Help me spend a Little Money

[JMaher]

Just sold my D90, 18-200 and my favorite the Sigma 30 1.4. Really enjoying my new E-P1 (though I haven’t has enough time to shoot with it) and I am thinking on maybe spending a little of that money on new gear for the Pen.

I have the kit lens and the 17 and the Panasonic m 4/3 adapter so I can use my Olympus 12-60. Here’s my thoughts:

1) Get some range - Buy the 45-200 Panasonic to give me back some of the range I lost – Reasonably inexpensive and great quality based on the shots in this forum.

2) Go for Ultra Wide - Buy the Olympus 9-18 and take advantage of the $100 rebate or save up for the 7-14

3) Be Sensible - Set up adapters for my remaining Nikon ‘s - 35/2 - 60/2.8 and 180/2.8 and forget about this foolishness of buying a new lens. I have adapters on order for these.

4) Go for a faster lens and something for portraits - Buy an Olympus 50 /2 for its’ autofocus and to kind of replace my Sigma as a low light lens
or
Go crazy and buy a used Leica Summicron 50/2 or a new Voigtlander 40.14 and an adapter to get better low light shots and maybe that legendary quality.

Lots of questions but I thought I might be able to get an interesting dialog going. I also am really thinking about all of the above but probably only going to do one thing now.

Jim

 

[Cindy Flood]

Hi Jim,
I think you may enjoy your Nikon 35/2 and 60/2.8 with the adapter that you have on order, but I wouldn't think that the 180/f2.8 (or the Oly 12-60) would be too practical. I tried the 12-60 on my G1 and found it too big for my taste. I felt the same about the Voigtlander 180 f/4 for Nikon (and it was a smaller lens than your 180).

The Oly 50/2 macro is one of the sharpest lenses that I have ever used and I use mine a lot. It is slow to focus on the E-P1, but maybe that will be addressed by a firmware update.

If you go for a fast 40 or 50, I would look for one with a close focus distace of .7 meters. I'm using the Voigtlander 1.1. It is a really nice lens, but the close focus distance of 1 meter is a PITA for me.

The 7-14 is on my short list, but when I get around to it, I may opt for the 9-18. It would be nice to have something wider than 14 in the bag.

Enjoy!

 

[Godfrey]

The lenses I use the most with the G1, and their all up prices, are:

- Cosmicar 12.5mm f/1.4 adapted via C-mount adapter = $65
- Olympus ZD 25mm f/2.8 adapted with DMW-MA1 adapter = $380
- Olympus Pen G.Zuiko 40mm f/1.4 with Pen F adapter = $284
- Olympus Pen G.Zuiko 70mm f/2 (use same adapter as above) = $250

The Nikon 35/2 would be a good one on an adapter stack (NF to FT + FT to mFT) and would cost you less than $140 for the adapters. The 180/2.8 is an awkward lens to use on FourThirds as it is large and heavy and has no tripod mount. It images nicely, but not as nicely as the Olympus ZD 50-200 IMO.

Same stuff would work well with the E-P1. Actually, the 17 and a fast 40 will make a nearly complete kit for me. ;-)

Spend as little as possible, use the extra money to go places and take more photos.

 

[Vivek]

Spend as little as possible, use the extra money to go places and take more photos.

I will second that.

My currently used (goes everywhere) set-up is: G1 + a 25/1.3 (c-mount), Oly -D 17/2.8, Oly Pen F 40/1.4 (or a 42/1.2), a small 3rd party TTL flash ($35) with TTL extension chord, a 0.65X (Schneider) converter for the 25mm and 17mm lenses.

A 7-14 would be nice if and when it is available.

 

[kweide]

... a small 3rd party TTL flash ($35) with TTL extension chord

Vivek,

can you name that ??? Brand ?? Distributor ? Dealer ?

 

[Vivek]

Sure. eBay item Item number: 380138694906

($50/shipped within the US, not $35 as I said above. Disclaimer: I have no connection to them.)

Works just great. Surprisingly well made (especially the flash foot). It is slightly bigger than the Olympus FL-20 (not as cute as the Oly flash).

The adjustable flash head is a feature that is absent in the corresponding Panasonic flash (priced 4X more).

I hope Panasonic will not come up with yet another firmware "upgrade" to disable 3rd party flashes as well.

 

[Michiel Schierbeek]

The lenses I use the most with the G1, and their all up prices, are:

- Cosmicar 12.5mm f/1.4 adapted via C-mount adapter = $65

Spend as little as possible, use the extra money to go places and take more photos.

Hi Godfrey, just ordered a Cosmicar. Do you have an example of its performance? And does it cover the whole sensor?

Spend as little as possible is a wise advise, but these are sometimes hard to follow

Kind regards, Michiel

 

[Cindy Flood]

Vivek mentioned the Pen F lenses. The 38 f/1.8 cost me $100 for the lens...the adapter came from ebay. It is a nice package and takes great photos.

 

[JMaher]

Cindy, Godfrey, Vivek,

Thanks for all your comments. Godfrey, I have looked (and will continue to do so) but I can't find a 40 1.4 or 1.2 available anywhere and the only 70 I could find was almost $500 without an adapter.

The success of this camera has placed the old pen lens at a premium.

Jim

 

[Michiel Schierbeek]

May be on this page.
http://elektronica.shop.ebay.nl/ite...&_trksid=p3286.m270.l1313&_odkw=&_osacat=3323

All the best, Michiel

 

[Godfrey]

... just ordered a Cosmicar. Do you have an example of its performance? And does it cover the whole sensor?

Spend as little as possible is a wise advise, but these are sometimes hard to follow

The Cosmicar 12.5mm doesn't cover the whole FourThirds format ... I usually shoot it for square compositions and accept a little bit of vignetting at the corners, netting a 9Mpixel image. Alternatively, crop to approximately a 2:3.5 format (about 7.5Mpixel) inside the vignetting and you get a wide, fast lens which is very small and light.

It's a little tricky to adapt ... the base flange must be machined to fit the available adapters. I made some mistakes when I did it which results in having mine set up to give me 4' focus distance at f/1.4 on the focusing ring at infinity, using a hawkpeng2003 C-mount adapter. Funny but even though it wasn't what I wanted originally, it works beautifully for what I use it for. Hyperfocal nets me 2.5' to infinity at f/9, which is just about perfect for a lot of what I shoot.

Samples can be seen by going to my Flickr sets using the link below and looking through the "Niles-2009", "Before Pride 2009" and more recent photos from the "PESO 2009" sets.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdgphoto/sets/

 

[Godfrey]

Sure. eBay item Item number: 380138694906
...
Works just great. Surprisingly well made (especially the flash foot). It is slightly bigger than the Olympus FL-20 (not as cute as the Oly flash).

That is very cute. I use the FL36 on the G1, which works well enough and is small enough for my needs. When I want smaller, I fit the Nikon SB30 and use its in-built auto sensor for exposure.

 

[monza]

Jim, the 40/1.4 Pen F lenses are not too hard to find, the 42s and 70s are. $250 for a 70 is an excellent deal, most go for twice that. I found the 70 too long for my tastes though (140mm equivalent.)

The Pen 38/1.8s are just as good on micro 4/3 as the 40/1.4s except just a tad slower, and they are a lot cheaper. If you want one, drop me a PM, I have 2 or 3 laying around.

Of the 40s, I've used the 40/1.4 Nokton (M mount), the 40/1.4 Pen, and the 40/2 Summicron (M mount), the order of preference is Pen, Summicron, Nokton. Close focus is only 14 inches on the Pen, much closer than the M-mount lenses. If close focus isn't an issue the Summicron is superb, great bokeh. Didn't like the Nokton (athough it's a well made lens) due to the inferior bokeh.

Cindy, Godfrey, Vivek,

Thanks for all your comments. Godfrey, I have looked (and will continue to do so) but I can't find a 40 1.4 or 1.2 available anywhere and the only 70 I could find was almost $500 without an adapter.

The success of this camera has placed the old pen lens at a premium.

Jim

 

[JMaher]

Cindy- any examples with the 38 1.8? It looks like a good choice and I did find a copy of that lens but it's around $200.

Michiel - The link you provided has lots of choices but there seem to less options of the US EBay. However I widened my search criteria to match yours and more came up then I had seen before. Thanks.

Jim

 

[Vivek]

$200 for a 38/1.8 is very reasonable (check out the original selling prices of these from Skip Williams' site: http://www.skipwilliams.com/olympus/pen-lit.htm). These are (still) underpriced!

There are no lenses out there that are this compact, lightweight and with this kind of performance (Leica lens included) and will focus this close.

 

[JBurnett]

If you already have an adapter for your Nikon lenses ordered, why not wait and see how this works out. You may be quite satisfied with your 35mm f2 and 60mm f2.8. You might also find a reasonable deal on an older 50mm f1.4 if you want a faster portrait-length lens. Bear in mind that some of the very fast lenses are a bit dreamy wide open, but perform admirably one stop down.

As for longer range (e.g. 45-200), that's something that only your personal photographic interests would dictate. I like having the range available for travel, but the lens sits at home a lot when shooting locally in the city.

 

[JayCee]

Hi, new member here.
Can any of you guys tell me if the Pen F lenses will fit an OM mount?
I have a G1 with the "jinfinance" ebay seller's micro 4/3 to 4/3 mount and then one of his 4/3 to OM mounts using a variety of Zuiko lenses (50mm f1.8, 135mm f2.8 and 200mm f4) which I recently bought (and still evaluating...but things look promising).
Thanks,
John.

 

[monza]

No, Pen F lenses won't fit OM mount.

 

[Godfrey]

Hi, new member here.
Can any of you guys tell me if the Pen F lenses will fit an OM mount?
I have a G1 with the "jinfinance" ebay seller's micro 4/3 to 4/3 mount and then one of his 4/3 to OM mounts using a variety of Zuiko lenses (50mm f1.8, 135mm f2.8 and 200mm f4) which I recently bought (and still evaluating...but things look promising).

For Pen F lenses, you need a dedicated Pen F to micro-FourThirds adapter.

 

[JayCee]

Many thanks for the info.