olympus E410

muckin fuppet

Hi there

I jsut got my first DSLR, not even had an slr before.

It is an olympus e410

I got a manual lense from some old slr that fits, but it is manual and i discovered doenst cover all I want it to.

Basically the things I want to be able to do are:

take shots at dog shows I attend, subject anywhere from 5feet away to 35-40 feet away.

portrait photos at home

macro close up shots


is there ONE lesne that would d the dog shows, ie from 5 feet to say 35-4o feet?

I asked in jessops and they reccomend either a 40-150 mm at £239
or
a 70-300mm at £299

the other lense was out of my price rang ( 50-200mm at £769)

can any kind soul give me any advice on waht lenses fit, waht would meet my needs etc?

or any tips on taking photos of moving people and dogs lol

thanks a gazillion!!!

Janie

ziggy53

Janie, welcome to the Digital Grin.

Please tell us more about what your primary use for the camera and lens will be. Please elaborate on:

Indoor or outdoor.
If you have, or can use, flash.
Distance from you to the subjects (besides the dog show distances).
Type of macro photography (flowers, insects, etc,)

A subject at 5 ft. and the same subject at 40 ft., in order to yield the same size in the image frame, would require an 8:1 zoom. (40ft/5ft.) It is unlikely that you will find an economical lens with great quality and fast enough to shoot without flash for all of the situations you mentioned.

The Olympus E-410 sensitivity ranges from ISO 100 through ISO 1600, and ISO 1600 may be required for much of what you need to shoot indoors.

I do suggest the very fastest (largest aperture) lenses you can find for best results without flash indoors, but a flash, used properly, is probably your best bet overall.

The absolute best lenses would probably be:

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14-35mm, F2.0 SWD
ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 35-100mm, F2.0

... but those are terribly pricey.

Second best are (IMO):

ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-54mm, F2.8-3.5
ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 50-200mm, F2.8-3.5 SWD

Alternately substituting the:
Sigma 70-200mm, f2.8 II EX DG HSM Macro APO

At any rate I do believe that you will need 2 lenses to cover the range of distances you suggest you need. I also do not believe that the

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm, F4.0-5.6
ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 70-300mm, F4.0-5.6

... lenses are fast enough in either aperture or AF speed to do what you want. One of my father's friends shoots dog shows and they can be a challenge even with very good (and very expensive) equipment.

muckin fuppet

hi
thanks so much for the reply.

I will try and give more info on what I want to take shots off.

Some dog shows are indoors, some are out, some under marquees (sp) as you will know...

I do go on lots of walks along beaches, clifftops etc, so something for landscapes there too, a few nice lighhouses around here, a lot in the distance too. One walk we go on the lighthouse is up to a mile away on the horizon in one direction, with the sea to the side of us.

Other ways I will use it will be taking shots at home of the kids and dogs, maybe some close ups of flowers and insect etc when we are out walking. Portraits (have ordered a background and frame),
I have a flash gun on the way, I really dont know if I ordered the right one, i THOUGHT i had, but then when i got looking into using the camera more realised that in fact I hadnt understood the camera like i thought I had.

I have to be honset and say I am TRYING to understand Iso and shutter speeds, lenses etc. I have no idea about any of it really lol.

I have a memory card on the way, scandisk extreme Iv 8 gig (was as much as I could afford at the time to be honest)

thanks for the info and lesnse, I will be sure to look into those ones. May mean saving up a little but I am sure the better I can afford the more it will be worth it.

thanks again, appreciate it

Janie

Art Scott

muckin fuppet wrote:

Hi there

I jsut got my first DSLR, not even had an slr before.

It is an olympus e410

I got a manual lense from some old slr that fits, but it is manual and i discovered doenst cover all I want it to.

Basically the things I want to be able to do are:

take shots at dog shows I attend, subject anywhere from 5feet away to 35-40 feet away.

portrait photos at home

macro close up shots


is there ONE lesne that would d the dog shows, ie from 5 feet to say 35-4o feet?

I asked in jessops and they reccomend either a 40-150 mm at £239
or
a 70-300mm at £299

the other lense was out of my price rang ( 50-200mm at £769)

can any kind soul give me any advice on waht lenses fit, waht would meet my needs etc?

or any tips on taking photos of moving people and dogs lol

thanks a gazillion!!!

Janie

i WAS GOING TO recommend the 12-60 but that seems to be out of your price range right now......
Also do not worry about iso and all that....need to concentrate on getting a lens or 2......
What is your actual limit on a lens??
I or Jonathan Swinton (has quite the love for Olympus) can recommend a couple of lenses....remember the 2X crop factor for Oly also....so that 12-60 I would recommend would be a 35mm equiv of 24-120....that would be a real nice lens to start with but it is close to $1K USA......
All so in the flea market on here under the other guys tab, Jonathan Swinton (SwintonPhoto) had some Oly gear for sale at very reasonable prices......

ziggy53

muckin fuppet wrote:

hi
thanks so much for the reply.

I will try and give more info on what I want to take shots off.

Some dog shows are indoors, some are out, some under marquees (sp) as you will know...

The indoor dog shows will cause you the most troubles and, ideally, you need better lenses for those conditions.

I do see that Sigma makes a version of their 18-50mm, f2.8 EX DC Aspherical Macro lens in the Olympus mount. That might not be too bad for indoor work, especially the things you would need to shoot fairly closely. It's not a "true" macro lens, but it should be fairly good for flowers etc.

I have the previous version (non-macro) and it's a pretty good lens for the price.

muckin fuppet wrote:

I do go on lots of walks along beaches, clifftops etc, so something for landscapes there too, a few nice lighhouses around here, a lot in the distance too. One walk we go on the lighthouse is up to a mile away on the horizon in one direction, with the sea to the side of us.

The ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 70-300mm, F4.0-5.6 and the ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm, F4.0-5.6 would make pretty good lenses on the beaches and at parks, etc. If you think of the 70-300mm lens as a 70-200mm, f5.6-f8, it works pretty well indeed within those parameters. That does require bright conditions to get suitable shutter speeds.

muckin fuppet wrote:

Other ways I will use it will be taking shots at home of the kids and dogs, maybe some close ups of flowers and insect etc when we are out walking. Portraits (have ordered a background and frame),

For casual images indoors and for portraits you may want to look at fast prime lenses. One attribute of the four-thirds system is that DOF is increased, making it potentially more difficult to blur the background to seperate subjects from the background. Unless you are very careful about background selection, a very fast (large aperture) prime lens is a good option.

See above for a possibility for a close-up lens for flowers.

For insects I'm afraid you might need a genuine macro lens or possibly use a diopter close-up lens on a zoom. Many macro shots also require a flash for better illumination.

muckin fuppet wrote:

I have a flash gun on the way, I really dont know if I ordered the right one, i THOUGHT i had, but then when i got looking into using the camera more realised that in fact I hadnt understood the camera like i thought I had.

I would recommend an Olympus flash like the FL-36 or FL-50. There is also a newer designation FL-36R/FL-50R that allow wireless operation, at higher cost I believe. (I think that only manual mode wireless is supported on the E-410.)

I think that you can also use an "auto" flash like the Vivitar 285HV with the Olympus cameras. While not as many features as the factory flashes it does allow use with a flash modifier to make a very pleasing light.

muckin fuppet wrote:

I have to be honset and say I am TRYING to understand Iso and shutter speeds, lenses etc. I have no idea about any of it really lol.

I have a memory card on the way, scandisk extreme Iv 8 gig (was as much as I could afford at the time to be honest)

thanks for the info and lesnse, I will be sure to look into those ones. May mean saving up a little but I am sure the better I can afford the more it will be worth it.

thanks again, appreciate it

Janie

Janie, please do check out our Techniques forum and do some searching and reading to see if you find information about topics like setting your exposure and when to use different ISOs, etc. Once you learn the basics, feel free to ask questions.

NikonsandVstroms

for 40ft away I would go for the 300 so you can still get a close up. But the 40-150 should cover most of the range and I picked one up new for ~100USD at B and H about 9 months back. Plus the 40-150 works great with the 4xx's form factor.


As for Macro lenses, get the 35mm macro, it can be used for macro and portrait. While not being the fastest or longest lens it is really sharp and cheap, so you can try alot with it and then see what your final needs will be.

silversx80

There is an 18-180 which I hear is a nice "travel zoom." It's in Olympus' "Standard" line, but I hear good things. It's not the best out there, but if you want only one lens to "cover it all," that just might be the ticket.

Personally, I feel the 14-42 + 40-150 is a great combo that won't break the bank. Unfortunately you'll be up to 2 lenses.

chrisunderwoodimages

If you are allowed to use flash, I would consider the 70-300mm and a good flash. It is a good lens, and a bit sharper than the 40-150. Everyone here is right in that it needs bright light to do well. Used as designed, it is a delight to use - although it could use a focus limiter switch to reduce refocus times when you miss. (Are you listening Olympus? )

For a flash, consider the Metz 48. It can be had for Olympus, and is from what I hear, a good choice with pretty fast recharge times. It supports the current Olympus wireless system, and has a considerably faster recharge time vs the Olympus fl36 yet costs about the same. I do not have one, but it is on my list to get . As well, consider getting a "flash focuser" (sorry, I have no idea what they are really called, but have seen pictures of them used by wildlife photographers to do fill flash for birds etc taken from at least 50feet away - they focus the light from the flash a considerable distance away from what I understand. Can someone chime in on this if you know what I refer to?)

Another option would be to save for the 50-200 and make do for now. That lens is simply terrific. I got the 70-300 to see if I had a real interest in birding, and discovered that I do. I have a lot to learn technique wise (*grin*), but am now set to save for a 50-200 and 1.4x teleconverter - the finer optics and much much faster focusing will make it worth the money.

ziggy53

chrisunderwoodimages wrote:

... As well, consider getting a "flash focuser" (sorry, I have no idea what they are really called, but have seen pictures of them used by wildlife photographers to do fill flash for birds etc taken from at least 50feet away - they focus the light from the flash a considerable distance away from what I understand. Can someone chime in on this if you know what I refer to?)

...

I suspect you mean the "Better Beamer" or similar device. It is basically a Fresnel lens that is focused and mounted onto a speedlight type electronic flash and allows very long distance flash usage. They are not very expensive but there are different sizes available to fit common compact electronic flash units and proper sizing is very important to keeping the thing aligned.

You can Google "Better Beamer" if you want to purchase one or there are DIY instructions here:

http://photos.bahneman.com/tricks/article.php/diy_flash_extender

chrisunderwoodimages

I knew someone would know. That was in fact what I was thinking of. Thanks.

swintonphoto

Depending on the funds you have available I would recommend these possibilities:

If you only want 1 lens I would look at this (though it won't be as good as some listed in low-light situations), but it does have an amazing range and I know that owners of this lens love it:
18-180mm 3.5-6.3 ($450)

If you are on a budget and are willing to go for 2 lenses:
14-42mm 3.5-5.6
40-150mm 4.0-5.6
If you look on ebay you could probably get both of these for a total of about $250.

If you have some more money available I would recommend these lenses. They will do much better in low-light situations:
14-54mm 2.8-3.5 ($500)
50-200mm 2.8-3.5 ($1150) or Sigma 70-200mm 2.8 ($800)

If you can't afford the two telephoto zooms I just mentioned you could go for this one, though it is not as good in low-light settings. But it does have a longer range. I have used this lens and it is great:
70-300mm 4.0-5.6 ($360)

swintonphoto

http://www.keh.com/OnLineStore/ProductDetail.aspx?groupsku=DO07999083584J&brandcategoryname=Digital&Mode=Digital&item=0&ActivateTOC2=&ID=14&BC=DO&BCC=3&CC=7&CCC=2&BCL=&GBC=&GCC=

Jekyll & Hyde

Too late to switch?

muckin fuppet wrote:

Hi there

I jsut got my first DSLR, not even had an slr before.

It is an olympus e410

J: The new Tamron 18-270 would be a pretty good one-lens solution.

H: But of course it would mean migrating over to the Dark Side (Nikon or Canon entry level DSLR).

J: A buddy lent me one for a week, and I found it pretty capable for general walkaround shooting (it'd make the Ideal travel lens).

H: The aperture isn't real fast for low light shooting, but the Stabilization certainly helps.

J: So if you're set on a 1 lens solution, well there's a lot you'd need to take into consideration.

H: Just offering up one more alternative for you.

Best of luck,
J&H