Advice on lens for Olympus OM1n

Hi, I have recently started shooting film on an OM1n and am looking to get a lens with more focal length. Currently I have a 50mm, which came with the camera.
I have been looking at Olympus lenses, all similar condition and price (£30-£40) currently I have seen a 75-150mm f4, 135mm f3.5 and 200mm f5. Has anyone used any of these lenses or has any recommendations or advice of which to go for? I would mainly be shooting landscapes and some wildlife - mainly penguins.

For landscape shots I'd be wanting wider than 50mm .
I typically use the 28mm , though I also have a third party 24mm lens .
Longer than 50mm , I like 135mm , I also have the f/3.5mm which gives good results .
The F/2.8 version is a bit heavier and slightly larger , and it costs more .
The F/3.5 suits me though .
How close can you get to the penguins without disturbing them ?
200mm doesn't sound much if you want to keep your distance .
With manual focus cameras, especially older gear , I tend to avoid the zoom lenses .

PS , welcome to the forum.

Welcome aboard @kathie123!

kathie123 said:

I would mainly be shooting landscapes and some wildlife - mainly penguins.

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For wildlife, get the longest lens you can afford. Wildlife tends to be too far away for the perfect shot, no matter how close you can get.

For landscapes, anything can work, from the shortest lens you can get for your system right up to the longest. It really depends on what you want to photograph. Personally, I like to carry something in the 24-35mm range and something around 100-135mm. Neither will be of much use with the penguins, though.

My favorite non-50mm OM lenses are the 28 (mine's a 3.5) on the wide end and the 100 2.8 on the long side. Many people swear by the 85 (primarily as a portrait lens), and I'd love to give one a try, though they've become hard to find and pricey. I've never got on with the 135 length—just doesn't suit my way of seeing I guess.

neilt3 said:

For landscape shots I'd be wanting wider than 50mm .
I typically use the 28mm , though I also have a third party 24mm lens .
Longer than 50mm , I like 135mm , I also have the f/3.5mm which gives good results .
The F/2.8 version is a bit heavier and slightly larger , and it costs more .
The F/3.5 suits me though .
How close can you get to the penguins without disturbing them ?
200mm doesn't sound much if you want to keep your distance .
With manual focus cameras, especially older gear , I tend to avoid the zoom lenses .

PS , welcome to the forum.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply, that's helpful to know! What third party lenses would you recommend? would they come with OM mount or would i need a convertor?
if you sit quietly the penguins will walk quite closely past you, but you're meant to keep a 6m distance if you are walking past.
Do you know if there are any lenses with a bigger focal length?

Thank you

the Olympus 75-150 was never a good lens. I'm not home but the OM zoom lenses like the 60~210 are way better.

Welcome to Photrio.
I still have the 75-150mm f/4 and 200mm f/5 Olympus Zuiko lenses - they are quite good for what they are designed for, and relatively light and small - both positive factors.
The 75-150 lens is a two touch lens, which I prefer. A Zuiko 60-210 is likely optically better, but also more expensive and bigger.
I used a 135mm f/3.5 Zuiko lens for many years and got results I was very happy with. It too is small and light.
They all use the same 49mm filters and the same lens caps - a real plus.
They are older lenses, and the technical advances that have occurred since then are meaningful, but those lenses will, if in good condition, serve you well.
As for penguins, I don't know whether they would be long enough to fill a frame with a penguin at 6m - it would need to be a big penguin I think.
Longer lenses tend to be special purpose, relatively rare, and relatively expensive.
You will want a lens with an OM mount - not the 4/3 or M4/3 digital camera mount - rather than try to use an adapted lens that starts out with another mount. Adaptors are useful, but using them often imposes a usability challenge.
My question is - do they really have penguins in England?

I think Olympus made some of the 35mm lens out there, but in terms of price I would look for 3rd party lens, like a Vivitar 70 to 200 3.5, S1. by Kiron. I have this lens in both M42 and Konica, very sharp, not quite as fast as a 2.8 but close enough, and it sharp from 3.5 to 16. Only drawback is that is heavy. When looking for Vivitar S1 check the serial number as you will want an early model. For wide, another 3rd party lens is the Vivitar 28 1.9.

Hello and welcome to the forum, Kathie.

For landscape, I would favor wide-angle lenses. Olympus has plenty of them and for landscape, you don't need the fastest.

For wild life and penguins, at the opposite, I would suggest a tele lens and to be more versatile, a tele zoom. To play it safe, I would stay away from third-party tele zooms and stick with Olympus (Zuiko). For several years, they sold a f/5 85-250mm lens. You can find it used and it won't break the bank. Make sure you get the tripod collar as you will need it.

If 250mm is too short for your taste, Olympus (Zuiko) has fixed-focal lenses of 300mm, 400mm...

The 35mm lens is worth a look

I think many of the primes are good lenses and my recommendation would be to go for the slower (cheaper) ones unless you need a fast one. There is one zoom lens that stands out for me in quality which is the 35-70mm f/3.6 but they used to be rare and pricey so you'd have to check on current prices.

For wildlife, penguins, birds, ... you can never have a long enough lens.
I have several Olympus Zuiko lenses, (among others) the 135mm f/3.5, the 200mm f/4 with 2X-A teleconverter, the 85-250 f/5 MC and the 300mm f/4.5.
All Zuikos perform really well and in pretty much all cases they are much better than off-brand lenses. You can't go wrong with most of them.
One specific exception is said to be the 65-200mm because that model seems to be plagued with haze in the rear element which supposedly can not be cleaned or repaired.
I have no experience with that lens but I'd advise to just stay away from it.

While I really love my 200mm f/4 and 300mm f/4.5, the Zuiko 85-250mm is the most versatile of the bunch and an excellent performer, especially considering it's a zoom lens.
Not much distortion, parfocal (you can zoom in or out without the need to change focus) and a very usable range of focal length. 250mm or 300mm is not a huge difference.
One of the best tele-zoom lenses in the affordable price-range I've used. I dare to say it's at least on par with my much more modern Canon EF 70-300mm IS USM lens image-quality wise.

Should you go with the 200mm, consider that the f/4 was designed to work with the 2X-A Teleconverter and the f/5 was not, should you ever want to buy the teleconverter.
The f/5 will work with the TC, but image quality might not be optimal and focusing might be difficult because the image can become too dark for the focusing patch to work.
The f/4 is a bit more expensive though, and a bit larger plus a 55mm filter size instead of 49mm.

Third-party lenses, while there are good ones around, generally can't keep up with Zuiko glass.
Soligor, Cosina, Vivitar, Panagor, I've tried several of them but so far the Zuikos win every time.

On the wide end, for landscape, I would consider the Zuiko 28mm f/3.5. A budget lens which gives you excellent results which are at least on par if not better compared to the more expensive 28mm f/2.8.
There's also the Zuiko 24mm f/2.8 which is even wider, but usually also much more expensive. I have both the 28mm f/3.5 and the 24mm f/2.8 and image quality is pretty similar IMO.
The 28mm f/3.5 is just much more affordable usually.

I'd just keep my eye out for any of the above Zuiko lenses on the used market, and make a decision based on what crosses your path for a reasonable price.
Ideally I'd think the 28mm f/3.5 and the 85-250mm f/5 would make a great combination for your needs, but a 200mm f/5 (or f/4) could also fit.
The 135mm, while a great portrait lens IMO, is probably too short for your intended use. Unless you pair it with the 2X-A teleconverter. But then I'd probably still prefer any of the 200mm's...

My most frequently used Zuikos are the wonderful 100/2.8 and the 35/2. Both are solid performers, especially the 100.

(I got both of these lenses for my OM-2n after growing up using non-AI Nikons... and loving the classic Nikkor 105/2.5 and 35/2. These Zuikos deliver similar results in smaller/lighter packages.)

For years I had - and now miss - the Zuiko 28/2.8. I now have the 24/2.8 in its place, but I find it's often TOO wide, whereas the 28's images don't scream WIDE-ANGLE. I had the 135/3.5 for a while too, but I never got comfortable with it. I'm more of a wide-angle than long-lens guy.

Keep an eye on this dealer - I've seen almost all the discussed Zuiko lenses turn up there for decent prices, and based on the gear I've bought from them (Nikkormat FTn, Nikkor 135/3.5,, 200/4, etc.), their GOOD rating is close to EXCELLENT:

kathie123 said:

Thanks for your reply, that's helpful to know! What third party lenses would you recommend? would they come with OM mount or would i need a convertor?
if you sit quietly the penguins will walk quite closely past you, but you're meant to keep a 6m distance if you are walking past.
Do you know if there are any lenses with a bigger focal length?

Thank you

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Olympus made lenses upto 1000mm F/11 . Would that be long enough ?!
Though it might take a bit of carrying , plus a heafty tripod .

See this list ;

Apart from the 24mm , all my OM mount lenses are Olympus zuiko ones .
The longest I have is 200mm F/4 , after that I use my Tamron adaptall lenses that have interchangeable mounts .
I have the 200mm F/3.5 , 350mm F/5.6 Reflex , 500mm F/8 Reflex , as well as several of the bellows lenses for macro .

My main system for manual focus is Minolta , so I have a large selection of lenses in SR mount , I just have a fairly basic setup for Olympus, mainly the 24mm Hoya in OM mount , 28mm , 35mm , 50mm , 135mm and 200mm along with the bellows lenses made by Olympus, Canon and Minolta .
The higher magnification are RMS mount .

Personally if your after some more lenses I'd suggest getting Olympus ones rather than third party .
The faster lenses have the premium price , the slower lenses are cheaper , but still good quality.

If you have several systems of camera it's worth looking at the Tamron adaptall range of lenses , in particular the "SP" designated models .
"SP" stands for superior performance.
You can use these on all cameras with the correct mount fitted , film and digital .

You probably don't want to know about this, but its out there:
Olympus OM lens brochure
Sorry .

MattKing said:

You probably don't want to know about this, but its out there:
Olympus OM lens brochure
Sorry .

Click to expand...

Just remember you don't really need one of each .
Not really , but until you've tried them all , how do you really know ?

This is an excellent resource for Zuiko lenses.

I have a whole bunch that I regularly use with my OM-1 and OM-4ti. Wonderful lenses.

And of course there is this resource: http://olympus.dementix.org/eSIF/om-sif.htm

@kathie123 , don't be intimidated by all this - just bookmark anything that looks like it might be useful, so you can come back to it later, if appropriate.
I got my first OM-1 when I was in high school, and it was a current offering!
The system tended to build loyalty amongst users.

Welcome!

Unlike most of the wide recommendations for landscape, I favor a short tele for almost everything. The 100 f/2.8 zuiko has served me quite well. I might like the 85/2.0 even better, but have been using my Nikons more than Olympus lately.

75-100mm is my sweet spot. That range just clicks with me. Your experience will vary. And it takes experimentation and using various lenses to find that spot that works for you and your way of seeing the world. Best of luck on that journey.