The Best Camera For Landscape Photography In 2022

Choosing the best camera for landscape photography can be complicated with the variety of choices on the market today. You want a dslr that has the essential features you need while also being easy to use. Plus, you want to select a camera that will handle a variety of outdoor photography scenarios. Also, selecting a brand and model that accommodates a wide variety of lenses is important. And finally, you want all of this for a good price.

So which camera has all these qualities and more? Let’s explore your options to find the best camera for landscape photography.

 

1. Best Camera Under $1,000: Canon EOS Rebel T7i

This 24.2 megapixel camera from Canon should make any landscape photographer smile. It boasts an ISO range of 100 to 25600, which is perfect for anyone wanting to take Milky Way shots or other low light photography. This dslr is as light as a feather at only 1.18 pounds. This makes it one of the best cameras to carry in your hiking camera backpack. Plus Bluetooth and WiFi makes this one of the best cameras under $1,000.

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2. Best Camera Under $500: Nikon D3500

If you’re looking for the best budget camera for outdoor photography, the Nikon D3500 is a great find. Weighing less than 1 pound, the D3500 also offers a phenomenal ISO range of 100 – 25600. It’s compact size makes it a great dslr to throw in your camera bag for a day trip or overnight travel. It comes with an 18-55mm lens and is priced under $500.

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3. Overall Best Affordable Camera For Landscape Photography: Nikon D5600

The Nikon D5600 is certainly worthy of being called the best affordable camera for landscape photography. It has a max resolution of 24.2 megapixels. It gives you 39 autofocus points to work with when you’re on a shoot. And it has a max ISO of 25600, just like the D3500. The D5600 weighs in at 3 pounds. But that can be forgiven by the fact that this D5600 bundle comes with an 18-55mm lens and a 70-300mm lens. Perfect for nature and wildlife photographers to get up close to their subjects without scaring them away. Plus, all of this for under $700.

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4. Best Low Light Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV

The Canon EOS 5D Mark IV is the best low light camera for landscape photographers who want to shoot night photography without introducing a lot of noise into their images. This full frame camera has a 30.4 megapixel sensor with an ISO range of 100-32000, which is expandable up to a range of 50-102400 ISO. The 5D Mark IV also shoots crystal clear 4k video at 30fps and 24fps, and 1080p video up to 60fps and 120fps. It offers a 61 autofocus points and a 7fps continuous shooting mode. It’s on the pricier side. But this beast of a camera is legendary among landscape and outdoor photographers.

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5. Best Canon Full Frame Camera: Canon EOS 6D

The best Canon full frame camera is the Canon EOS 6D. It’s one of the lightest full frame cameras at 1.7 pounds and has a 20.2 megapixel CMOS sensor with 11 autofocus points. This sensor size helps keep your images clean and clear even at higher ISO levels. And speaking of that, the 6D has an ISO range of 100-25600, which is expandable to 50-102400. All these features, plus built-in WiFi make the Canon EOS 6D one of the best full frame cameras for landscape photography.

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6. Best Nikon Full Frame Camera: Nikon D850

The Nikon D850 boasts an eye popping 45.7 megapixel full frame sensor that makes it by far one of the best cameras for landscape photography. It weighs only 2.02 pounds which makes it very easy to take on a nature and wildlife photo shoot. It also comes with one of the lowest ISO settings available at ISO 64, expandable down to ISO 32. This dslr comes with 153 focus points. And for timelapse lovers, you’ll be able to shoot up to 8k timelapse using an interval timer or 4k in-camera timelapse.

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7. Cheapest Full Frame Camera: Nikon D750

Full frame dslr cameras are usually more expensive than their cropped sensor counterparts. But Nikon has packed a lot of useful features into their D750 full frame camera. First, it uses the same metering and autofocus technology as the D4s and the D810. It has a max resolution of 24.3 megapixels. And it can shoot full HD video at 24/25/30/50/60 fps, making it an incredibly versatile full frame dslr. Plus, it only weighs 1.65 lbs and costs less than $1,500 (body only). So it’s definitely one of the best and cheapest full frame cameras made for landscape photography.

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8. Best Mirrorless Camera: Sony Alpha a7IIK

Mirrorless cameras have gained popularity over the years for being lighter and smaller than traditional dslr cameras. Since landscape photography often involves long hikes with lots of equipment on your back, you can understand why mirrorless cameras would be preferred. The Sony Alpha a7IIK is a fantastic full frame mirrorless camera with a 24.3 megapixel max resolution. It boasts a 5-axis image stabilizing system that can significantly reduce blur caused by camera shake. It has a 2.4 million dot OLED Tru-Finder to frame your images in the manner you’re used to with a traditional dslr. Finally, it has an incredibly fast autofocus and contrast detection system helping you take the clearest shots in the shortest amount of time. And all of this is less than $1,000, which comes with a 28-70mm lens.

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9. Best Mirrorless Camera Under $500: Sony Alpha a6000

Sony is one of the leaders in mirrorless cameras. And the Alpa a6000 is a fantastic option for a mirrorless camera under $500. It’s a 24 MP camera with an ISO range of 100-25600. You can shoot up to 11 fps in continuous mode. And an incredibly fast AF system means you’ll get tack sharp focus as quickly as possible. Finally, because it’s a mirrorless camera, it’s 0.76 lb weight and compact size means you’ll barely notice it in your camera backpack on that hike to your next outdoor photoshoot.

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10. Best Backpacking Camera: Nikon D500

I’ve carried the Nikon D500 on all of my landscape photography shoots for the last few years. It’s an absolute workhorse of a camera and it performs well consistently. The D500 has a 20.9 MP DX sensor. It only weighs 1.9 lbs. And it can capture stunning low light photos with its native ISO 51200, expandable to 1640000. The D500 can shoot crystal clear 4k UHD video at 30 fps. The continuous shooting speed of 11 fps can go for up to 200 frames, making it a must have camera for wildlife photography enthusiasts. It’s built with rugged magnesium allow and carbon fiber materials, making it light and tough enough to stand up to some seriously long hikes and a variety of environmental situations. All this makes the Nikon D500 one of the absolute best backpacking cameras that’s easy for landscape photographer to fall in love with.

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What Makes The Best Camera For Nature Photography?

Before we get started, let’s examine what makes the best camera for nature and wildlife photography.

Sensor Size (Full Frame vs. Cropped)

Most DSLR cameras have either a full frame sensor or a cropped sensor. The difference between the two is the field of view your camera is able to capture with each image. Full frame sensors will literally allow you to fit more into your frame than a cropped sensor will using the same focal length. On the other hand, cropped sensors magnify the effects of a zoom lens mounted on your camera, usually by a factor of 1.5x.

For instance, a 50mm lens mounted on a cropped sensor will effectively act like a 75mm lens on a camera with a full frame sensor.

In short, the larger the camera sensor the better. A large sensor allows you to capture more dynamic range and reduce noise in your images. Your over all image quality will be better with a larger sensor. Plus, you’ll be able to work with a much larger variety of wide-angle lenses.

Resolution (Megapixels)

In addition to sensor size, high-resolution sensors are an essential element when searching for the best camera for landscape photography. The more data (or pixels) you’re able to capture in your image, the more clearly you will be able to see fine detail in your photos. You could do your best composing the perfect landscape image, but you still may need to crop it in post processing. So you’ll want to have as many pixels as you can to be able to make more precise and detailed edits to your photos. This ultimately leads to a higher quality image. Finally, landscape photography is a beautiful art form that is worthy of producing larger print sizes. The more pixels you have available to you, the larger you’ll be able to print your photo for display.

Automatic Exposure Bracketing

If you’re looking for the best camera for landscape photography, you will want to make sure it has automatic exposure bracketing built in. Landscape photographers often find themselves shooting in scenes with wide ranges of lighting variation. For instance, the sun shining through breaks in the clouds, or a sunset or sunrise photoshoot.

Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) allows you to take a quick succession of the same image with slight variations in exposure values without having to manually change them in between shots. You can then merge these images together in Lightroom or Photoshop to create a high dynamic range (HDR) image. This will give you more data to work with to create just the image you want.

Low Light Performance (ISO)

While using higher ISO settings is often seen as being more important for action and sports photography, it can also be quite handy for nature photography. For instance, if you want to take night photography or capture the Milky Way, you may need to use higher ISO numbers to properly expose your subject.  For example, when shooting long exposure photos, you might not want to change shutter speed or aperture settings, so an ISO adjustment is necessary. In this case you’ll want to make sure you have a camera that produces clear images with the least amount of noise at higher ISO numbers.

Best Camera Brands

When choosing the best camera for landscape photography, brand is important, but not as much as individual camera quality. But with that said, some of the most well recognized and reputable camera brands include:

• Canon
• Nikon
• Sony
• Fujifilm
• Olympus
• Panasonic
• Pentax
• Leica
• Hasselblad

Do Professional Photographers Use Nikon Or Canon?

In short, they use both. So often, landscape photographers buy their first camera and stick to that brand because they build up an arsenal of lenses that are only compatible with that brand. For instance, I started out with a Nikon D7000 camera. Over the years, I bought a few lenses for it. Then I bought a Nikon D500 and bought some new lenses for that one, even though my D7000 lenses work with it, too. And so on and so on.

So it really depends a lot on how that professional photographer started out. Even then, some professional photographers use both Canon and Nikon, as well as other brands. It just depends on their needs from photoshoot to photoshoot.

Now that you know it’s more about camera quality than brand, let’s look at the some of the best cameras for landscape photography.

What do you think is the best camera for landscape photography?

There’s a lot to consider when selecting the best camera for landscape photography. You’ve seen some great options here. But do you have a favorite one you’d like to share with the Schubert Photography community?

If so, share it in the comments below.

Happy shooting!

Last update on 2026-03-12 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API