Olympus E-450

[manuelta]

Dear,

i have an olympus e-450 and I would buy a manual lens between

Tamron 300 f/5.6 bbar

Canon f/5.6 FD300

what would you recommend?

Or would you advise me to other models?

Thanks in advance

[Jesito]

Depends on your budget and your needs, if f/5.6 is fine for you, I would suggest the Tokina 300mm, I own it and it's a nice and affordable lens.

[SXR_Mark]

Since the E450 is a 4/3 E-system SLR (not m4/3 mirrorless) you will need an adapter with additional lens element to get infinity focus with the Canon FD lens. Since such adapters (assuming they exist for FD to 4/3) will degrade image quality, I would not buy the Canon. I do have an FD300mm f5.6 and it is a fine lens, but I can only use it with m4/3.

Nor would I buy the Tamron. I did use the SP 300mm f5.6 Tamron with my E-system SLRs (E-3s) and found it had too much purple fringing unless stopped down to f11. It also suffers from low contrast unless the sun is behind you. It is decently sharp though. I sold mine.

The best 300mm I have tried is the Photosniper Tair-3 300mm f4.5. This is cheap and excellent. Very sharp and little to no fringing. The only downside is the weight and bulk.

As an alternative, I would suggest the Nikon 100-300mm f5.6 zoom lens, which performs very well. There is a small performance drop at 300mm, but f8 will secure excellent result. The main disadvantage of this lens is that it is a one-touch zoom with no option for a tripod collar. Thus handling is a bit awkward.

The Olympus OM Zuiko 85-250mm zoom is also very good, and has negligible performance drop at 250mm so you can use it there with confidence. It is a two-touch zoom and has a tripod collar so is much easier to use than the Nikon.

Mark