I am brand new to photography. I bought a brand new Nikon Z fc, a couple of kit lenses and a viltrox prime back in April. The purpose of this purchase was film myself playing and recording music but I quickly found myself using it to take photos and carrying it everywhere. I enjoyed learning with this camera, but I happened to pick up a used EM-1 Mk2 at the end of May and wow! I haven’t picked up my Nikon for a month and a half and I have been hunting down used Olympus glass. I can’t believe how sharp the images are and how easy it is to get great shots handheld.
Joining this forum to get input from experienced MFT users and Lens recommendations.
The Olympus glass is excellent and one of the greatest contributions to the quality of photographs taken using the Oly kit is the exceptional
IS that the E-M1 offers. Being able to hand-hold for quite a few seconds and get pin-sharp images is a real bonus; furthermore, it's wonderful being able to shoot at low speeds in poor light and know that photos will be sharp and with little noise as you don't need high ISO numbers. I shoot a lot of indoor stuff of camera equipment and since owning the E-M1 MkII & III I haven't needed to use a flash once.
One great thing about the Olympus range of glass is that you can cover a huge focal range with just a few lenses as their zooms are generally excellent. I mostly use the Pro lenses - both primes and zooms - but if the weather is good (the weatherproofing in the Pro range is superb but you're paying a lot more for it) I will take out the 9-18mm and my old version of the 14-150mm and between just those two little beauties, you are covering 18mm to 300mm (in old 35mm terms) and with the
IS of your MkII, you don't need to worry about their small maximum aperture settings. There is a much-forgotten little gem of a standard zoom in the form of the 12-50mm which has a degree of weatherproofing AND a useful macro capability - a good used copy should represent very good value. My favourite Pro zooms are the 12-40, 14-150 f2.8 and 100-400 and for the latter two I will always carry the 1.4x Tele converter which will provide that extra reach without degrading quality. All the Olympus Macro lenses are excellent too.
I must also place a shout for a Panasonic Lumix lens, the Leica 10-25 f1.7 - it is stunning. With such a large, constant maximum aperture it is a BIG lens but for sheer optical quality, Olympus has nothing to match it. It ain't cheap - but my goodness it delivers. Although I winced at the price of such a short zoom, I have never regretted buying it.
You are going to have a lot of fun exploring the Olympus/OM-D world - and then there are also all those legacy lenses which can be used via adapters, again benefitting from your camera's
IS. Magic!
