Dumbest Question Ever -about lenses

[Angelsong]

I have an Olympus E510 which came with 2 lenses. When it comes time to purchase another lense, do I have to buy an Olympus "brand" lense, or are all lenses interchangeable? I'm such a beginner.....
I do appreciate any help I can get.
Thanks

Angie

[inkista]

Not a dumb question. Your E-510 can only mount lenses that are in the four-thirds system. This basically means Olympus and Panasonic (and a few Sigma) new autofocusing lenses.

You can use older manual-focus Olympus lenses that are for the OM-mount system, but only with an adapter ring and you give up the ability shoot in anything but the full manual and aperture-priority modes and autofocus and your EXIF will be missing some information. If you're comfortable with shooting manually, you may want to consider this route, since OM lenses are dirt cheap compared to their digital counterparts (e.g., you can often find an old OM 50mm f/1.8 lens in good shape for $20 or less).

The same goes for old manual focus Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Leica, Contax, Minolta, etc. lenses (and you want to make sure that these lenses have aperture rings so you can control the aperture manually). The four-thirds mount is unique in that it can be adapted to take nearly any brand of SLR lens, but you'll always run into these restrictions because the camera body won't be able to talk to communicate with the lens.

[Jae]

Not a dumb question at all! LOL I have a new E-510 as well and haven't yet bought any new lenses for it, but this helped me know what to look for when I do. Thanks!!

[Cuegeee]

...such great lenses too...I own the the kit 14-42mm, 40-150mm & the awesome 50mm f2.0

http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/43/lenses.html

Also...the best Olympus forum is located here.... http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1022

[Raigoki]

then what are the cheapest lens compatible to olympus? (for my E-520)
i need a f2.8 lens and zuiko lens are quite expensive here...

[velvet4269]

four-thirds lenses are hard to come by, and do tend to run spendy. The Zuiko lenses are expensive because they have a tendency to be decent glass.

That said, when I bought my macro lens, I went with Sigma's f/2.8 105mm EXDG Macro lens. It was about $25 less expensive than the Olympus 50mm macro lens (at the time of purchase), but still ran me a good $400. That said, it's been worth EVERY penny, and has seldom come off my camera, since I bought the lens in March.

[Angelsong]

Thank you all for your responses! It helps a lot!

[ShepherdLady]

Originally Posted by Cuegeee

...such great lenses too...I own the the kit 14-42mm, 40-150mm & the awesome 50mm f2.0

http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/43/lenses.html

Also...the best Olympus forum is located here.... http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1022

Another great site for Olympus users is << http://forum.fourthirdsphoto.com >>

[avinash varagiri]

How does lense dia make difference.
Whether digicams and DSLR's will have different diameters,
what is dia of CANON S10IS and NIKON P80

[datiswous]

Originally Posted by inkista

The four-thirds mount is unique in that it can be adapted to take nearly any brand of SLR lens, but you'll always run into these restrictions because the camera body won't be able to talk to communicate with the lens.

What's so unique about it? I thought it would be possible for every brand dslr to mount old and new lenses of different brands via adapters on the camera, well maybe appart from these "full-frame sensor" -dslr's.