Brand New OM-D EM-5 Owner, Looking for a Macro Lens for Coin Photography

rarecoinman · Mar 25, 2013

Hello everyone

I am so very excited, just received my Om-d today with the following options

Kit Lens 12-50mm

45mm Olympus lens

Battery Grip

Domke Bag.

Question is this, I am a rare coin dealer, and looking for a macro lens for coin photography. Right now I use a Tameron 90mm Macro which is very soft on the corners.

Any Recommendations? Thanks :-D

Brian Wadie · Mar 25, 2013

Maybe the first thing to do is to give the kit lens a go in macro mode, many of us are finding it works remarkably well.

If its not up to the level you want you have the obvious options of the panny 45 f2.8 macro and the oly 60mm f2.8 macro, both of which perform extremely well on the EM-5

MrPhotoBob · Mar 25, 2013

I just purchased the Olympus micro 60 2.8 and I am very happy with it, and if you purchased your system with in the time for the lens rebate and you contact Olympus main office, you can get a $150 rebate on it as well. I purchased mine with in that time limit and I am sending in for the rebate. The rebate form states that you must purchase everything at once, but I was told by their head office that if I would contact them and send my rebate into their office that they would honor it where the rebate center would not. You have to contact them first to find out just who to send it to.

EPPaar · Mar 25, 2013

Macro is one of the applications at which legacy lenses excel.

I use an old Pentax M 50mm Macro lens with an adapter. They sell for $50-$75 on E-bay and produce excellent results. I would not advise using them for normal photography but any number of old film macro lenses are, I believe, far better than the ones that have been produced so far for the µ4/3 mount.

Lost in Time · Mar 25, 2013

+1 for this.

The 12-50mm is not the greatest lens overall, but it's macro mode is oddly enough excellent. Also, while it is not a true 1:1 macro, remember that the OM-D sensor is smaller than a film SLR and so the magnification is just about right for coin photographs.

One problem that you may have is the relatively short working distance - about 10cm. This means that you will need to take care setting up the lighting so as not to shade the coin with the lens barrel. Whether this matters depends on how you like to light the coins (I usually use strong side-lights with some fill, so working distance is not much of an issue).

jkrumm · Mar 25, 2013

And since you are shooting in a controlled situation the manual focus won't matter.

MrScorpio · Mar 25, 2013

Hi

I have the Panny 45, which I regret buying. Good IQ, but too short focal length.

I will upgrade to the Oly 60mm. But the 12-50 in Macro mode is surprisingly good actually...

daveomd · Mar 25, 2013

I have a few coins and enjoy talking photos of my collection.

I have learned that the Light is much more important than the lens you use. Coins have varying raised surfaces, different surface textures, and some coins are graded and enclosed in a plastic case. These factors all reflect light differently, and make taking photos of coins a challenge.

I purchased this small light box:

http://www.ls-photostudio.com/shop/...x-light-tent-cube-4-chroma-key-backdrops.html

The light box helps to control the lighting on the coins.

s_grins · Mar 25, 2013

Member said:
rarecoinman wrote:

Hello everyone

I am so very excited, just received my Om-d today with the following options

Kit Lens 12-50mm

45mm Olympus lens

Battery Grip

Domke Bag.

Question is this, I am a rare coin dealer, and looking for a macro lens for coin photography. Right now I use a Tameron 90mm Macro which is very soft on the corners.

Any Recommendations? Thanks :-D

Before yo invest in new lens, try your kit 12-50 - it may come out good.

Personally I have Sigma 2.8/90, and there is quick snap I've made having camera handheld

--
Looking for equilibrium...

rialcnis · Mar 25, 2013

The 12-50 might do what you need, and the Oly 60mm for sure,, and it''s water resistent too.

daddyo · Mar 25, 2013

Olympus ZD 35mm f/3.5 Macro (1:1) in LN- condition at KEH --$159.

MMF-1 Adapter from China on Ebay -- $45

Total Cost = $204

The ZD 35mm is a light weight, compact, razor sharp macro lens that focuses accurately and fairly fast on m4/3 cameras.

Below are a couple sample shots using the lens with a 1.4TC on my old Oly E-300

It should do a bang up job on coins.

God Bless,

Greg

www.imagismphotos.com

www.mccroskery.zenfolio.com

www.pbase.com/daddyo

A Texas Sunflower

An orb web spider having lunch

daddyo · Mar 25, 2013

You really should consider the Olympus MAL-1, macro arm light. I bought one recently while they were on sale by Olympus. It would seem the perfect lighting set up for something like coins.

God Bless,

Greg

www.imagismphotos.com

www.mccroskery.zenfolio.com

www.pbase.com/daddyo

daveco2 · Mar 26, 2013

A month ago, I did just what daddyo suggests.

I got the Oly 35 mm from KEH and a used Oly adaptor from Amazon. They were in excellent shape, just as advertised, and they work great. Autofocus does as well (sometimes better) than my manual focusing. Autofocus is slow, but that shouldn't matter.

What led me to this solution for macro photography was a previous thread on this forum titled "Need a cheap macro lens" by pebblehead, 1 month ago.

Dave

MatsP · Mar 26, 2013

Far from my best shot, but whatever, here it is.

ISO 200, f 6,0, 1/125

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Brand New OM-D EM-5 Owner, Looking for a Macro Lens for Coin Photography

rarecoinman

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Brian Wadie

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MrPhotoBob

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EPPaar

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Lost in Time

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