Let go of 45-150mm?

AM77 wrote:

Eric Nepean wrote:

I have a small camera bag and severeal larger ones.

For the small camera bag, I find the 45-150 a very useful component.

• Think Tank Mirrorless Mover 20
• GM5 or PEN-F
• 7.5/2
• 12-32
• Choice of 45-150 (outdoor) or 42.5/1.7 (indoor)
• Choice of 15/1.7, 20/1.7, 25/1.8

Hi Eric, how is the 45-150 for portrait compared with the 42.5 ?

The ceneter sharpness of the two lenses is about the same when the lens is wide open.

For the 42.5, this is F1.7, and for the 40-150, this is F3.5. You can get better background blur with the 42.5 than the 40-150.

Also depends where you want to take your portraits.

If you take your portraits in a studio environment, you can always crank up the lighting and put in some blurred backdrop, and the 40-150 will do, just as well as the 42.5.

But if you take your portraits ouside the studio, then one has very limited control of lighting and background. And the lighting is often poor. In this case the 42.5/1.7 is more useable than the 45-150.

Actually, any of the F1.7 or F1.8 primes beat the heck out of an F3.5 zoom in indoor lighting.

IMO an F1.6-F2.0 prime is the sweet spot for $$$ vs low light capability.

To take advantage of an F1.2 prime's wide aperture means using it wide open, and then the depth of field becomes very narrow. Found this when using a 50/1.4 and 0.71x Speedbooster combo. And you basically have to pay an extra $700USD over and above an F1.7 lens for an F1.2 lens.