Suggestions for macro/tele lens for E300?

[sunray1]

<p>Hi there,<br>

Having a Nikon D700 myself I post this question for a friend of mine who owns an Olympus E300 and wants advice on a macro and/or tele lens. Preferrably one double duty lens, not very big and heavy.<br>

She shoots mostly stills and candid streetshots.<br>

Budget is limited.</p>

<p>Thanx for any suggestion!</p>

[akira]

<p>If she is using 4/3 format camera, the obvious first choice should be Zuiko Digital ED 50mm/f2.0 Macro. Although it goes only up to 1:2 as macro lens, it is well suited for the candids thanks to its fairly high speed. If she needs someting longer, Sigma Macro 105/2.8 EX DG in 4/3 mount would be good. Both lenses are fully functional including autofocus on E300.</p>

<p>If f she is on a tight budget, she could use mount adapter and older MF lenses pf any brand except for Canon FD lenses. However, you are confined to manual focus and working aperture metering method, although manual and A modes can be used.</p>

[meissner]

<p>It really depends on a lot of details, and things your friend may not have thought about.</p>

<p>Does your friend want one lens that can do both macro and telephoto, or two? How big of a lens is your friend willing to tolerate? How about budget? In terms of macro lens how far back does your friend want to shoot, and what type of macro subjects? Is your friend willing to deal with a macro lens that has an extremely narrow range of focus, and you have to move the camera back and forth until you get the zone of focus, or does your friend want an auto focus lens for things like bees and flowers? In terms of telephoto, does your friend want zoom, and if so how much?</p>

<p>Except for the weight/size issue, I suspect the lens that your friend wants in the Olympus 70-300mm. It is about 1.3lbs (620g), and 5" (<em>127mm</em>) long. The current price at B&H is $300. It can do the equivalent of 140-600mm in a 35mm film camera. At 300mm, it can double as a near macro lens (1:2 magnification), and it gives a good distance from the subjects with a minimum focus distance of 3.1' (<em>96 cm</em>). Note, since your friends E-300 does not have image stablization, she will need to learn to stabilize the camera on most days, except if it is bright enough to get a shutter speed of 1/600 or faster with a f/5.6 lens. Obviously a tripod is the best stabilization method, but there are other methods also.</p>

<p>If your friend is willing to not have a zoom lens, the Sigma 105mm ($480) and Sigma 150mm ($730) might be options.</p>

<p>If your friend doesn't need as much zoom, and is willing to consider two lenses, there is the 35mm macro lens ($190) and 40-150mm telephoto lens ($115). The 35mm lens will need to be nearly on top of the subject, and so it might not be what your friend wants for photographing things that don't want a camera nearly touching them. The Olympus 50mm ($450) will give you more distance from the subjects, and is one of the sharpest lenses in the 4/3rds lineup (at least until you get to the $2k lenses). In terms of image stabilization, your friend would need to be able to shoot 1/300 at f/5.6 for hand held shots with the 40-150mm. There is an older version of the 40-150mm that is bigger and a little faster, that your friend can find used that would help.</p>

<p>Another option is to get a telephoto lens (40-150mm, 50-200mm) and an EX-25 adapter for macro shots. The EX-25 sits between the lens and the camera, and it reduces the focus distance for the lens. The focus distance is rather small, and I found it frustrating to use, and eventually sold my EX-25 to somebody with more patience than I have.</p>

<p>Or you can get a close up lens that attaches like a filter and put it on your telephoto lens. The Canon 250D ($90) and 500D ($150) are well regarded. The Canon 250D is for smaller telephoto lenses, and there is a 58mm version that would fit on either of the 40-150mm lenses. The Canon 500D is for larger telephoto lenses, and you would need a step-up adapter to mount it (77mm). You still have to move the camera back and forth to get the subject in focus.</p>

[mukul_dube]

<p>For close-up work I use the 35/3.5 on my E-300; but, as Michael says, the 70-300 focusses close and can do double duty.</p>

[GerrySiegel]

<p>Macro and tele. You know that if she does not yet own the 14-54 ED Zuiko mm lens that would be a charm. It goes up close, it goes what most would consider short tele and is a keeper when she upgrades from the kind of long in the tooth but nice E300. That lens plus the aforementioned 70-300 mm would cover a lot of field use territory. 70-300 is a Louisville Slugger big boy but manageable.<br>

Do not overlook the 9 condition used market for the series I zoom lenses tell her.</p>

[sunray1]

<p>Hi Everyone,<br>

Thanks for your extensive replies and suggestions. I will use your info to do some searching on the web. The really big ones and the more expensive options left aside, the Sigma 105 or the 40-150mm tele sound interesting (what brand is the latter?)<br>

Thanx again!</p>

 

[meissner]

<p>The 40-150mm is made by Olympus. FWIW, if you are interested in Sigma lenses, you better buy them soon, as Sigma seems to be leaving the 4/3rds market. As they redesign lenses, any lens that previously had 4/3rds support, the new lens no longer has a 4/3rds mount. Sigma lenses do have a quality control image problem, where some users report front/back focusing. With the newer cameras, you can tell the camera to adjust the focusing for a given lens, but for an E-300, you have to hope you get a good model (and buy from a dealer that accepts returns just in case you didn't get a good model).</p>

<p>Panasonic also made a few classic 4/3rds lenses, and appear to only care about the micro 4/3rds arena these days. Panasonic's lenses tended towards the expensive side.</p>

<p>In terms of the used market, there were 2 versions of the 40-150mm. The first version was bigger, had a metal mount, and was about 2/3 stop faster. The current version of the 40-150mm is much smaller, has a plastic mount, 2/3 stop slower. I believe it also focuses closer, which might make it more useful for near macro.</p>

[sunray1]

<p>Thanx Michael, very useful info!</p>