Lens questions

[bellamyriver]

I’m a newbie with an E600. I am looking at buying lenses but I’m having trouble understanding the differences between them. For example is an “OM” lens compatible with my E-Volt? -and what about those Sigma or Panasonic lenses? Will they work with my camera?
Thanks in advance for your response!

[kuvahmagh]

An OM lens is Olympuses old Film System so you would need an adapter, OM to 4/3s, and you would loose autofocus and would be forced to use either Manual or Aperture Priority.

Basically any lens that will work with the 4/3s system will work, Sigma makes some but I don't think every lens they make comes in an Olympus mount so watch what you buy and make sure you get the right one, you don't want to end up with a Nikon or Canon Mount.

[inkista]

The four-thirds website maintains a list of all the four-thirds lenses. IIRC, all the lenses should be compatible with your Olympus E, but there are sometimes differences on whether or not a specific lens is stabilized on the Panasonic side, since Oly does in-body stabilization, and Panasonic does in-lens stabilization. I shoot Canon, though, so I'm not particularly clear on the details, and I might have it backwards.

[kuvahmagh]

Olympus does have IS in the body.

[Slushie]

Originally Posted by bellamyriver

I’m a newbie with an E600. I am looking at buying lenses but I’m having trouble understanding the differences between them. For example is an “OM” lens compatible with my E-Volt? -and what about those Sigma or Panasonic lenses? Will they work with my camera?
Thanks in advance for your response!

Any four-thirds mount lens will work with the e600 without the need of any additional adapters. OM lens will require an adapter... and there are adapters for other different types of lens from other manufacturers as well like Nikon and Canon.

All Panasonic and Sigma four-third mounts will work as well. Just make sure it is a four-third lens and it will work on your e600. Do be careful of a new set of lenses referred to as micro four-thirds as these will NOT work with the e600 and are designed to work specifically with the eP##s and G#s...

Aside from what will work with your camera, once you find a lens that will mount on your camera, you should still try and figure out what you wish to do with that lens as most lenses are not cheap! So, maybe think of what type of photography you would like to do and then to see if there is a lens that is designed to do that for you. This will help with choosing and limiting the selection of lenses out there (mind you, Olympus/Panasonic/Sigma four-third lenses do not offer too many choices but do cover the range of what most people want to shoot).

Hope that helps.

[bellamyriver]

Thank you everyone for your information. This really clears things up for me!

[StellaG]

I have an E-520 (just yesterday got an E-3 ;-) ) but I shoot with vintage lenses a lot, and have found the old Tamron adaptall lens's to be fantastic. They are fairly inexpensive on ebay, and if they come with the olympus mount, all you have to get is the OM to DSLR adapter (farily cheap as well). The two lenses I use the most are the 35-70mm 3.8 and the 70-210mm 3.8, they are tack sharp, and have a really nice feel to them. I just got another one yesterday, a 28-200mm 3.8, I put it on the E-3 just for a sec. (we've been getting torrential rains here, so can't go out and shoot) but wow, first look, it is some kind of nice lens ;-) They're cheap enough, I say go for it, and don't let the man. focus put you off, I shoot a lot of action shots with my dogs, and it's not a problem at all...

Betty