What lense??

[jerome.oneil]

I have an E520 with 2 kit lenses (14-42; 40-150) and I'm thinking about getting new lenses for my arsenal and need your help. I'm also new to DSLR photography and getting back to photography after a long hiatus. My interests are still life, close ups/macro, and landscape. I'm thinking of first getting the Zuiko 50mm macro f2 but would like to get your thoughts.

Thanks for your help,
Jerome

[xinman]

Similar to you I have an e-620 with those two lenses. I recently picked up a 50mm f/1.8 OM and an OM adapter on ebay for under $75. These OM lenses are for the old film cameras but with the adapter they work on the e series. The biggest problem is they don't auto focus and depending on who you talk to thats not a bad thing. I personally find that I need to work on my focus with these some. So I will bracket my shots with a slight change of focus in each, I try to nail the middle shot as the best to see if I can do it. I like it for all that. I'm also looking into buying a reversing ring so I can play with macro. The reversing ring allows you to mount the lens in reverse on the body, which will give you macro capabilities. All this is cheap, but I'm on a budget so I can't drop the $500 large on one lens. I do notice at some social events even the 50mm it to narrow and a 25mm would be a nice wide shot. I think when I get my next digital lens I am looking at the 70-300mm macro. I would like to be able to get a macro shot without scaring the subject. I'm interested in others thoughts on this.

[Raigoki]

right on!
if you're interested in macro and close-up, you can try the cheapest way, buy an old zuiko OM lens, 50mm f/1.8 or 1.4 then either a reverse adaptor ring or an extension tube...

[NaturalWoman]

Originally Posted by jerome.oneil

I have an E520 with 2 kit lenses (14-42; 40-150) and I'm thinking about getting new lenses for my arsenal and need your help. I'm also new to DSLR photography and getting back to photography after a long hiatus. My interests are still life, close ups/macro, and landscape. I'm thinking of first getting the Zuiko 50mm macro f2 but would like to get your thoughts.

Thanks for your help,
Jerome

i have the 50 f2, it's great for macro, then lens does hunt a lot with the autofocusing, but if you can see well enough, manual focusing will do just fine. the 35 f2 is also great and less expensive and is a "true" macro.

the 14-54 swd is awesome in my book. it's heavy, but focusing is always spot on.

[StellaG]

I also have the E-520, and love it. It initially came with the kit lens, 14-42, and I've actually been very happy with this lens, nice and wide ;-) I recently puchased the Zuiko 70-300 (in acutallity it's 140-600) and have been quite pleased with it. Very nice lens. The other lens's I have are the OM 50mm 1.8 and the 50mm 1.4. While I like these lens's, the focus ring is quite small and rather hard for me to get a good focus, I may look into a chipped adapter at some point...I went ahead and got the Zuiko 25mm pancake lens (made for DSLR) and it's not a bad little lens at all. A friend recently gave me a load of old camera equipment, and I'll tell you the lens that I've fallen in love with is a Tamron 80-210mm 3.8. Wow, it is a real pleasure to use, and I love the results I get with it. The man. focus is super easy with the big barrel, and the zoom is nice as well. NOt quite sure what the rep. is for these lens's, but I liked it so much I just got another one (35-75mm) on ebay. Anyway those are the lens's I use/have. As far as macro, I shoot quite a bit of bugs.flowers, plants etc....and the 14-42 does a very nice job on macro shots. Here's my flickr page, you can get an idea of what kind of shots I get with the diff. lens's.

Flickr: boopster's Photostream

[xinman]

Originally Posted by StellaG

I also have the E-520, and love it. It initially came with the kit lens, 14-42, and I've actually been very happy with this lens, nice and wide ;-) I recently puchased the Zuiko 70-300 (in acutallity it's 140-600) and have been quite pleased with it. Very nice lens. The other lens's I have are the OM 50mm 1.8 and the 50mm 1.4. While I like these lens's, the focus ring is quite small and rather hard for me to get a good focus, I may look into a chipped adapter at some point...I went ahead and got the Zuiko 25mm pancake lens (made for DSLR) and it's not a bad little lens at all. A friend recently gave me a load of old camera equipment, and I'll tell you the lens that I've fallen in love with is a Tamron 80-210mm 3.8. Wow, it is a real pleasure to use, and I love the results I get with it. The man. focus is super easy with the big barrel, and the zoom is nice as well. NOt quite sure what the rep. is for these lens's, but I liked it so much I just got another one (35-75mm) on ebay. Anyway those are the lens's I use/have. As far as macro, I shoot quite a bit of bugs.flowers, plants etc....and the 14-42 does a very nice job on macro shots. Here's my flickr page, you can get an idea of what kind of shots I get with the diff. lens's.

Flickr: boopster's Photostream

I have the e-620 and I too like the OM lenses, the manual focus takes a bit of getting used to though. I tend to self-bracket the focus when I'm using OM lenses adjusting the focus between a few shots. I am considering getting the 70-300mm Digital lens. But for now my lens compilation consists of 14-42 and 40-150 digital and OM 50mm f/1.4, OM 50mm f/1.8, and an OM Soligor 35-140mm Macro lens. I also have a set of OM extension tubes to get macro capabilities on the two 50mm lenses. The dof with the extension tubes are very tight. You can see some examples on my flickr Flickr: dm|ze's Photostream

[Indigo November]

This should help.
How to Choose the Best Digital SLR Lens

[jerome.oneil]

Well I decided on a lens. I spotted two ads on Craigslist, the first was a Olympus 70-300mm and the second ad a Bower flash by the same seller. I got a deal on both I couldn't pass up. I haven't had a chance to use either except for a quick test but I'm pretty psyched and can't wait to use them.

Thanks to all that responded for your help. I'm looking to picking up an OM 50mm and I'm going to look into the 35f2.

Thanks Again,
Jerome