what lens should I hunt for?

bogolisk · Expire: 2011-11-18

budget around 120$ USD
looking for:
good bokeh
good enough sharpness

prefer:
Minolta mount
OM mount
PenF mount

already have:

Good lenses in:
28mm f2
28mm f2.8
38mm f1.8
50mm f1.4
50mm f1.7
50mm f1.8

Ok lens
70-210mm

Unsure (not received yet):
jc penney 135mm f2.8
viv/komine 135mm f2.8

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Look a 85mm f1.7 Minolta perhaps fit into your budget, if you are lucky a 100mm f2.8 Olympus also fit into. Don't forget Jupiter-9 85mm f2 (mostly come with M42 mount).

Tamron SP 90mm f2.5 also an option you can use with any mount.

http://www.mflenses.com/gallery/v/japenese/Tamron/tamron_sp_90_f2_5_52BB/
http://www.mflenses.com/gallery/v/russian_lens/jupiter/jupiter_9_8_5cm_contax/
http://www.mflenses.com/gallery/v/japenese/Olympus_Om/olympus_om_100mm_f2_8/
http://www.mflenses.com/gallery/v/japenese/Olympus_Om/olympus_om_85mm_f2_mc/

berraneck · Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 5:40 am Post subject:

look at this:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270518023878&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

poilu · Expire: 2019-08-29

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

What you need is a nice superwide (~20mm) and a nice portrait tele lens (~85).
The 90mm Tamron is a good hint, as it also serves as a macro lens.

bogolisk · Expire: 2011-11-18

bogolisk · Expire: 2011-11-18

declan · Joined: 17 Dec 2009 Posts: 162 Location: Indonesia

SXR_Mark · Joined: 12 Jun 2010 Posts: 506 Location: England

Considering lenses that I personally have and use on 4/3 and m4/3:

Zuiko 100mm f2.8 is an excellent performer on 4/3. It is also very compact and so is well suited to the small m4/3 bodies.

The Tamron SP 90mm f2.5 is also excellent. Not as good as the Zuiko wide open, but allows macro usage. The older 52B which I have is quite large and heavy though. It can flare without the hood fitted.

For general use, go for the Zuiko. If you want macro as well, try the Tamron.

An alternative for macro is the Zuiko 50mm f3.5. Sharp even wide open.

For wide angle, the 4/3 crop factor makes life difficult. You will need something at 20mm or below. To be honest, I would not bother with 35mm lenses as they will be very expensive for really good performance. I would save for either the Panasonic 14mm f2.5 or the 20mm f1.7 pancakes. (The olympus 17mm pancake is an option of course but I do not have personal experience of that). Both are superb, very compact and not particularly expensive. The 20mm is particularly good because it is fast and has impressive close focusing ability. Having said that, the results iangreenhalgh1 has recently posted with the Tokina 17mm f3.5 on NEX look good, so that would be an option.

Another lens that i use a lot on m4/3 is the Samyang 85mm f1.4. This is good for close portrait work; but is quite big and heavy. Because the effective FL in 35mm is 170mm, it is quite long and so handling on my epl1 is not the easiest. Price-wise, it will be outside your budget, but other people have shown on this forum that the Jupiter-9 85mm f2 is a good alternative to the Samyang.

I don't use 135 mm lenses much on 4/3 - the focal length doesn't seem particularly useful to me. They also tend to have quite large min focus distance as well so they are not useful for close-up work. I do have Zuiko OM 135 mm f3.5 and f2.8 - both are excellent performers.

For longer focal lengths, I use my Oly E3 not the EPL1 as handling becomes too difficult with the small body. Up to 200mm I use my Zuiko Digital 50-200 zoom (but the Zuiko OM 200mm f4 is an excellent lens and very affordable). Beyond 200mm, I have only MF lenses. My top-pick is the TAIR 3-S 300mm f4.5, but I can't see how this could be used without a tripod on m4/3.

Mark

declan · Joined: 17 Dec 2009 Posts: 162 Location: Indonesia

yinyangbt · Expire: 2012-12-27

You need a good 35mm (in FF) : Vivitar 17/3.5 excelent lens made by Tokina .you can get it for under 100 $

declan · Joined: 17 Dec 2009 Posts: 162 Location: Indonesia

rbelyell · Expire: 2014-01-31

my personal experience with ep1/2 for over two years is i hardly ever use 'portrait' lens (75-90mm) because with 2x crop they are 150-180mm, and thus no longer 'portrait' lenses. theyre pretty good for birds and animals, maybe macro, but at least to me, not day to day useful. my favorite 'portrait' lens is my summicron 40/2, which is a pretty fast 80...

my choice, which by definition is very personal and may not be your choice, is to go with native m4/3 lenses for wide>normal FLs, because imo and experience, most if not all mf 16-24s destroy the compact character of the camera. having said that, ive found lenses in this focal range to be most useful for what i do, street shooting, landscape, maybe in doors.

my first recommendation is the olly 17/2.8. it has very nice rendition, even a little 'pop' in some situations and fits in your budget. its also AF, which is nice in some situations, especially street work. its also a pancake.

for a little more money on the mf side, i found the zenitar 16/2.8 to work really well on my olly. its not 'so' big, but gives a very hard to get FL, and can easily be shot hyperfocally to great effect.

since you have a couple 28s, it probably wouldnt make sense to get a 24, but if you did i recommend the yashica ml 24/2.8, because its the best IQ for the money and its pretty compact.
tony