Olympus Evolt Series

[Pugrpooh]

Awesome, Lynn. I especially love #s 2 and 3. Make sure to post them on my Photographing Pets thread!

Can you explain to me exactly how it works for us to use older lenses? I know you need an adaptor and have to manually focus, but is there anything else to consider? Where to buy, EBay, Craigslist? I could use a fast zoom lens to shoot my son's indoor baseball practices this winter, and not sure if it would make sense to go this route. The new ones are quite expensive and I'm not sure it would be worth the investment since it's a fairly small segnent of what I shoot, though I will be sharing the pics with the rest of the team, and possibly the league. Maybe it makes sense to get the adaptor to have other inexpensive, vaired lens choices?

I guess I was lucky because I really didn't know what I was buying with this lens. But from reading on dpreview.com, the version of the lens I bought is supposed to be the best quality. It has the Made in Japan on it and a higher serial number.

It was cheap off of ebay, $17 including shipping. The adapter I got from Fotodiox for around $30. So I figure with a small investment, it's worth trying out.

So far I can't say I'm in love with it but I haven't really used it a lot. I didn't take it to Disney because from trying it out at home, I was getting a lot of blurry shots and I didn't want to miss anything there. You can see from my previous post that even though I thought Oscar was in focus, he really wasn't. On the occasions when I was shooting him and he moved, he was just a blur. And he doesn't move fast.

My next project with that lens is that I'm going to try and shoot a moving subject with the lens wide open and as fast a shutter speed as I can get. This may be a really stupid question, but I wonder how people shot action shots with a manual focus lens?

There's been a thread on dpreview about the best OM lenses. I checked a couple of them on ebay and they were in the hundreds of dollars range, so I think my next purchase will be the 70-300. I was really wanting it this morning. We woke up to about an inch of snow and there were two deer behind my house. I took a bunch of pics with the 40-150 but I haven't downloaded them yet.

I know you've mentioned that you have the 25mm. Do you like it? I haven't decided if that's one I want to get yet.

 

[oogieboogieman]

It's funny that you guys have been talking about OM lenses and adapters. I've looked at them and tried one with a 50mm on it and I found it very difficult to get a good focus. I really miss those little round thing that line up when using my old Canon AE-1. I haven't tried it in Live View mode. Still I didn't buy one but the thought is there.
Great hawk photo!!!

 

[Pugrpooh]

It's funny that you guys have been talking about OM lenses and adapters. I've looked at them and tried one with a 50mm on it and I found it very difficult to get a good focus. I really miss those little round thing that line up when using my old Canon AE-1. I haven't tried it in Live View mode. Still I didn't buy one but the thought is there.
Great hawk photo!!!

Thanks! It's not as sharp as I'd like. Still it is the sharpest of the bunch I took of it. I wonder how the 70-300 would have been with it?

I tried focusing with live view thinking the larger picture and the fact I could wear my readers would help me focus with it, but it didn't seem to work any better. It probably would've been easier in brighter light, but what's the point in having a 1.8f if I can only focus well in bright light?

Maybe I'll stop by Circuit City today and see if they have any Oly stuff marked down.

 

[ElizK]

I finally got to take my toy out yesterday to play again. It's been way too long! I took my kids and my daughter's boyfriend to Williams Square in Los Colinas. Here are some of my favorites:

I was playing around in Photoshop with the light filter with this one:

Pictures of my girls turned out a lot better when they were different sizes. Now their heads are even with one another. I'll have to have them pose better, but I still liked this picture:

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Nice, Liz! At first I thought the first one was "real" and was saying to myself, "Wow, how the heck did she get that?" BTW, what is that monument a tribute to?

I know you've mentioned that you have the 25mm. Do you like it?

Yes, in some ways I think it's my favorite lens. It's very easy to use and the pictures always seem to come out really nice with it. Colors pop, too. I've noticed that even if I have to use flash in low light (which I try to avoid), they still come out nice. I think it was a bargain at $211.

The only downside is that I sometimes wish it had a little more "reach" (as it's a prime at 25mm). I can see why fast lenses are expensive. I've been photographing my son's indoor baseball and it's been quite challenging. Not only lighting and movement wise, but shooting through a fence and a net, as I can't really go inside the playing area during play. Using the prime works out well for focus and exposure, but everyone's pretty teeny in the pictures, LOL.

 

[JoeDif]

Thanks! It's not as sharp as I'd like. Still it is the sharpest of the bunch I took of it. I wonder how the 70-300 would have been with it?

I tried focusing with live view thinking the larger picture and the fact I could wear my readers would help me focus with it, but it didn't seem to work any better. It probably would've been easier in brighter light, but what's the point in having a 1.8f if I can only focus well in bright light?

Maybe I'll stop by Circuit City today and see if they have any Oly stuff marked down.

I stopped at the one by me. They had the 70 - 300 lens for $399 less 10%. I swear they are marking everything up for this liquidation.

They were sold out of the FL36 flash though which is why I went

 

[Pugrpooh]

I stopped at the one by me. They had the 70 - 300 lens for $399 less 10%. I swear they are marking everything up for this liquidation.

They were sold out of the FL36 flash though which is why I went

I stopped at the one by me today and they had the 70-300 marked down to $279. They had the display FL36 (I don't know if it was the one with the remote capability or not) for $136 minus 10%.

They had 3 of the lenses left so I think I'll wait and see if they get marked down some more. You can get them for about that online now.

I'm tempted by the flash, but since it's a display and there's something wrong with it, I can't return it.

 

[JoeDif]

I stopped at the one by me today and they had the 70-300 marked down to $279. They had the display FL36 (I don't know if it was the one with the remote capability or not) for $136 minus 10%.

They had 3 of the lenses left so I think I'll wait and see if they get marked down some more. You can get them for about that online now.

I'm tempted by the flash, but since it's a display and there's something wrong with it, I can't return it.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the lens price goes down and they still have some left....no way I'm paying $399 for it when you can get it cheaper online.


Do you have the 510 or 520? I think that you can use the FL36R with the 520 but not the 510 as it doesn't have remote capabilities. You can use the FL36 with the 510 though

 

[Pugrpooh]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the lens price goes down and they still have some left....no way I'm paying $399 for it when you can get it cheaper online.


Do you have the 510 or 520? I think that you can use the FL36R with the 520 but not the 510 as it doesn't have remote capabilities. You can use the FL36 with the 510 though

I have the 520. I think I'd like to have the remote option.

 

[HerdEar]

I have had an Olympus E-330 for about a year. I just sent it off for repairs due to lens malfunctions. I was also playing around with the features during that time, so I'm not sure if I have messed it up. Up to the point of not focusing on anything, I really enjoyed the features that it had.

I will admit, I am an amateur at the DSLR cameras. I previously had a film loading SLR and it was very user-friendly. I have thought of purchasing the DVD's that show you how to use your camera better. It's called JumpStart. Has anyone use this product before? I didn't know if I would end up at the same place I was prior to my camera not working after playing with the features.

 

[ElizK]

I have one of the DVD's for the 510. Adorama happened to be having a special. It was only $5.00! I'm already spending $600, what's another $5, right?

I watched it the day I got the camera, and it does have some helpful stuff on it. I need to go back and watch it again. I was so completelyl overwhelmed that not much "stuck", if you know what I mean.

 

[HerdEar]

Thanks for the input on the DVD. I went to several SLR classes at a local college, but that was with my film loading. Which, as you mentioned, I need to refresh my memory with the information I collected. The instructor was VERY adament about film loading cameras. She thought that digital was not up to the highest quality as you could get with film loading. Although, many of the participants had digital cameras.

 

[oogieboogieman]

Okay, I did something that may sound strange to a lot of people. I bought a camera that is about 5 years old. It's a 5MP DSLR that has some of the most interesting features. Let's talk about a learning curve, this thing is complicated! Here's two pictures from today. On Wed. morning we got about 1/4 inch of sleet/freezing rain. This morning we had freezing fog. This afternoon it was about 45 degrees and the bees came out. Only in Texas!!! Both photos straight from the camera JPEG, only cropped. This is the E-1.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Okay, I did something that may sound strange to a lot of people. I bought a camera that is about 5 years old. It's a 5MP DSLR that has some of the most interesting features. Let's talk about a learning curve, this thing is complicated! Here's two pictures from today. On Wed. morning we got about 1/4 inch of sleet/freezing rain. This morning we had freezing fog. This afternoon it was about 45 degrees and the bees came out. Only in Texas!!! Both photos straight from the camera JPEG, only cropped. This is the E-1.

Hey, you got an E1! You are too funny.

I have no idea how you're going to choose which camera to use now - the E1, the 410, or the Sony.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

OK, all, need help. Does anyone know if there's a way to straighten landscapes using the Olympus Master software? I thought I figured out how to put the grid on in camera, then I couldn't figure it out after all while we were away. For some reason a lot of my landscapes are crooked. Do you think this could be a camera problem? I don't want to use several processing programs, so I'd like to just stick with OM.

 

[JoeDif]

I haven't used Master in awhile but I don't think it has that feature. If I need to straighten a horizon (all too often...lol) I normally do it with Paint Shop Pro.

 

[oogieboogieman]

Hey, you got an E1! You are too funny.

I have no idea how you're going to choose which camera to use now - the E1, the 410, or the Sony.

It's tough sometimes deciding which to use. While I like the Sony, I'm going to look into selling that system completely.
I really like the E-1, even though it's older with only 5MP it's still a very good camera. There's alot of features that they took out when they built the 410/510 models. It's weatherproofed and I can use my $10.00 battery I bought from C.C. See there was no reason for me to pray for a drought. My wife even knew about me buying it.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

It's tough sometimes deciding which to use. While I like the Sony, I'm going to look into selling that system completely.
I really like the E-1, even though it's older with only 5MP it's still a very good camera. There's alot of features that they took out when they built the 410/510 models. It's weatherproofed and I can use my $10.00 battery I bought from C.C. See there was no reason for me to pray for a drought. My wife even knew about me buying it.

Selling the Sony, huh?

After I went through all the rigamarole of buying lenses for it on eBay, and running all over town with you to get that discontinued flash, you are going to sell it? Perfect.

 

[ElizK]

Selling the Sony, huh?

After I went through all the rigamarole of buying lenses for it on eBay, and running all over town with you to get that discontinued flash, you are going to sell it? Perfect.

rut-roh... someone's in trouble...

 

[oogieboogieman]

rut-roh... someone's in trouble...

Yeah, the good thing is I'm still going to Disney for 2 weeks in August. She still loves me!!!
I'm ALWAYS in trouble for something or other.