Lens Choice for Surface Photography for OM-D E-M5 Camera

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BoltSnap

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I am planning to buy the Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera for U/W use. I will most likely buy the following lenses for U/W use: 1250, 8 and 60mm. What lens would one recommend for use on land? I am thinking the 14-150 mm lens would be a good general purpose lens but not sure. Please give me your feedback.

Here is the link for the 14-150 mm lens specs:


M. ED 14-150mm F4.0-5.6
 
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I'm using a borrowed Panasonic 14-140mm now, but find it too large, too heavy and too slow (large aperture) to be a great general-pupose lens. Image quality is just OK even though it's probably the best superzoom made for any camera system. And given you'll already own the 12-50mm i wouldn't own a superzoom as well, the 12-50mm is wider at the bottom end and it's sharper and it does macro and it's weather-sealed.

A much more useful lens, IMHO, is the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7. This lens is small, bright and very sharp. If you're just going out to dinner or taking photos indoors, the 20mm f/1.7 is a great lens for available light photography and it's great when you just want your camera to be small. It will compliment your 12-50mm.

At the telephoto end you could add to your 12-50mm with the expensive 75-300mm if you want really amazing reach, or the smaller and much cheaper 40-150mm lens. You can buy both the 40-150mm and 20mm for just $50 more than the 14-150mm, and in my view this would be a much more versatile and useful system for above water photography.

At the ultra wide angle end, your 8mm fisheye will do the trick, use fisheye-hemi software and you can reduce the fisheye effect in photos taken above water. In my view this solution distorts less than using ultra wide angle rectilinear lenses (like the very nice and expensive and much larger 7-14mm).
 
I'm using a borrowed Panasonic 14-140mm now, but find it too large, too heavy and too slow (large aperture) to be a great general-pupose lens. Image quality is just OK even though it's probably the best superzoom made for any camera system. And given you'll already own the 12-50mm i wouldn't own a superzoom as well, the 12-50mm is wider at the bottom end and it's sharper and it does macro and it's weather-sealed.

A much more useful lens, IMHO, is the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7. This lens is small, bright and very sharp. If you're just going out to dinner or taking photos indoors, the 20mm f/1.7 is a great lens for available light photography and it's great when you just want your camera to be small. It will compliment your 12-50mm.

At the telephoto end you could add to your 12-50mm with the expensive 75-300mm if you want really amazing reach, or the smaller and much cheaper 40-150mm lens. You can buy both the 40-150mm and 20mm for just $50 more than the 14-150mm, and in my view this would be a much more versatile and useful system for above water photography.

At the ultra wide angle end, your 8mm fisheye will do the trick, use fisheye-hemi software and you can reduce the fisheye effect in photos taken above water. In my view this solution distorts less than using ultra wide angle rectilinear lenses (like the very nice and expensive and much larger 7-14mm).

Thank you for the feedback. Isn't the 20mm covered in the 1250mm lens?

It sounds like the 1250 is a good start even for topside photography for now.
 
+1 on the Panasonic 20mm/f1.7 but I mostly have the Olympus 12mm/f2 on the camera.

I got the 12-50mm kit lens for $300 but I have not used it much since I bought these primes. It's also very light but about double the size in length and not as fast wide open.
 
A fairly important question is what do you like to shot on land? Landscape with wide angle, intimate landscape, macro (you have that covered nicely), kids sports, general family photos, portraits, etc. It is hard to say what to suggest without knowing what you like to do.
 
A fairly important question is what do you like to shot on land? Landscape with wide angle, intimate landscape, macro (you have that covered nicely), kids sports, general family photos, portraits, etc. It is hard to say what to suggest without knowing what you like to do.

Most likely scenes related to "nature" topside and close to the sea. Mountains, seashore, antiquities and historical sites built right on seashore and people's activities related to diving and water sports. I am not an expert on topside photography but trying to learn. Definitely not sports unless they are water sports.

I am probably describing the need for every single lens made for the Olympus camera :)
 
I think it would be best to experiment a little with the 12-50 lens as it covers a fairly large range. If you find out that you often use wide angle (like 12mm) than you can invest in a 12 prime, a 9-18 and/or a 7-14. If you constantly in the need of more tele then you could buy a 40-150, 75-300 and/or 75 prime for example. Noone can advise on lenses in general as we don't know your individual shooting style. Personally, I'd stay aways from zooms that cover a hugh range, like the 14-150, as they usually are relatively slow and are not the best with respect to image quality. But then again, this is my personal opinion only and changing lenses doesn't bother me.
 
In that case, it would seem that what you need is to add a bit of range to the 12-50 which you already own. I would look at something like the Olympus 40-150mm. Panasonic makes a 45-200mm which is relatively inexpensive but surprisingly good. Either will give you more coverage of focal lengths in the telephoto range. I would only consider adding a prime for two reasons. First, if you like the ability to separate a subject from the background. The smaller numerical number f-stops on most primes help you there. Second, I would consider it if you need to shoot indoors hand held. The 20mm or, if you have a bigger budget, the 25mm are very good. The 20 is quite compact and can be picked up used. I would also consider the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 which is fantastic for portraits.

Lastly go check out www.mu-43.com. It is a great forum for discussion about micro 4/3 cameras, lenses, and photography.
 
Thank you all!!!!!


BTW, I hate changing lenses since it is a very dusty environment where I am.

---------- Post Merged at 05:49 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 05:46 PM ----------

Question: When you say "Prime lens" you mean non-zoom lens, is this correct?
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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