Early days with new Oly 14 - 150

Some of you know that I decided on the Oly over the Panasonic 14 - 140mm zoom. Thanks for all of the helpful ideaas and comments on that thread (http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/56885887).

I'm learning about the strengths (tremendous zoom range) and weaknesses (a little soft at f8 and above). It's fun to use.

If you like, you can see samples of my rather amateurish work while getting acquainted with the lens here: http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/6719738940/albums/testing-olympus-14-150

We are seeing the last of our roses, here's an image:

One of last ones, still trying to hang on ...

A great all around travel lens: small, light, weatherproof, and sharp enough for most purposes

I use it more often than my 12-40mm which is relegated to important shooting with less light

I just wish it had  the 12mm at the wide end and it'll be 'perfect'

It's my kit lens mounted on the EM5 II by default

Cheers,

I only considered Panasonic and Olympus. Right now, I guess you could say I have 'brand loyalty' to them.  Of course, my loyalty could be misguided.  I had a Tamron lens a long time ago, in my 35mm days, but I did not consider other brands with my new m43 system.

I think I probably hurt myself on image quality by using too high an f stop at times.  What do you recommend as the upper limit if you want the best quality out of the lens?

jonikon wrote:

It is my understanding correct that the Olympus 14-150mm that you have is a recent update to a previous model?

Yes, mine is the latest and current model. The size and handling is just fine for me. FWI, I have used manual focus some and it is smooth and quite visible on my GX7.

Most of my pictures are taken with the 14-150 mk1 on an E-M5 mk1. It is so convenient for many subjects. Avoid f/22 if you can.

Peter Del
Gallery: http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/8804053911

Since the lens is rather slow I'd leave it on f4 most of the time; of course it'll be 5.6 at the longer end but it's OK still

I'd also leave the camera on Auto ISO to compensate for movement blur with the limit setting at ISO 6400

The only few times I set to higher aperture is when I want to have motion blur or on long exposures

I also just acquired the 75-300mm to keep this lens company on trips

I'd also pack a couple of fast primes just in case where shallow DOF and/or low light are called for

(I'd leave the 12-40mm at home this time )

Cheers,