recommendation: lens combination for my E-510

Hello everyone,

I am an amateur photographer and recently purchased my E-510 with the 14-42mm kit lens.

Being a novice, I am unsure as to what the best basic lenses are for my level. I am now comfortable and familiar with the camera, and I am quick learner. I enjoy taking close-up portraits of people, as well as pictures of architecture (I am an architecture student.) I take pictures at night frequently.

I'm not doing anything too daring or dashing with my camera, but I would like to be able to explore the options available to get the best out of my camera. I am on a student budget, so please recommend affordable lenses (less than $500.)

I have found that my current kit lens works very well for what I have been shooting, but I am wondering if there is a better lens for evening and indoor shots. I suppose I am looking for a good all-around and affordable lens to complement my current kit lens.

Sorry if I have been too vague, I am just beginning to explore my DSLR! I would really appreciate the suggestions of fellow Olympus users!

Thanks a bunch!

Well, the lenses you want tend to be opposite so you are really looking at two lenses. I think for architecture shots people are going to recommend the 11-22mm lens. It is fairly wide making it easier to get full buildings in the shot. It's a little over $600, but everyone loves it. It's also faster then the kit lens, at least wide open, so if you want wide shots inside or at night it will be better then what you have.

For portraits the winner seems to be the 50mm f2 lens, a little under $500. It's almost two stops faster then your kit lens (depending on zoom) so it will be much better indoors or at night. It has a longer zoom then your kit lens, but that tends to be good for portraits. People also really really like this lens. Probably two of the most popular for Olympus cameras.

If you want something that's a bit wider, Sigma makes a couple lens, 24mm and 30mm that are fast. Both are a little under $500.

Given your budget I'd say go for the 14-54. It is faster (more than a stop at the long end), longer (54mm is good for portraits) and optically better than your kit lens.

You want a lens for indoors - which means lens speed. So consider an offering from the mid-grade lineup as they are mostly f/2.8-f/3.5. Some options:

14-54 f/2.8-f/3.5 - about the same as your kit, much, much faster on the long end, slightly sharper wide open, a little longer

50 f/2.0 - a totally different animal than your kit, great low light, low DOF, macro, razor sharp

50-200 f/2.8-f/3.5 (old non-swd) - a little more expensive than your requirements, but not much. Sharp, and works great with IS. Give you some tele options to your kit.

11-22 f/2.8-f/3.5 Way wider than 14 mm. Razor sharp. A little higher than your budget

OM 50/1.8 + 4/3 adapter - Why not try the manual focus lenses. The lens is $20, the adapter is $35. Low light, low DOF, sometimes soft at f/1.8, better at f/2.8

I'd recommend the 50 f/2. It just so different than what you're shooting now, it will open up a whole new world of shooting possibilities.
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Good shooting.

• Adam

Equipment in plan

barrettbot said:

Hello everyone,

I am an amateur photographer and recently purchased my E-510 with the
14-42mm kit lens.

Being a novice, I am unsure as to what the best basic lenses are for
my level. I am now comfortable and familiar with the camera, and I am
quick learner. I enjoy taking close-up portraits of people, as well
as pictures of architecture (I am an architecture student.) I take
pictures at night frequently.

I'm not doing anything too daring or dashing with my camera, but I
would like to be able to explore the options available to get the
best out of my camera. I am on a student budget, so please recommend
affordable lenses (less than $500.)

I have found that my current kit lens works very well for what I have
been shooting, but I am wondering if there is a better lens for
evening and indoor shots. I suppose I am looking for a good
all-around and affordable lens to complement my current kit lens.

Click to expand...

To me the best complements to the kit lenses are fast old primes for portraits and Russian fisheyes for architecture, which can be later debarellized by software.

I have a Nikon 28/2.8 and a Hexanon 50/1.8 which I paid a total of 50 euro (!).
The Zenitar 16/2.8 is about 150$ and the Peleng 8 mm is 250$, new.

In terms of Zuiko the cheapest solution might be to get the new 25/2.8 pancake or the 35macro, and the coming 8-16mm, but you'd pay the double. Ot the other hand the latter might be more rectilinear.

Am.

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Photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7689141@N06/

Old slides: http://picasaweb.google.com/amalric2

barrettbot said:

Hello everyone,

I am an amateur photographer and recently purchased my E-510 with the
14-42mm kit lens.

Click to expand...

Here are some thoughts to keep you budget under $500 that give you different things to think about:

1) FL-36 flash + 35mm macro lens -- the external flash can give you a lot better pictures than the pop-up flash and provides a red focus assist light that is easier on your subjects. The 35mm macro lens would let you photograph small things like flowers. I suspect the bokeh (quality of the unfocussed area) of the 35mm might be nicer than the 14-42mm for portraits.

2) FL-36 flash + 40-150mm lens -- same flash as #1 but the 14-150mm lens gives you more telephoto reach. Also a lot of people prefer using a telephoto lens for portraits since it blurs the background more, but you do have to stand back further.

3) 50mm lens -- No zoom on the lens, but it is 3 stops faster in terms of speed than your 14-42mm lens is at 42mm (f/5.6). The 3 stops means you can shoot a scene at ISO 100 what you would need to shoot at ISO 800 with the 14-42mm. As a macro lens, it will also let you photograph small things like flowers. The downside is the depth of field of f/2 is much smaller than you get at f/5.6. Sometimes you want a small depth of field (usually in portraits), and sometimes you want a larger depth of field (group shots to get everybody in focus). The bokeh of the 50mm is the best of the 4 lenses I own, and a lot of people like it for a portrait lens. I always tell people when thinking about a prime lens, to spend some time shooting as near the focal length as possible with your current lens, and not use the zoom on the lens (zoom with your feet) to get a sense of whether it would work with your style. Because it is a macro lens, it doesn't focus all that fast -- it is ok for focusing on people if they aren't moving too fast, but fast kids might be gone before the lens focuses.

4) 11-22mm lens -- This is somewhat over your budget, but it gives you a wider angle of view which you might need for architecture. It also has less distortion than many of the standard lenses, which again is very useful for architecture, since you won't need to use PP to straighten lines as much. It is faster than your kit lens, so it would give you some more headroom in low light shots. I would suspect that like the 14-54mm, the lens will cause a shadow when you use the pop-up flash, but just use the 14-42mm for the flash (also at wide angle, I would imagine the pop-up flash wouldn't be able to illuminate the corners).

5) 14-54mm lens -- this lens would pretty much replace your existing lens, except when you use the pop-up flash (maybe consider selling the 14-42mm and try to buy a FL-36 with the proceeds). I believe the 14-54mm has less distortion than the 14-42mm, and it is somewhat faster. I sold my 14-42mm, so I don't have much in terms of direct comparison. Because this pretty much replaces the lens, it doesn't give you much new range other than some telephoto, and the ability to focus much closer.

6) Sigma 30mm f/1.4 or 24mm f/1.8 -- These are prime lenses from Sigma that are faster than your kit lens. I've heard rumors that they are pretty soft until you get down to f/2.8, which means they don't give you as much bang for the buck as you might expect. I would suggest looking at shots with these lenses to see for yourself what to expect.

7) Olympus 50-200mm (non SWD) -- This gives you a lot more telephoto range, but it is large and heavy. It is also over your budget, but maybe you can find a used one as people upgrade to the new 50-200mm SWD lens. The new 50-200m SWD lens is way over your budget. You will have to hunt around for this, because it is down to dealers selling existing stock. This is my second favorite lens after the 14-54mm.

8) FL-50 flash -- this gives you a lot more power than the FL-36 and faster recharge time, but it does pretty much eat your whole budget.

9) FL-36 flash + 25mm pancake lens -- this lens was just announced, so nobody knows how it performs. At f/2.8, it will be a little faster than your 14-42mm. It won't be available for another month or so.

10) Olympus 70-300mm -- this lens would give you a lot more zoom, but you will have a hole between 42mm and 70mm in terms of your range.

11) Forthcoming Olympus wide angle lens -- this lens is on the roadmap but hasn't been announced yet, so what the specs are, what price it will retail for, when it will show up in stores, and what the images it takes look like are anybody guess at this point.