Best Bright Prime Lenses for E-PL6

Astrotripper wrote:

alexisgreat wrote:

Olympus

45mm f/1.8

A nice one for some shallow DoF action. Can be used for astrophotography if you put the camera on a tracking mount, which is what I did for this shot .

75mm f/1.8

That would be amazing for astro, provided you have a tracking mount.

Panasonic

15mm f/1.7

This should be nice for astro landscapes. It will probably show some purple fringing with Olympus body. But even if so, that should not be a deal breaker.

25mm f/1.7

Not that sharp, some copies apparently have issues with autofocus. I like mine, because I like the bokeh. As for its use for astrophotography, I made a thread about it some time ago.

Rokinon

24mm f/1.4

35mm f/1.4

85mm f/1.4

Those are all FF DSLR lenses, don't bother.

But they also make some lenses designed for mirrorless systems, for example the 10/2.8, 12/2. Their 12/2 is a very good choice for astro landscapes, provided you get a good copy.

As for their FF DSLR lenses and astrophotography, their 135mm f/2 is excellent and should do really well for this type of thing. Of course, with a tracking mount. And it's probably a good idea mounting it via a solid adapter that has a tripod socket. Can't imagine this on an E-PL6 otherwise.

I'm also looking for a great 300mm telephoto prime.

Do you have $2500 to spare? Or at least $1800?

Is Rokinon's 300mm f/6.3 better than Olympus's 75-300mm or Panasonic's 100-300mm lens?

Completely different beasts. And no.

What about Tokina's 300mm f/6.3 prime?

I got one recently. Here's my first impressions , here's some birds , and here's my gallery with a lot more photos taken with this lens. On a E-PL6, don't even bother.

Both of those primes are reasonably priced (are they the same lens?)

That's because they are manual focus mirror lenses.

so I'm not sure how good they are.

They are tricky at best. Let's leave it at that.

The Panasonic 100-300mm is the fastest.

Not in terms of autofocus or aperture action. And the general consensus seems to be that it's not as good optically as Oly 75-300. But who knows how much of that is because of shutter-shock negatively impacting earlier users before e-shutter came along.

How much do these weigh (do any of the above weigh too much for my camera?)

Check the specs, it's there.

Thanks, based on what you said, I've put the Olympus 17, 45 and 75 on my list as well as the Panasonic 15. I'll stay away from Rokinon DSLR lenses and the mirror lenses though. Can only the Olympus lenses be autofocused?

I'll also take a look at the Rokinon ultra wide primes you mentioned:

"But they also make some lenses designed for mirrorless systems, for example the 10/2.8, 12/2. Their 12/2 is a very good choice for astro landscapes, provided you get a good copy."

About the tele primes, I need something to bridge my camera lenses to my telescopes. Looks like the Oly 75-300 is my best option. Out of curiosity, the lenses you mentioned weren't good for the E-PL6, did you say it because of weight considerations or other reasons?

I already have mirror lenses I want to use with my camera, they are telescope OTAs, the Nexstar 8 2000mm and ETX 90 1250mm telescopes. I assume I wont have any issues using these with the camera? The former is f/10 (f/6.3 with reducer) and the latter is f/13.8.

About the tracking mount, I do have one, but it's the one that came with my telescope. Would that work fine with the 75mm lens?

I've been told I can do AP with it, but limited to 30 seconds (but that's by using the 2000mm OTA as the lens). I should be able to do a minute or more with just the 75mm lens, no? I'll need a dovetail - tripod adapter for the camera though.