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kwhit

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Greetings,

I am looking to augment my E-500 kit lens with a couple of manual focus lens until I can purchase the 24-54 and 50-200 pro lenses.

There are tons of used lens forsale online and locally. I am not sure it's a good lens just because the lens has a 2.8 F stop. Would you stick mainly with Oly or Nikkor? How about Tokina, Tameron, Sigma,Pentax, Vivitar...etc?

Thanks In Advance!
 
kwhit said:
I am looking to augment my E-500 kit lens with a couple of manual
focus lens until I can purchase the 24-54 and 50-200 pro lenses.
Click to expand...
Hi,
Using an adaptor you should be able to fit any manual lenses to your new camera.

Follow this link to see which old Zuiko lenses are good or bad... It's not a scientific test but worth checking out.

It was tested with an E-1 but I do not think there should be any difference in performance. Please correct me if I am wrong...

http://www.biofos.com/cornucop/omz_e1.html

Kind regards Jørgen
http://www.pbase.com/jchriste
 
I prefer OM Zuiko's. The small and sharp. Much smaller than my old Nikkors.

I also have a OM Vivitar 55mm f2.8 macro that is wonderful. I really like my Tamron SP 350mm f5.6 mirror tele.
--
Alan
http://homepage.mac.com/halfmac/
Oly E-1, E-300

 
kwhit said:
Greetings,

I am looking to augment my E-500 kit lens with a couple of manual
focus lens until I can purchase the 24-54 and 50-200 pro lenses.

There are tons of used lens forsale online and locally. I am not
sure it's a good lens just because the lens has a 2.8 F stop. Would
you stick mainly with Oly or Nikkor? How about Tokina, Tameron,
Sigma,Pentax, Vivitar...etc?
Click to expand...
I suspect you will have some variability, due to how well the lens was used and cared for. For instance, the first 3 generations of Vivitar Series One lenses were much sharper than the later cheaper versions. For instance, two of the lenses I picked up when I was in my manual focus stage the aperture doesn't stop down properly. I picked up a generation 3 Vivitar Series One 70-210mm lens, and it is a nice piece of glass:
http://www.robertstech.com/vivitar.htm

Here is a page of cult classics in manual focus lenses:
http://medfmt.8k.com/third/cult.html
 
Do you have the DZ 40-150mm in your kit? If so, it is probably a better choice for you to use than any of the older film lenses in the same focal ranges. That said, I like to use my OM 135mm f2.8 for some people shots at the wider settings. It has better bokeh and I like the slightl softness for faces. At f5.6 or f8, it is just as sharp, if not more so than the 40-150mm, but the latter has AF, so why not use it instead of a legacy lens? For longer telephotos, your only inexpensive options are going to be 200mm, 300mm, 400mm legacy lenses. The OM ones are good and do pretty well, but several forum members have faster Nikkor lenses at the longer lengths and produce excellent pictures with them. Going the other way, the OM 50mm f1.8 is quite nice, but is softer at the f1.8 through f4 ranges. Like the 135mm lens, once it gets into its ideal focal range of f5.6 through f8, it's no better than the 14-54mm (I guess this would be true for the 14-45mm as well).

The legacy lenses certainly can fill gaps & I like using mine, but be aware of the specific function for which you might want to use them. On the whole, the DZ lenses are simply easier to use, more accurate to focus, and excel at producing quality images.

Cheers,
HS
--
http://hestamm.smugmug.com
 
kwhit said:
Greetings,

I am looking to augment my E-500 kit lens with a couple of manual
focus lens until I can purchase the 24-54 and 50-200 pro lenses.

There are tons of used lens forsale online and locally. I am not
sure it's a good lens just because the lens has a 2.8 F stop. Would
you stick mainly with Oly or Nikkor? How about Tokina, Tameron,
Sigma,Pentax, Vivitar...etc?

Thanks In Advance!
Click to expand...
The two lenses I can recommend to you from my own experience would be an OM 300mm f/4.5 and an OM 50mm f/1.4; both are very nice, sharp when used properly, and relatively inexpensive for what they are. The 50mm f/1.4 can't be used wide open unless you want a really soft look for a portrait; it sharpens remarkably by f/2.0 though, and does well in low light. The OM 300mm is a little soft wide open but also sharpens nicely by f/5.6. Some have reported CA with their copies, but I've never seen it on mine. I never used these lenses with a film camera, but I suspect that they were similar on an OM body - soft wide open, and then sharp up to about f/16.

My OM 200mm f/4 I find hard to focus for whatever reason, my copy may be damaged. It's also a tad soft wide open, but usable at f/4.5 - nothing special, though. It's a lot lighter than the 300mm (about 1/3 the size and weight), and with an inexpensive 1.5X and 2X teleconverter it would be a decent light super-telephoto kit for hiking if the darned lens was working properly - I've got it going in for adjustment and cleaning, it's going to cost as much as the lens did.

Otherwise, between 14-150 mm you'll not find much better than the digital Zuiko kit lenses. IMHO the only reason to look at OM (or other manual lenses) in that range is for low light lenses like the 50mm f/1.4 or 24mm f/2.8. It may be that I've lucked out and gotten particularly sharp copies of the kit lenses, but I've had no problems with soft pics and very little trouble with focus hunting and so forth. My only complaint is that the 14-45 is too distorted at 14mm, getting a little too close to fisheye for my tastes. I use flash in low light and I'm quite satisfied with my setup, so I don't have a lot of need for a faster lens.

YMMV, of course; good luck.
ECM
 
Hey Alan,

Nice image. We both agree this is a great lens. What aperture did you use? I find it very useful for event shooting in low light when the DZ 40-150mm has trouble focusing (or when I want that softer focus on faces at wider apertures and the great bokeh). But I don't use it as much anymore when the light is good and most of the time I shoot in a range from f5.6 to f11, and the DZ lens works very well then.

Cheers,
HS
--
http://hestamm.smugmug.com
 
Only the best of film lenses are up to the demands of the 4/3 8MP sensor. Remember the 4/3 sensor has only about 1/4 the area of a 35mm negative, so it demands a much better lens.

I've tried a number of Nikon lenses on my E-300 and only the very best of them can compete with the Olympus kit lenses. Even then you still have the hassles of manual focus and manual diaphram operation.

IMO the adapters are only worth using if you already have high-end lenses or if you're looking for exotic telephoto or macro lenses that you simply can't afford from Olympus. If you want to try, your best chance of finding a really good lens at a bargain price is to look for the better Zuiko or Pentax lenses. Nikon has some good lenses older lenses, but they're in demand from Nikon shooters.

--
J.R.

Somewhere south of Amarillo
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. I have decided to purchase the 14-54 2.8 for indoor/portraits and a manual focus 70-200 2.8 with a TC-14 until I can save up for the 50-200. I hope manual combo works well indoors. I have a daughter that is taking Modern Dance and they do not allow flash photography.

I picked up an adapter for OM lens and it's like everyone has proclaimed. I really like my OM 50mm 1.8 for indoor / portraits.

I am also able to reuse my 58mm filter collection on the DZ lens too!

Thanks Everyone!
 
Manual focus on a small 4/3 viewfinder is not easy in poor light, small-sized subjects or moving subjects - in my experience. Conversely for static, well lit and large sized subjects they can turn in some very good results.

I would never use less than f2.8 lens as you may find the image too dim to see clearly enough.

Basically 4/3 needs AF for most shooting. Highly advise you try out first before parting with too much money.

--
Cameras are NOT computers!
Olympus E1 with 14-54, Nikon Coolpix 5400, Fuji Finepix A201
 
wolfie said:
Manual focus on a small 4/3 viewfinder is not easy in poor light,
small-sized subjects or moving subjects - in my experience.
Conversely for static, well lit and large sized subjects they can
turn in some very good results.
I would never use less than f2.8 lens as you may find the image too
dim to see clearly enough.
Basically 4/3 needs AF for most shooting. Highly advise you try out
first before parting with too much money.

--
Cameras are NOT computers!
Olympus E1 with 14-54, Nikon Coolpix 5400, Fuji Finepix A201
Click to expand...
The majority of my shooting will be indoors. I know this is D-SLR forum but I'm wondering if I should purchase a prosumer video camera instead of the 50-200 lens and extract photos that way.
 
2.8 as it was in the shade. I did not have my 40-150 because my wife uses it all the time.
The 40-150 is a great lens.
Henry Stamm said:
Hey Alan,
Nice image. We both agree this is a great lens. What aperture did
you use? I find it very useful for event shooting in low light
when the DZ 40-150mm has trouble focusing (or when I want that
softer focus on faces at wider apertures and the great bokeh). But
I don't use it as much anymore when the light is good and most of
the time I shoot in a range from f5.6 to f11, and the DZ lens works
very well then.

Cheers,
HS
--
http://hestamm.smugmug.com
Click to expand...
--
Alan
http://homepage.mac.com/halfmac/
Oly E-1, E-300

 
I use manual focus all the rime on my E-1. It is not the size of the viewfinder but how sharp it is.

Siz is only good for composition. F2.8 and above are not that bad on the e-1. My e-300 was alittle harder.
AF is great if you have the lenses with you, but I share them with my wife.
wolfie said:
Manual focus on a small 4/3 viewfinder is not easy in poor light,
small-sized subjects or moving subjects - in my experience.
Conversely for static, well lit and large sized subjects they can
turn in some very good results.
I would never use less than f2.8 lens as you may find the image too
dim to see clearly enough.
Basically 4/3 needs AF for most shooting. Highly advise you try out
first before parting with too much money.

--
Cameras are NOT computers!
Olympus E1 with 14-54, Nikon Coolpix 5400, Fuji Finepix A201
Click to expand...
--
Alan
http://homepage.mac.com/halfmac/
Oly E-1, E-300

 
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