Andrew -- Welcome to the list... what kind of single-malt do you favor? <g>
The 300/4.5 is well-regarded. It is sharp, compact, reasonably fast, and
good handling. For landscape use, you get the nice 'telephoto compression'
of perspective. For wildlife photos, you may find that it is a bit slow...
most wildlife photographers seem to prefer 300/2.8 or 400/4.0 lenses which
are much more expensive, larger and heavier. If you can work with the slower
aperture (using high-speed film, tripod and slower shutter, etc) then the
300/4.5 will work well. I used mine for some motorcycle race pictures, they
came out well once I got the hang of panning with the lens. Luckily I had
enough light for 1/500 and 1/1000 shutter speeds, as the 300 is not a focal
length that is easily hand-held.
The price of US$320 is probably mid-range for this lens, its prices seem to
have dropped a bit from a few years ago. I paid $460 for my mint example
with hard case and caps, which was high then. I've seen good examples on on
*bay auction for ~$275-350... of course much depends on condition. Be sure
you get the tripod mount, it will be appreciated for this lens.
Sounds like you're just getting started with Zuikoholism... but we can stop
any time!
--
Jim Brokaw
OM-'s of all sorts, and no OM-oney...
on 7/3/03 5:45 AM, Andrew L Wendelborn at andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> A couple of questions. How is this lens regarded in its category? If you
> have one, do you use it for things other than the above? I guess it would
> be good for wildlife photos assuming a good setup (as you can see I haven't
> had much experience with a lens like this so looking for guidance!). Do
> people use it for medium distance work very much? I've had interesting
> results using the 150 zoom for macro photos, but I think this one would be
> a bit of overkill for that.
>
> Comments appreciated!
>
> And the price. They want $A480 (about $US 320). I think it's reasonable
> but don't have much to go on.
>
>
> thanks
> Andrew & Rosemary
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|