Not sure if I should put this here since it's about lenses, but I wanted to ask a generic lens related question.......
For my new photo system, I am pondering telephoto options, and have essentially some combination of the following:
(all focal lengths are in 35mm equivalents, and maximum aperture is calculated using 35mm DOF equivalence, NOT light gathering equivalence)
80-300mm f/8-11 - this one was cheap and is a keeper, covering many of my telephoto needs. My only problem it does't have a really narrow depth of field, and so far its bokeh also isn't so hot.
The alternatives:
90 f/3.5
150 f/3.5
70-200 f/5.6
120 f/5.6 macro I'm almost certainly going to buy this one.
I can buy some combo of these, but not all of them. Which ones do people think are the most useful? Let's assume for argument's sake that these lenses will be good, have good bokeh and are really sharp by around f/4 or so (or at maximum aperture for the f/5.6 lenses)
I'm an amateur who generally shoots landscape/wildlife, with very little portrait, so I'm inclined for the Macro and 70-200. The apertures are worrying for depth of field, but I did the calculations and this generally only doubles the DOF from 1ft to 2 ft versus a f/2.8 lense at 80mm.
FYI, these are some of the m43 telephoto options available come end of the summer or so. 45 f/1.8, 75 f/1.8, 35-100 f/2.8 and 60 f/2.8 macro
Thanks, runamuck, and good photo. This is exactly on the lines of what I'm thking - often, f/5.6 35mm equivalent maximum apeture for DOF purposes is not such a problem.....
From your last post, it appears you might be misunderstanding what runamuck was telling you.
Calculate the dof for your 300mm at 15 ft f-7.1 and it's tight <1/2 a foot.
For 35mm f-5.6 at the same 15 ft and the dof is huge on the order of 20+ feet
For 35mm f-5.6 at the same 5 ft and the dof is still relatively huge 1.8 feet
Thus for the blurry background it's a balance of the photo details (subject distance, background distance, relative lighting background-subject) and camera details (focal length, f-stop, etc). And that's before we start talking about the Bokeh (the type of blurring you get)
