HELP! Advice on lenses

[cinders]

Advice wanted...

In work we currently us a rather old and fairly basic Nikon camera, mostly vertical mounted, in order to take pictures of geological specimens - for publication and databasing. We may have the chance this year to upgrade to a nicer set-up.
Obviously I'll recommend selling all our kit and getting an E5, but we may end up having to stay with Nikon!. However... I'm interested in your views about the best combination of say two lenses - using the Oly versions to make it easy for me to visualise.
I love my 50mm, and on a vertical mount it'll do quite a range of sizes of specimens. But would a 12-60 be better/as good - and would allow more versatility when used hand held for larger objects.
Also, does the EX25 work well with the 12-60 for smaller stuff?

If they decide to stay with the Nikon brand, then they do a really nice 105mm macro, but would we also need a wider angle ?zoom? lens as well then?

Oh dear - too many options!

[Bikie John]

Re: Advice on lenses

As you say, too many options.

The obvious place to start is to ask - what do you have at the moment, and does it do everything you want it to? If not, what else would you like to be able to do? Bigger, smaller, closer, further away? Indoors-only or out in the field? etc. etc.

Without knowing anything about your work it's very difficult to visualise what you might need. You never know, you might be able to do everything with a cheap compact and blow the rest of the budget on a REALLY nice coffee machine

Ciao ... John

[cinders]

Re: Advice on lenses

Ok...
We need to produce high quality images of (mostly) fossils for various purposes. All indoor work generally.

I don't use the current camera myself - because I have a vastly superior E620 (!) - but our technician complains that the work one is not too good (interestingly he owns an Olympus personally too - perhaps that's why he thinks the lab Nikon isn't so good!)

I haven't yet been able to find where the current lenses are hidden - but even assuming that they're ok, then we still may have this option to upgrade the camera body and if we go to Olympus then we could sell off our current lenses which have had fairly light use.
We have a major digitisation project coming up and need to be able to get good results quickly and efficiently!

Cindy

[cinders]

Re: Advice on lenses

This is the type of thing we do - it's not a very pretty fossil and not as sharp as some, but it gives the idea.
Taken with my E630 and 50mm lens.

[Bikie John]

Re: Advice on lenses

Ooohhh, interesting. Said one old fossil about another.

It looks as though it's not that demanding photographically - getting it straight and nicely lit is probably the hard part. What to get really depends on what the problems are with the current kit. Nikon lenses should be pretty good, so you could always suggest a Pen body and Nikon to m43 adapter. Which might still leave some change for that coffee machine....

Ciao ... John

[gphemy]

Re: Advice on lenses

Posting the Ammonite (?) is very helpful. I agree that the requirement appears not too demanding, and also that putting Nikon lenses on a Pen would be a quick fix - although you might find that the exisitng lenses are too long in focal length for the application you have.

I would not recommend either the 12-60 or any other zoom lens, in part because you don't need the zoom capability (you "zoom" by moving the camera nearer to or further away from the subject), in part because you are more likely to see distortion when using a zoom at close focus distances, and in part because you can get much better lenses _for this application_ for much less money.

I recommend you to consider either the 35mm or 50mm zoom lenses, perhaps with EX-25 if you have small specimens to contend with. Consider also getting a macro flash to fit the lens - a ring flash will give excellent flat lighting, while the macro twin flash will give you some light modelling capability. Far better use of the cash than the 12-60 in this instance!

Piers

[Jim Ford]

Re: Advice on lenses

Use an Olympus with the Zuiko 50mm macro. Check here for a review of the lens:

http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/olympus_50_2_o20/page4.asp

Jim

[Bikie John]

Re: Advice on lenses

An argument against zooms - you say you have the camera "mounted vertically" - do you mean with the lens pointing downwards? If it is, you can get "zoom creep" where gravity will pull the zoomable bits down. Shouldn't happen with a good lens, but even a little bit of it could ruin the shot.

Ciao ... john

[Phill D]

Re: Advice on lenses

If you go oly then the 35mm is cheap but you do have to get very close to get the high macros. 50mm is the best IQ but you could also try a sigma 150mm macro lens, it seems to get some good press on here.

[Tordan58]

Re: Advice on lenses

Hi,

The 12-60 SWD lens is a superb lens, however it is not suitable for macro work and will not work with the EX25. As written in earlier posts I would look at the 35 or 50 mm lenses or the Sigma 150 mm.

/Tord

[cinders]

Re: Advice on lenses

I agree about the 50mm - I already have one myself and it's great. Then possibly a 35mm for those larger specimens.

Good thoughts all. Many thanks for that!

Cindy