Lens help please

jeanettekaren

jeanettekaren

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After comparing everyone elses Southport Airshow photos with mine it's pretty obvious that my kit lens is sadly lacking in zoom capabilities. I have an Olympus E-510 and was hoping to get suggestions as to which would be a good lens to get better close up shots.

I am a beginner so don't want to spend a fortune but don't want to waste my money either.
 
I think beginner is the wrong term, the right kind of len's can send you to the top of the tree, it's all about percentages 90% equipment 10% creative when you need technology to give a helping hand.

When your creative with shots it's the other way round, spending money on the right len's will give you the encouragement to carry on, get it wrong and it will send you into ever decreasing circles as your shots are missed.

i bought a 100-400mm as i wanted the extra reach for air shows, which are held in daylight so f/4 was fine, in fact the lowest i have is a f/1.8 50mm but your working by 60 watt bulb with that, so not spending on f2.8 as it was not needed, i did push out the boat and paid a lot but it will give more back, in fact someone else pushed out the boat and payed full price, a excellent second hand len's that is 4 months old and has been looked after.

Try to choose wisely and it will pay dividends and please think of spending to much as you can only get better, buy a under performing lens and it will be on e-bay before you know it.

Regards Mark.
 
mercmanuk said:
I think beginner is the wrong term, the right kind of len's can send you to the top of the tree, it's all about percentages 90% equipment 10% creative when you need technology to give a helping hand.

When your creative with shots it's the other way round, spending money on the right len's will give you the encouragement to carry on, get it wrong and it will send you into ever decreasing circles as your shots are missed.

i bought a 100-400mm as i wanted the extra reach for air shows, which are held in daylight so f/4 was fine, in fact the lowest i have is a f/1.8 50mm but your working by 60 watt bulb with that, so not spending on f2.8 as it was not needed, i did push out the boat and paid a lot but it will give more back, in fact someone else pushed out the boat and payed full price, a excellent second hand len's that is 4 months old and has been looked after.

Try to choose wisely and it will pay dividends and please think of spending to much as you can only get better, buy a under performing lens and it will be on e-bay before you know it.

Regards Mark.
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Have to agree with this.....my lens are top pro glass but I'm improving the more I use them. Was using bottom to mid range lenses before these. It takes time to develop and learn with them.

Buying lenses which are limiting will mean that you'll sell them pretty soon, when you find that they won't do what your ever increasing ability wants them to do, so suggest you bear this in mind.

Unfortunately I cannot help you with Olympus lens choice I'm afraid, but there are Oly users on this forum who will no doubt come along and assist.

Good luck :thumbs:
 
How about some samples of your pics and tell us what is wrong?
you say close-up and airshow - are you after a macro or a long zoom?

do you have the 14-42mm and the 40-150mm or just one? or the 17.5-45 or something else?
 
I have the 14-42mm and the 40-150mm lens kit. I would have liked to be able to zoom further in than I could. It was the first time I had used an slr and I haven't done anything with the photos apart from upload them.
 
Aaarrggghhh!! I'm having a blonde moment!! Anybody have any idea how to link to the TP gallery :(
 
Hurrah!!


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Hi,

nothing wrong with the image size/zoom aspect of the shots the reason they look so-so is that they are underexposed which is always a problem with shots that retain a lot of the sky ie: in flight shots of aircraft, birds etc. best advice I have seen is check settings against the grass and then set these manually and then try shooting with those.

So, if grass gives you say 1/500th at F8, put that in manually as the auto setting will possibly give you say 1/2000th at F5.6 and therefore it exposes for the sky, setting the camera to 1/500th will allow more light in and better expose the underside of the aircraft.

There are plenty of people on here who shoot aircraft and can probably explain it better and shoot them better than me, so might be worth having a look at the transport section.

Mike.
 
I notice that the exif says 'Exposure Program = creative program (slow program, depth of field) (5)' Are you using one of the presets rather than A/T/M or even P?

It also looks like you are using pattern metering rather than spot metering?

How do those pics look if you zoom/crop them?

Anyway, in terms of longer zoom - have you thought about the Olympus Zukio 70-300mm? Available from around £200? eg here or ask that nice Mr Kerso what he will do on the price?
 
I've just had a quick look in at things like KevShaw's pics - Is that what you are comparing to? He seems to have used a 200-400mm lens which a quick search shows up as being in the order of £3500-£4000.

ummm.
 
Thanks to those who have taken the time to reply, I will definately continue to play around with my camera and the images. I probably need to get used to the camera and lens I have before getting anymore but I will keep all the suggestions for future reference.

who? said:
I've just had a quick look in at things like KevShaw's pics - Is that what you are comparing to? He seems to have used a 200-400mm lens which a quick search shows up as being in the order of £3500-£4000.

ummm.
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You've probably hit the nail on the head here, I think I'm getting way above my station far too soon :bonk: :D
 
You will be able to get good shots with a reasonably priced zoom going out to 300mm.

You just need to be able to judge the exposure compensation a little better.

There is a good book to read
"Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson.
 
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