Help me decide how to spend my money please!

[Pugrpooh]

Saturday night my my family and friends threw me a surprise 50th birthday eek: . My girls are so great ! Anyway, a bunch of friends went in and got me a gift card to the local camera store. I have enough to either get an external flash or the Olympus 25mm f/2.8 pancake lens.

I like the lens because at f/2.8 it's faster than my other lenses (except for my OM 50mm f/1.8). And one thing with Olympus cameras is that they can be slow to AF in low light situations, so I expect this lens would help with that. But I have that focal length covered in my 14-42, although the 25mm is a much smaller package (which is good).

On the other hand, I've read and seen examples of pics with and without the use of external flash and I can definitely see a difference with the flash. But I try not to use the flash, so the faster lens would help me out there.

I'm new to this DSLR business and I could use all of you experts' advice out there.

Thanks!

 

[Pugrpooh]

Huh?! I don't know where those party guys came from in my previous post. I didn't even see them before I posted! It was a great party so I'll leave them in. I did put in one of these guys , but he's not showing up?

 

[spinetnglr]

Huh?! I don't know where those party guys came from in my previous post. I didn't even see them before I posted! It was a great party so I'll leave them in. I did put in one of these guys , but he's not showing up?

Your little guy is missing in the first post because the first : is missing.

If I had to choose between a flash and a lens I would go for lens but that is me. I dont use an external flash that often but if you are finding yourself in more situations where you are wishing you had one it might be the way to go. If the flash can wait a little while though and you really want a new lens then go for the lens. You just have to determine which one you can better deal with being without for a little while. And BTW ..... HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND WELCOME TO THE 50s. I hit that number myself a year ago

 

[YesDear]

To me it depends on what you shoot. If the lens and the flash were about the same, I would probably go for the glass. The flash opens a totally different world to you, but many like available light.

 

[oogieboogieman]

Use the gift card to buy the lens. Then go to Circuit City and look for a flash. Got mine for around $90.00.

 

[Pugrpooh]

Well, I was leaning towards the lens, so you all just made the decision a lot easier for me. I called the camera store and they don't stock the 25mm, but they ordered it for me.

Then I took oogieboogieman's advice and stopped by CC to see if they still had the flash (they only had a display for $138 a couple of weeks ago), but they didn't have it anymore. So I'll have the flash at the top of my wishlist now.