Lens advice for First camera

infernox

infernox

infernox

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Hopefully Phates about. He still owes me that beer. He can answer something for me.

I'm looking at getting a camera for an upcoming trip to Iceland.

Bit confused on the lenses?

The Olympus E-PL7 comes with two kit lense options.

1. 14-42mm kit lens
2. 14-42 pancake lens

What is the difference between the two? They both will cost me about the same at £250.

Thanks
 
Joking aside from the other thread I'll post you a proper reply later. In the midst of getting a social security number! :p

But I'm going to guess the aperture on those lenses is different. What does it list the F numbers as?
 
Trying to find that out is proving difficult.

Pancake says this. Pancake ED 14-42MM 1:3.5-5.6 EZ
Normal says this. 14-42 1:3.5-5.6 II R

Looking around reviewers are mentioning you can't manual focus on the pancake?
 
Smaller and lighter yes, but would not being able to focus manually be a problem?

Also anything better than the E-PL7 for £250?
 
infernox said:
Smaller and lighter yes, but would not being able to focus manually be a problem?

Also anything better than the E-PL7 for £250?
Click to expand...

It's only a problem if you intend to manually focus? I do but only with wide aperture prime lenses and only with focus peaking on as I can't focus for tosh without it.

I hardly ever use manual with zoom lenses as I just don't ever feel the need as the depth of field is far more forgiving due to the narrower apertures.
 
infernox said:
Trying to find that out is proving difficult.

Pancake says this. Pancake ED 14-42MM 1:3.5-5.6 EZ
Normal says this. 14-42 1:3.5-5.6 II R

Looking around reviewers are mentioning you can't manual focus on the pancake?
Click to expand...

The pancake is electronic zoom as you'd find on a Point & Shoot camera.

Non-pancake is manual "twist" zoom.
 
infernox said:
Smaller and lighter yes, but would not being able to focus manually be a problem?

Also anything better than the E-PL7 for £250?
Click to expand...

Can't remember the last time I focused manually. The usual scenario is things like macro, but ideally you camera will be mounted on a set of macro rails and you focus by shifting the camera forwards and backwards. It can be useful for hyper-focal focusing for landscapes, but you can typically get by just using AF on a an object about 1/3rd of the way into the scene. Plus with landscapes you have the luxury of taking multiple shots with slightly varying focus points and then picking the shot with maximal fore- to back-ground sharpness.


for a kit lens I would ne er worry abut the lack of manual focus. For a more expensive pro zoom or telephoto prime I would be thinking twice though.
 
If you're unsure what lens you need, then the kit lens is the best choice. They're all basically the same in terms of optical performance, so it's just a case of buying whichever is cheapest.

For mFT, there are several choices from both Olympus and Panasonic. Personally I'd look at the wider options, including the Olympus 12-50, Panasonic 12-32 pancake, and new Panasonic 12-60, and buy whichever is cheapest (which a quick look on eBay suggests to be the Panasonic 12-32 pancake lens at £100-150, which also has pretty good reviews).

They're a bit dearer than the Olympus/Panasonic 14-42 zooms, but you'll be grateful for the extra 2mm in Iceland.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
The pancake is electronic zoom as you'd find on a Point & Shoot camera.

Non-pancake is manual "twist" zoom.
Click to expand...
This is the correct answer. The manual zoom lens is generally regarded as being better optically than the power zoom or at least has a smaller amount of sample variation.
 
Well it looks like I will buy the E-PL7 with Pancake lens.

Silver or Black guys? Gonna try and get some freebies chucked in too
 
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