dunes, where additional sunlight is reflecting up onto you, and even more heat is radiating onto you from the salt or sand as well. A light shade shirt and no backpack greatly improves comfort and reduces the risk of heat exhaustion.

With my Nikon D850 I often had one lens on the camera, plus a second lens to change to, typically covering a focal length range of 14-70mm. This setup was carried in a large hip pack to keep weight off my back (since getting a fractured vertebra in early 2023). To carry my 70-200mm lens and 2X teleconverter to reach 400mm was not very practical when away from the car without my full camera pack. I needed a large jacket pocket to carry the 2X teleconverter, and the widest I could go with that combo was 70mm. Now I have 28-400mm in the first lens, and I can carry my 14-24mm f/2.8 lens or the lighter, smaller, Z 17-28mm f/2.8 lens, covering 14-400mm or 17-400mm with no pack on my back. I can add a small hydration pack or day pack for additional water, food, clothing and gear for longer day hikes or lights for night photography, as I often do in Bodie.

The 28-400mm lens will be handy in Yosemite next week to pick out more distant compositions. It’ll make a great walkaround lens for being able to quickly capture an unexpected wildlife encounter, and the Z8 has animal and bird focus tracking modes if you expect that such an opportunity may be available. Next month in remote areas of Death Valley we’ll be ready to react quickly if a low-flying military jet ambushes us from behind. The jets seem to treat large cameras like anti-aircraft weapons, so we can have the cameras out of sight, airplane focus-tracking mode on, in case they pass by. The Z8 has a lot of powerful options, and selecting the most relevant features to keep handy in customizable menus will take some time to select, to set up, and to become proficient at.