Olympus Pro Equip/Lenses

[ambient]

I have owned the Oly E500 for over six months now and I'm very happy with it.

My questions are the following:

 

Is there any talk about Olympus designing DSLR to rival Canon/Nikon at the

professional level. Someday I may want to move up to more robust, pro-level

equipment and I would hope to stay with Olympus. I'm doing some sports

assignments now and I'm beginning to see the need for more durable equipment.

For now, I quite happy with what I got and the level I'm at.

 

I heard that a new Zuiko 70-300mm lens is in the works....any news or rumors on

when it will be launched? I'm on the verge of buying the 50-200mm but will wait

a bit if the 70-300mm is around the corner. By the way, I bought the Sigma 50-

200mm and used it last weekend. Not horrible for the price, kind of soft. The

quality is kind of crappy but what can I expect. It gave me a bit of additional

reach for a few bucks.

 

Thanks in advance for your comments/opinions.

[mike_smith2]

The E-1 replacement was shown in advanced form code named P-1 at Photokina last month, rumoured release date is later this year, but Oly owners have been hearing that for 4 or 5 years now. Do not exect it to be cheap though, think in terms of Canon/Nikon Pro body prices

 

My experience in nature photography is that the E500 body is not really well suited to action photography, you would be better off with a second hand lower resolution E-1 body, it is a more resiliant faster focussing and has a larger capacity buffer when shooting RAW files

[skip_williams]

If you're considering the new Olympus body to be in your future, you should consider the new 50-200/2.8 with the SWD High-speed motor before you settle on the cheaper 70-300 or older 50-200 lenses. I'd bet that the new body's reportedly faster AF system will reap significant benefits when using the new motor.

 

Skip

[ronhartman]

The Olympus roadmap only shows the 70-300 and the new 50-200 to be released sometime this year. It shows the 70-300 to a "standard" lens and both 50-200's to be "high grade", so they are probably sharper, faster focus, more rugged.

[GerrySiegel]

The E-1 and the 50-200 mm are both professional quality, water resistant and full manual control. The E-1 body can be bought used for a fraction of its original cost. It is still widely used for sports. And sometimes,for that extra reach,with the EC-14 tele adapter. I am most happy to own the E-1 and the adapter. And will buy the latest version of the 50-200mm most likely. If you are waiting for the next pro body, there is no need. The E-1 is a proven pro body,ruggedized like Samson with the jawbone of the ass in hand...hmm,bad metaphor,but whatheheck. Buy a used E-1 I say, and answer your need for rain resistance. And do get the HDL-2 grip on sale too...The 50-200 mm gets rave reviews,even the current version. Check Wrotniak and Foster on line websites for nitty gritty...from REAL USERS.

 

http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/news.html

[GerrySiegel]

Correction. I should have wrote "bad simile." I mean,like this is still a high class forum,lads. Referring to the Olympus pages anyway...

[skip_williams]

Gerry,

 

I like my E-1 + 50-200 +1.4x, but it's not perfect, by any stretch

 

1. I could often use more MP, which would allow a little more cropping flexibility.

2. The AF needs more speed and more focus points. I often find that using all three points is much less reliable than using only the center point, so I lock the camera into the center-point-only mode. Even with all three points active, subjects often sneak between the focus points, throwing off the focus.

3. ~3 FPS isn't enough, esp when C-AF is active, which can slow down the frame rate as the camera focuses on moving subjects.

4. The 50-200 could be a little more rugged. I've broken mine already, WITHOUT any impact or droppage. Something came loose inside the lens and it started to physically wobble. $240.00 later, it's fine. I think that the polycarbonate isn't a strong as they think.

 

I love my rig, and maybe I expect too much...but we can always want more, can't we? OTOH, I really, really like the E-1 and have put at least 30,000 frames through it in 3 years. (Olympus reset the frame counter last year, otherwise I'd know exactly!) No significant repairs on the body, only one thing went wrong, but it happened twice. The CF door latch came loose inside the body, which meant that I couldn't open the door.

 

Waiting for the new body and new 50-200,

 

Skip

[mark bucher]

The new pro body is designated "P-1" and the prototype was shown at PMA 07. I shoot two E-1s and they're both pretty well used, so I don't know that I'll sell them when the new pro bodies come out. I've got the 50-200 and it's a great lens, but I probably use the 14-54 more than any other lens. It's just a sweet, reasonably fast lens. I totally agree with the AF points made earlier, and I do a ton of zone focusing for fast moving sports; I let the action come to me. With baseball and softball starting to spin up, that's my favorite sport to shoot. The HLD-2 is an absolute must have, as well as a couple of spare batteries for it. I've switched to Olympus after shooting Nikon for 20 some years, works for me.

 

Mark