Lens help

A

AnthonyYacullo

Member
I'm brand new here but I have a quick lens questions for you guys. I want to get a new lens for my Olympus E-500, the lens I want to get is a 40-150mm. But there are 2 different options f/3.5-4.5 Zuiko or f/4.0-5.6 Zuiko. My question is which of these would be best for taking pictures at WDW and/or the fireworks shows. I'm thinking the 3.5-4.5 but I wanted to check with everyone first. Thanks in advance :) Any help would be much appreciated.
 
For fireworks, you'd probably be OK with either one - many times when you shoot fireworks, you rely on longer shutter speeds, so the apertures can be set in the middle ranges from F4-F8...either lens should be OK there. ; Without knowing the exact lenses themselves, as to whether one is reviewed higher than the other, I'd guess that the F3.5-4.5 lens is probably a newer upgraded lens, and as such probably would be incrementally better at F4 (since the F4-5.6 lens is wide open at F4 whereas the other would be stopped down a bit at F4). ; I'd definitely check with some Oly users if either lens rates higher than the other, and obviously if one is a lot cheaper and they are still close in quality, that could help the decision!
 
If the 3.5-4.5 is still available, you may want to pounce on it. ; Oly's USA website doesn't list that lens anymore, only the 4-5.6 version. ; B&H only has that one as well.
 
Okay - (I had to go back to your intro post to make sure I remembered reading it correctly)

Your existing lens is about the same as 28-90mm on a 35mm film camera. ; Which is what I would say is the bare minimum for wide angle for Illuminations. ; (Personally I would go wider, but that's just me)

It's perfectly fine for Wishes. ; This one from Music Magic & Mayhem, taken from around Casey's Corner, was at 45.5mm equivalent:

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So the lens you have now would be fine for fireworks. ; The three options I can see would be to get:

1)the 18-180mm lens (36-360mm equivalent); probably the pricest of the options but you wouldn't need to change lenses that often.
2)the 40-150mm, which would be 80-300mm equivalent.
3)the 70-300mm, which would be 140-600mm equivalent. ; This one would be perfect for taking pictures at Animal Kingdom, but you lose a lot of flexability along with the 90-140mm range unless you get a third lens.


Also, just make sure you get a good tripod and a remote shutter release. ; (check the manual for which one is compatible with your model, not sure if the current model is)
 
You are AWESOME for that whole explanation! That definitely helps a lot. I do want to get a better zoom lens tho for general WDW use of the two 40-150's is the 3.5-4.5 still the best for my use?
 
I'm not sure why they pulled it from the market, but it looks like it would be a slightly better option (KEH doesn't have specs on it).

Like zackiedawg mentioned before, you're dealing with about a 1/2 stop difference between the two, and the older model looks like it's a little bit larger. ; But that 1/2 stop can help, because in general, a lens is sharpest a few stops from maximum, so yes, at f/4 the old lens is probably better than the new one at f/4. ; But you probably can't tell the difference.
 
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