[Closed] Olympus lens dilemma

Do you not already have a zoom lens similar to the first one?

I have a 35mm 1.8 on my Nikon which is 50mm equivalent and it's my favourite lens, but more as a refreshing change from the normal zoom lens. I'm not sure I'd want to be stuck with it all the time..

Er, yes, actually, I thought that first was something else.. 😳 But it still stands I guess - is it worth me getting one of the others?

Havent' found anything with a really wide aperture - is thsi because they're AF?

My Nikon lens is a new model with AF. I'm not that familiar with Olympus and backwards compatibility but maybe you could get away with a secondhand 24mm lens with a wider aperture?

With my Nikon, old lenses don't autofocus (and with really old ones I'd need a lightmeter) so that's not an option for me...

Is it an Olympus PEN?

E600, so 4/3 system.

I miss having f1.4 on my old old old film camera.

I was a big fan of the old Pentax 40mm "pancake" lens for a really light compact go-anywhere lens/body combination.

Would you use a small prime on its own like that, or just lug it around with the rest of your kit?

Dunno - I'd take my SLR both on its own ina camelbak, or with all the rest of its junk.

Also considering the 300mm zoom - 150 was not enough for wildlife on holiday 🙂

I've a panasonic 14-45 on a 4/3 (G1). Great lens, useful set of lengths. Yes the quality and speed might not quite equal the primes, but for most uses the flexibility's more useful. And it's generally the photographer that makes the picture good, not the camera.

On an E600 it's never going to be *that* small even with a pancake, so size issue's probably not important. It's not gonna affect when you do or don't take the camera much I'd have thought?

Also considering the 300mm zoom - 150 was not enough for wildlife on holiday

Well, obviously you weren't close enough to the tiger / wildebeest / alligator then! Try harder next time 😉

Lol.. got some nice bear pictures, but I had to be somewhat too close for comfort!

Well possibly IA, you are right. Thing is, the E420 comes with a small leather case that you can use with the pancake lens, which would be fantastic for popping in the bag. However for my 600 which is only slightly larger, there's bloody nothign available. So the next smallest bag I found will fit the kit lens anyway.

I've got the 14/42mm for my E600, and while I agree the aperture isw a bit crap, it is handy to have the short zoom as a main lens, in conjunction with a longer zoom (but probably not while cycling).

I recommend the 11-22 f2.8 as an all round lens for Oly 4/3.
Superb.

Well if I could only ever have 1 fixed lens then it would be 35mm (full frame.)
More practical to start with the cheap zoom and save for better lenses in the future.

That 11-22 f8 lens looks great, and it's only £750!

Very happy with 14-54 f2.8-3.5. Can also recommend the 70-300 f4-5.6 zoom, which I assume is what you are referring to above. Used on an E620.

Sell your 14-42, and get a secondhand copy of the 14-54mm 2.8-3.5. It's a really nice lens, bright, pretty fast by todays zoom standards, will produce better image quality than any of the three lenses you've listed, and would probably cost you about £250ish secondhand. Only downside is that it's a reasonable size and weight.
Oh, didn't like the 70-300 - very slow to focus, lots of hunting in all but the brightest conditions.

Considering that your old film camera probably used 400 film at the most, then being able to shoot 1600 and more without much handicap means the increased cost of fast lenses isn't worthwhile for a lot of people, unless you're really hunting for bokeh.

I was tempted by the 70-300mm but folk on here reckoned camera shake would be too bad at max zoom.

My old film camera took 6400 film, and I bought some once for a laugh. It was great 🙂

The thing I miss most of all when moving from my compact is macro - my compact could focus down to 3cm.