Zoom lens for E-510

[cruzthepug]

Hi, bare with me on this one, newby question. I just bought a E510 (first dSLR) and used to to take shots at a local marathon this past weekend. Of the 1500 shots taken and after a few adjustments about 1000 pictures came out quite good. So, now that I have the bug, I'm looking for a lens that will get me a little closer to the action without breaking the bank. The two I've been looking at are the Olympus 70-300mm f/4-5.6 and the Sigma Zoom Telephoto 135-400mm f/4.5-5.6. Am I looking in the right direction or am I way off base with these lenses? Thoughts on either?

Thanks in advance,
Steve

Here's a shot from the race

[Greg McCary]

Those are both really good lenses and it a depends on what you are wanting out of the zoom. If you are just wanting a good carry around lens for mostly daytime shooting either of these or the 40-150mm kit lens will work. If you are wanting to shot action shots at night ect, football you will need a faster lenses than the ones you mentioned. Me I am partial to the Zuiko lenses myself. I traded of the kit lens and use the 14-54mm lens and it is faster and much more heavy duty than the kit lens. I also use the 40-150mm, kit lens, and am very satisfied with it. It's not very expensive and get's the job done, but not a good choice if you are going to shoot action shots in low light. I hope that helps and post some more shots when you get it. How are you liking the IS, it's an amazing technology.

[cruzthepug]

Thanks for the reply Greg. I would guess I'll start with foot racing as well as mountain bike events, since I'm the local SORBA VP. But who knows, when I actually learn how to use the camera the possibilities are endless. This being my first dSLR and basically a beginner, everything is new to me and I'm learning by trial and error. I did buy a 4gb 266x card, so I hope that help some with the performance. So far I love the camera, but like I said, being a beginner I don't have much to compare to. My wife and I are leaving New Years day heading to Sedona, AZ with a day trip to the Grand Canyon planned. I plan to take many, many shots. On a trip like that what quality setting would you use to get the most photos but still keep high quailty, HQ?

Get used to seeing me around, I used the MTBR forums to learn all about 29ers and I hope to do the same here.

Thanks again,
Steve

Oh yeah, I think I will pick up a UV filter before the trip, good idea?

[Greg McCary]

Thanks for the reply Greg. I would guess I'll start with foot racing as well as mountain bike events, since I'm the local SORBA VP. But who knows, when I actually learn how to use the camera the possibilities are endless. This being my first dSLR and basically a beginner, everything is new to me and I'm learning by trial and error. I did buy a 4gb 266x card, so I hope that help some with the performance. So far I love the camera, but like I said, being a beginner I don't have much to compare to. My wife and I are leaving New Years day heading to Sedona, AZ with a day trip to the Grand Canyon planned. I plan to take many, many shots. On a trip like that what quality setting would you use to get the most photos but still keep high quailty, HQ?

Get used to seeing me around, I used the MTBR forums to learn all about 29ers and I hope to do the same here.

Thanks again,
Steve

Oh yeah, I think I will pick up a UV filter before the trip, good idea?

As far a image quailty I always shoot RAW format for landscapes. It is like a digital negative. A "RAW" file is unedited by the camera. You can only see the file with RAW editing software, Olympus Master 2, Lightroom ect. But you can make a lot of adjustments to a RAW file that you can't with a JPEG. I shoot all landscapes in RAW and SHQ or HQ for general shots of family and things. It all depends on how much of a quality you are looking for with each shot. You can get about 233 RAW pictures on a 4 gig card and 510 SHQ and 1605 HQ pictures on one.
If you are going to shoot fast action with the zoom you might go for the more expensive lenses. They will freeze the action better because you can shoot with higher shutter speeds. You might also pick up a polarizer and a ND graduate filter at some point. They are a must to good landscape photography.

[Jaedon]

I am very partial to the Sigma lenses. I almost exclusively use my Sigma 50 - 500 APO F4-6.3 on my E510. It runs for roughly $999 USD at B&H camera as well as Adorama. Depending on where you are located the shipping costs will vary.

After all it is 9lbs of glass lol. It does have it's disadvantages. Shooting in lower light is very difficult as it cannot open wider than F 6.3 at Max zoom. The weight gets to you after a few hours of shooting, your wrist feels like it is going to never move again, and the best sharpest resolution shots are taken at F8. But one you get used to what you can and cannot do and where you can and can not shoot light wise, it is an excellent lens. With the 10X optical zoom range it is a very versatile lens. And with the 2X crop factor in the camera it is the equivalent of shooting with a 100 - 1000 on a 35 MM camera.. Here's a few sample shots taken with the "Bigma" as they call it.

[cruzthepug]

As far a image quailty I always shoot RAW format for landscapes. It is like a digital negative. A "RAW" file is unedited by the camera. You can only see the file with RAW editing software, Olympus Master 2, Lightroom ect. But you can make a lot of adjustments to a RAW file that you can't with a JPEG. I shoot all landscapes in RAW and SHQ or HQ for general shots of family and things. It all depends on how much of a quality you are looking for with each shot. You can get about 233 RAW pictures on a 4 gig card and 510 SHQ and 1605 HQ pictures on one.
If you are going to shoot fast action with the zoom you might go for the more expensive lenses. They will freeze the action better because you can shoot with higher shutter speeds. You might also pick up a polarizer and a ND graduate filter at some point. They are a must to good landscape photography.

OK, so what is the difference between "raw" and "raw+shq"?

[cruzthepug]

This shot's not too bad, got it this morning messing around in the back yard.

[Jaedon]

Raw + SHQ will shoot Both RAW and super high quality. It reduces the storage space by a huge amount but you get a JPEG straight from the camera and the RAW Digital negative (as described by Greg earlier) to work with afterwards. Raw can sometimes mean the difference between saving the shot and losing the shot because of the amount of information that is stored.

Nice shot BTW. He must've let you get pretty close to shoot that tight with the kit lens. The above shot of mine was taken from about 50 feet into the tree's behind my house with a flash and the Better Beamer flash extender, at dusk.

[Greg McCary]

This shot's not too bad, got it this morning messing around in the back yard.

I agree that's a very good shot. Looks like you are getting the hang of things.

[cruzthepug]

Thanks for all the info. One more quick question, what's the deal with the super telephoto zoom lenses on ebay. There are several different one's like this that are all under $300. I'm sure someone has tried one, are they just a total pos?

Thanks again,
Steve

[Greg McCary]

I am not sure about Opteka. I think it is a cheap lens. You get what you pay for. At F/8 it would be very slow and manual focus at that. I know they also make a large mirrored lens for the Four Thirds mount. I wouldn't recommend this one.

[Jaedon]

I have looked at the Opteka lenses and a friend who has one steered me away from it. The lens quality leaves much to be desired with ghosting and lens flares all over the place as well as the manual focus only really makes things more difficult when you're just starting out.

[cruzthepug]

I didn't think it could be much for that kinda money. I still can't decide which lens to try, I'm leaning toward the Olympus 70-300. I know it won't give the as much reach and cost more, but would the Olympus 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 be a better sport lens? Just too many choices, and the more I keep looking, the more confused I get on what I need/want and how much I really want to spend.

I hate having a new hobby

[Greg McCary]

For sports you need the 2.8... If you don't know what the numbers mean the 2.8 is the speed of the lens on the zoomed out side and the important number is the 3.5 on the other side. The higher that number the slower the lens. The 40-150mm kit lens hunts to much and is to slow. I think the 50-200mm would be a better choice. The extra speed at the zoomed end of the lens makes a big difference when shooting sports. Check out the sports forum and also Jaedon shoots a ton of sports so his advice would help here as well.

[cruzthepug]

Well, I decided on the Olympus 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 and got in yesterday. I guess I'll give it a test run Friday on a mountain bike ride. I don't think I want to try to carry this lens with me while riding, it's a bit heavy for that, but we'll stage a few jumps or something close to the trail head to test it out.

Thanks guys for all the guidance,

Steve

[cruzthepug]

Here's one I took with my new lens this morning.

[Jaedon]

Definitely a nice choice of lens. You will really appreciate the lower F stops on darker days. Have fun and post lots. The critiques you give as well as receive make you better in the end.