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Author
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NoSpringChicken
Registered User
Registered: March 2007
Location: East Norfolk
Posts: 25894
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Review Date: Fri March 19, 2010
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Light weight. Compact size. Good reach and results for a reasonable purchase price.
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Cons:
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At its best in good light. 'Fly by wire' manual focusing is not to everyone's taste.
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I have been using this lens for a couple of years, originally with an Olympus E-510 and latterly with an E-30.
I bought it as a walk-about lens and use it exclusively handheld. The in-built image stabilization in the E-510 and E-30 means that it works quite well like this. I am sure that I could get better results by using a tripod, especially at long range, but I don't want to carry one about with me.
I have found results from the lens to be very good indeed, especially considering the reasonable price. It is at its best in good light, where it can produce very sharp images with excellent contrast. The focusing is usually acceptably fast and accurate, especially with the E-30, although if I miss the target, a bird in flight for example, it attempts to focus on infinity and goes through its entire focusing cycle, which is rather slow and noisy. Most users recommend using it stopped down to f/8 if possible for sharpest results. This works well in good light, although it does increase the depth of field, which is not always desirable.
One quirk with the lens is that it incorporates a manual/automatic focusing switch. In the past I have inadvertently caught this and moved it to 'manual' without noticing. I was then unable to understand why the auto focusing on the camera wasn't working. I now know the first thing to check if this happens!
Overall I would sum it up as a well made, light, compact and high performance lens with a very reasonable purchase price. It just requires a little care in use to give its best results.
Ron
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arunp
Registered User
Registered: February 2010
Location: Manipal -INDIA
Posts: 232
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Review Date: Fri April 16, 2010
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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LIght weight, very good results in good ambient light, great value for money
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Cons:
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Indifferent performance in low light; slow focus at times
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An excellent carry around lens when hiking.
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In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous > Aristotle
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Lee Hemen
Registered User
Registered: May 2010
Location: Vancouver, WA
Posts: 5
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Review Date: Thu May 20, 2010
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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price, build, ease of use, glass
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Cons:
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None for the price spent. You want better, spend more.
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Absolutely a great lens for the 2/3 system. I use it with a mono-pod all the time. You cannot beat the quality and if you want better range, buy a more expensive lens. I have some excellent shots using this lens, which I have not had time to post to this sight yet, but will try to shortly.
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Tord
Registered User
Registered: May 2006
Location: Malmö, Sweden
Posts: 1057
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Review Date: Mon August 30, 2010
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Cost, size
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Cons:
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Slow to auto-focus
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I have used this lens for 1.5 years now with an E-520 body (with built-in Image Stabilizer) and must say I am really satisfied with the performance. It is a "standard quality" lens but the results are good and the lens is capable of delivering sharp images. It is also moderately priced and well suited for taking bird shots so if you have a 4/3 camera and looking for a telezoom I would definitevely recommend.
Im my opinion it performs better than the 40-150 mm standard telezoom that often is included in the Olympus kits. (If you are prepared to accept a slow auto-focus, as several have pointed out. I haven't updated the firmware, though).
Other:
I take (virtually) all my shots hand-held.
Thanks to the 4/3 format the size is really compact for a telephoto lens (80 x 127 mm)
Weight is 600g
The lens has a 58 mm thread which is also a potential cost saver on the filter side
Close range is 1.2 m so the leans also works OK for shooting smaller creatures
Hope this feedback is useful
Tord
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My Gallery on 500px
Olympus E520, E620, E600, OMD-EM5, ZD 30-300, ZD 50-200 SWD, Sigma 50-500, Skywatcher ED80A 600mm, Canon S95, Nikon ED82A
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Alison Hipkin
Registered User
Registered: April 2012
Location: Kings lynn
Posts: 15
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Review Date: Fri April 27, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 0
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I have used this for 2 years an actually find it difficult to capture a very sharp image! I didn't think about updating firmware, I will try that an see how that goes!
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