New vintage camera

I'm on a business trip to San Bernardino, and I picked up a very clean E-410 with 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 lens for $80 at the Pasadena camera show. Coming from a micro four thirds and viewfinder hating background, this is actually a very decent camera and has a very usable viewfinder with glasses. Should be lots of fun to play with, but definitely adds some weight to my carry-on for the return flight!

Now to add this forum to my bookmarks...

Edit: Just checked the shutter count, and it's only 4030.

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It ain't easy being me, but someone's gotta do it.

I took a lot of great images with my E-420 back in the day, I loved that little camera.

The 35 macro, 9-18, and 14-54 were my favorites in case you find any for a song.

I've often believed that regardless of what camera you own, if it provides you with much pleasure, is capable of producing very satisfying results, and is functioning perfectly, that whether "vintage" or a "recent" release, doesn't make any difference.

Remember back in the 35 MM days, cameras were maintained in production status for a long, long time. When we used the term "Vintange" back then, it was more to describe cameras from the 30's, 40's, and 50's.

I use a lot of vintage digital cameras to this date - have always loved their output. Somehow anymore, the term "vintage" seems to have an almost denigrating connotation (with regards to cameras). The camera you just purchased will make you smile in many situations. IMO, it is not a vintage model by any stretch of the imagination.

Good luck with your new toy!

I like that little camera. Really nice lens.

MShot said:

I like that little camera. Really nice lens.

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Right after I got back to the hotel room, I bought a Sigma 18-50mm lens on Ebay. It was a real surprise - it focuses down to 5 inches at either end! Are there any more inexpensive native lenses out there for this system?

All kinds of very good glass is available used. Prices vary greatly and it all depends on what you can find. The Olympus 14 - 54 is very nice but you have that covered with the Sigma.

Andrew

ALL the Four Thirds lenses are relatively inexpensive. When I shot that system I had a 40-150, a 70-300, 50-200 f/2.8-3.5, an 18-180, 1.4X and 2X teleconverters. They all render beautifully, warmer than M43 lenses. They can resolve images with more detail than the sensor can produce. The images I took with them look more "DSLR" to me than M43 lenses. They should. They are DSLR lenses. They produce nice bokeh and good subject separation.

I still have the 50mm f/2 MACRO, a fantastic lens I use on M43 bodies with an adaptor. I find no reason to replace it with an M43 lens. I kept the 14-42 because it has so little retail value it isn't worth selling. Its a good lens. There's a 12-60 that was much loved and a 14-54, I think it was.

You can find these lenses on the KEH site. B&H used to have a few. Since the EM-1 came out, photographers have grabbed them up because they were such great values and they focus reasonably fast on that body. Before the EM-1 was announced Four Thirds lenses were plentiful and inexpensive. The latter not so much now but they are still inexpensive since M43 lenses cover much of the focal lengths and speeds most people need.

Other than that, happy hunting on EBAY. You might some on AMAZON.

Great value. Good luck with it!

n3eg said:

MShot said:

I like that little camera. Really nice lens.

Click to expand...

Right after I got back to the hotel room, I bought a Sigma 18-50mm lens on Ebay. It was a real surprise - it focuses down to 5 inches at either end! Are there any more inexpensive native lenses out there for this system?

Click to expand...

For a list of what was made for this 4/3 system, check this out:

https://www.four-thirds.org/en/fourthirds/lens_chart.html

Also, with Olympus, you can still get manuals for all the E series bodies, lenses and accessories:

https://cs.olympus-imaging.jp/en/support/imsg/digicamera/download/manual/dslr.cfm

As for lenses, the ZD25mm f2.8 pancake lens on the E-410 makes the camera pocketable. Or at least it fits in a large pocket like the one in my barn jacket. The lens also adapts well to m43 cameras as it is CDAF enabled. Another lens that gets overlooked a lot is the ZD18-180mm. It starts fairly fast at f3.5. It is almost exactly the same size as the very good ZD14-54. I'm not sure which Sigma 18-50 you got so you'd need to check the chart yourself to compare size and weight. The ZD18-180 is really amazing with such a wide range in such a small package. It's best that it's stopped down to f8 at the long end so it's more of a sunny day friend.

If you want to go a little crazy there are two Sigma f1.4 lenses. The 30mm EX DC HSM and the 50mm EX DG HSM. These lenses are bigger than they need to be though because they are for ASPC and FF sensors respectively. The filter for the 50 is 77mm! The 50 has a reputation for focusing rather slowly, which is exactly how it worked on my E-410. But, it can produce some lovely images. I don't think either sold very well in the 4/3 mount so they can be hard to find and probably more than you want to spend. A really nice accessory to have is the RM-1 remote. I found it very handy when shooting long exposures.

MShot said:

ALL the Four Thirds lenses are relatively inexpensive. When I shot that system I had a 40-150, a 70-300, 50-200 f/2.8-3.5, an 18-180, 1.4X and 2X teleconverters. They all render beautifully, warmer than M43 lenses.

Click to expand...

I was looking closely at the 70-300, which I've seen in the $150-$300 range. I like long lenses - I bought my m4/3 75-300 on sale even before I decided which camera I would start with! I've heard good things about the 50-200 SWD, but it's not exactly inexpensive. Probably also outresolves the 10 MP sensor by a lot too.

Member said:

I still have the 50mm f/2 MACRO, a fantastic lens I use on M43 bodies with an adaptor.

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Looked closely at that one too. Does it go past 1:1?

Member said:

You can find these lenses on the KEH site.

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I've found Ebay searches difficult - I have to type in the exact focal length. Type in "Zuiko digital 4/3 SLR lens" and you still get a mix of 4/3, m4/3, and OM.

You can buy the 50-200 SWD for 1/3 of its original MSRP. The non-SWD version is less. The optics seem to be identical. The SWD focuses a little faster but neither focuses fast compared with M43 lenses so you might as well buy the lower cost version. Its very sharp, makes beautiful images, comparable to the 40-150PRO. You can buy the 1.4X and 2X TC for it and get out to 800mm.

50mm f/2 MACRO

n3eg said:

I was looking closely at the 70-300...

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And there are 29 of them on Ebay right now! This is more fun than I expected.

n3eg said:

MShot said:

ALL the Four Thirds lenses are relatively inexpensive. When I shot that system I had a 40-150, a 70-300, 50-200 f/2.8-3.5, an 18-180, 1.4X and 2X teleconverters. They all render beautifully, warmer than M43 lenses.

Click to expand...

I was looking closely at the 70-300, which I've seen in the $150-$300 range. I like long lenses - I bought my m4/3 75-300 on sale even before I decided which camera I would start with! I've heard good things about the 50-200 SWD, but it's not exactly inexpensive. Probably also outresolves the 10 MP sensor by a lot too.

Click to expand...

Remember, the E-4xx cameras don't have image stabilization in the camera. As you add telephoto lenses, either lens based or sensor shift stabilization becomes more important unless you can shoot at 1/600 or faster on the long end.

I've not used the E-410, but there was a bit of a learning curve when the E-510 came out to get decent pictures (I had pre-ordered the E-510 when it was announced, and I got one of the first copies of it in the USA):

• The E-510 goes down the ISO 100, but the sensor seems to be more tuned towards ISO 200. If I shot at ISO 100, I tended to get slightly under-exposed photos, while ISO 200 was better exposed (if a little bit noisier). There was a feeling among the E-520 early adopters that the base ISO was really ISO 125, and Olympus didn't really adjust the metering settings. IIRC, you did not have partial ISO stops in that era, so you only had ISO 100, 200, 400, etc.
• The E-510 split normal matrix metering (ESP) into two types (ESP and ESP+AF). The default is ESP+AF, while previously the cameras used ESP meter. Unfortunately, they hid the ESP vs. ESP+AF setting in a second level menu, rather than making it an option in the main meter menu (ESP, center-weighted, spot). Most of us that were upgrading from previous Olympus cameras missed this. When I went and de-selected ESP+AF, my outdoor pictures became better exposed.
• I tended to feel that the JPEG engine produced pictures on the cool side, and I needed in post processing to lift the JPEG tone curve a bit to get the images I was expecting. When I upgraded to the E-3 later, the camera returned to the normal Olympus colors.

In terms of the 50-200mm vs. 70-300mm, the 50-200mm produced better images, but the 70-300mm wasn't bad. I did have the EC-14, which made the 50-200mm's range close to the 70-300mm. The 50-200mm is heavier than the 70-300mm. On my E-x cameras, it balanced pretty well, but I imagine on a lighter camera like the E-410, it would be lens heavy.

There are 2 versions of the 50-200mm. I have the first version, but I used the second version when my first version was being fixed. While the speed of focusing is said to be faster with the second version (50-200mm SWD), the lens hood on the 50-200mm SWD was a serious drawback. I tend to have a rather tightly packed shoulder bag. The 50-200mm mark I fits in nicely. The 50-200mm SWD does not, because the lens hood is so wide.

If you have an E-x (E-1, E-3, and E-5) body, I can testify that the 50-200mm is splash proof. I have shot in various rain storms with it, taken it on the boat ride at Niagara Falls, etc.

The 70-300mm has a firmware update to allow it to focus better on contrast detect systems like micro 4/3rds. This means on cameras other than the E-m1 mark I or II, the focusing is now slow rather than dreadfully slow.