Hi- I turned over my Olympus E-420 to my 13 yo son, which has a 50mm,f/2 macro (great lens). However, I want to get him a zoom lens for that camera, but I think Oly lenses are pricey for the value (especially the 14-42mm). Does anyone know of a decent 3rd party zoom with any range - a portrait-type range or even a wide-angle range. I'm looking for recommendation in the 300-$500 range, preferably with a fixed aperture (or notjavascript:void(0);. Also, am I wrong about Oly lenses? I'm a Canon shooter for the most part, so any Oly zoom lens advice would be helpful. Thanks, Ben
Actually, the 14-42 and 14-45 are excellent values for their typically low cost, especially the 14-45. Some of the better kit lenses out there.
There are NO good 3rd party value options in 4/3rds, the only 3rd party zooms in 4/3rds mount are Sigma zooms designed for full-frame or APS-C and thus lacking on the wide end and typically not up to the performance requirements of 4/3rds.
But given your budget you should be able to acquire one of the best values in zooms out there, the Olympus 14-54 f2.8-3.5. If possible, get the MkII version, which has Imager AF (Live View AF) and also a circular aperture. It's flat out one of the two or three best normal zooms made for crop DSLR's. Mk.1s run $250-300 at KEH, with the mk.II for around $350. This is for used (the MK.II runs $599 new at KEH).
Thank you Messrs. Mawz & Fly. Great advice. I just looked at the 14-54 lens and I already like it (I guess I overlooked that). It's not fixed aperture but close enough- especially for a 13 yr old. (But I also want to use it sometimes). 2 good recommendations is good enough for me - I got his Hannukah present all set!
4/3rds lenses are some of the best ever made for digital photography. Thankfully some of them also work pretty fast on the OM-D E-M5. There is also supposedly an upcoming Olympus solution for 4/3rd lenses...
My niece shoots with a 510 and really likes the 14-54, so there's one more vote for a good choice.
Since, like the 510, the 420 has live view and the 7-10x zoom, it's not a half-bad platform for MF lenses. I gave my niece my Rokkor 45/2, which she absolutely loves. I mention it because the lens and adapter ran me a grand total of $35 (the adapter was actually slightly more expensive than the lens) so if your son gets lens fever, there are good cheap options to satisfy it.
FlyPenFly wrote:
4/3rds lenses are some of the best ever made for digital photography. Thankfully some of them also work pretty fast on the OM-D E-M5. There is also supposedly an upcoming Olympus solution for 4/3rd lenses...
SOME of the 4/3 lenses are very good lenses. BUT, there are no good bodies to use them on. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this alleged "solution." Olympus has no real motive for investing a lot of money on that. Micro-four-thirds is selling so fast that it took months before Olympus had enough E-M5s to meet demand, but they lost a lot of money on the original 4/3 because no one wanted to buy them. Panasonic already came out with high-end native m43 zooms for people who want such a thing.
I do own a 14-54mm 4/3 lens, and I did test it against the Olympus 14-42mm II m43 lens, and the 14-54 is better at all overlapping focal lengths and f-stops both for being sharper and having less chromatic aberration and purple fringing.
BUT... it doesn't autofocus correctly. And it's a big heavy lens which defeats the whole point of using micro four thirds which is supposed to be smaller and lighter than a DSLR.
I have heard that the Nikon 16-85 DX lens is a really sharp lens, and using that with a 24 MP Nikon DSLR like the 3200 will probably give you the best image quality you will be able to get without using a full frame camera, and it will give you the same zoom range and DOF as you would get with the Olympus 12-60 zoom.
So if you are looking for the best image quality you can get for an affordable price, and don't care about size or weight, then Nikon, not Olympus, will get you there.
My Nikon 16-85VR could barley keep up with the D7K sensor never mind the demands of a 24mp D3200...but then again I'm sure someone will pipe up who actually owns one. But this is way off topic.
The 14-54mm Mk2 is an improved lens which AF's great on the OM-D. It does need the battery grip to balance properly.
Using the MMF-3 you get a fully weather sealed solution:
You can't do that with a D3200 and anything.
If I want ultimate IQ in a small package I use my NEX-7 with custom Zeiss G Zeiss 45mm F2. The 4/3rds lenses are undervalued right now. They're going to come back with the Sony partnership with Olympus. On-sensor PDAF and finally a competitive sensor to use it with.
Sony's sensor innovations do better the smaller sensor they don't scale up quite as linearly.
