lens question

geotrig

Hi ia have a olympus e500 camera ,was thinking about picking up one or two more lenses .my question is i was looking at a 80-200mm OM lens and adapter,has anyone else done something similar and what are the pros and cons of it ,what its like to use etc?

duffarama

what lenses do you currently have?

If you're thinking of getting OM lenses you're mostly better off getting single focal lengths (primes) as the quality of the zooms of the time aren't as good as the quality of the current ZD lenses.

You'd be much better off getting the 40-150 or the 70-300 if you can find them at a good price.

I do use some OM primes on my Olympus DSLR with an adaptor and it's a lot of fun

geotrig

when i bought it,it came with 2 lens 17.5-45 i think and 45-150 i think ,i'm crap at remembering no's thanks for the advice on om's was also looking at the primes but wasn't sure on them.i prefer the 45-150 lens for taking pics gets nice and close.

anyone have advice on a good lens for close ups, portraits ,i find the smaller lens is to far away?
cheers

duffarama

the best lens for portraits and close ups would be the 50mm F2 Macro (Olympus digital) but if you're looking for a cheaper solution the OM 50mm F1.8 is cheap and there are plenty for sale online from €10 upwards depending on quality. F1.4 and f1.2 versions too.

geotrig

thanks a million for your input help,budget limits me alright and would love the 50mm macro alright maybe someday, i had seen the om 50mm alright and had wondered about them so thanks.

duffarama

No worries, the 35 Macro would also suffice but would only be useful for studio portraits rather than candids and low light shooting.

The OM 50mm F1.8 is cheap and cheerful, especially with a cheap chinese adaptor too.

Best of luck

Imposter

I'm thinking of getting a prime lens for my E520 too. What do people think of the 25mm pancake lenses? I was also looking at the 50mm macro and the 35mm macro. Still quite undecided (would go for the 50mm if money was no object).

duffarama

All 3 lenses serve different purposes!

I have the 35 macro and the 25 pancake. The Macro is superbly sharp and if you like taking pictures of bugs and insects and so on it's a great lens to have.

The 25 is different in that it's good for slapping a tiny lens on your camera and doing street shooting and attempting to be unobtrusive.

Depends on what you like to take pics of really.

Imposter

This is kinda the problem - I want something that's quite flexible.
Curently the 14-42 rarely leaves the camera (the other lense I have is the 40-150).

With the 14-42, I mostly shoot landscapes and 'sightseeing' type stuff and occasionally macro type closeups. I'd like to play around with other stuff like portraits and more photos of people in real life situations. I like the idea of having the pancake lens on the camera too as it is so unobtrusive.

If i'm shooting sports i'm happy enough with the 40-150 for now.

duffarama

Well the pancake isn't really the right focal length to be used as a portrait lens, no doubt you could manage but you'd end up qute close to people.

For the versatility you're looking for the ZD 14-54 (either version) would be a good lens to buy or the Sigma 18-50 which has a constant F2.8 throughout the zoom range.

For myself I noticed I was using the 14-42 a lot as well and decided on the 12-60 and couldn't be happier with the lens. I've hardly used the 35 macro or the 2 kit lenses since. Although now I'm considering using the 40-150 again as well as the macro and the 12-60 gathers dust!!