Telephoto options

[john.bessa]

I am getting anxious -- I need a 75mm (or longer) by the holidays for the Pen E-PL1 I got for the better half -- she is an animal lover, and now holder of the better camera!

Searching on E-Pre/ay has been disappointing, especially after so many RF and SLR bargains over the past few years.

I like the look of the canon, etc television zooms, but I don't think she will like the bulk, especially in the woods when trading lenses.

F2 or less would be nice as many animals come out at dusk.

What would be the best strategy?

 

[lobbster]

i have the 17-102 canon tv zoom and im very pleased with its performance. it has very nice colours and f2 over the whole range is nice. and on the olympus' with electronic image stabilisation you get full coverage on video mode with slight vignette

 

[Denverdad]

Are you still looking? I can only speak to what I know about - namely, Canon FD lenses. In that lineup the short teles that would be most applicable are the 85mm f/1.8, 85mm f/1.2 L, 100mm f/2.0 and 135mm f/2.0. Obviously, none of those would work if a zoom lens is an important requirement (in which case you can disregard the rest of my lens suggestions too!).

If I can make another wild assumption, do I infer from "animal lover" and "in the woods" that she has an interest in wildlife shooting? If that is the case, then longer teles might be even more appropriate, at least to the extent that the bulk, weight, and maximum aperture are still within her expectations. Along those lines, the 200mm f/2.8 (get the internal focus one if you can), and the 300mm f/4 L lenses come to mind. But again, these are larger and heavier lenses which might not fit her requirements.

Since I am probably out on a limb anyway, I have to say that the the Canon FDn 300mm f/2.8 L lens is an absolutely fantastic lens when coupled to any of today's mirrorless digicams, given it's great reach on the smaller format sensors and its superb image quality even wide open. It is of course a bit of a stretch for anyone accustomed to compact lenses, and really requires a step up in technique and commitment to use well. It is also rather more expensive than the other options. I only mention it because I like mine so much when used with my G1! 😀

Finally - and you may know this already - when looking at any of the TV lenses, don't forget to check that the image circle is sufficiently large to cover the u-4/3 sensor format, otherwise she could end up with strong vignetting.

Jeff