Best Oly Portrait Lens??

[kenwae]

I am curious as to what you think would be the best portrait lens for the E system. I will be doing environmental portraits and using the 40-150 kits lens, for now. But, if I were to upgrade with portraiture in mind, which way would you go? Also, I will be using the FL 50 for fill in flash (w/off camera bracket-left). The manual kind of sucks as far as practical applications and what I found on the net is helpful but related to the E1 and there are some setting differences between that and the E 510 which I am using. So, any pointers to specifics about using the FL 50 and the E510 for outdoor fill in flash is appreciated. Thanks, -Ken

[Mr. Pickles]

It depends on how you want to shoot them, really. A lot of folks will say the 14-45, 14-54, or 12-60 are all in a range that is a "normal" portrait lens. Others will use the 50mm Macro lens for it. Some will even use the 40-150 or 50-200 if they are "far away"...

[Mikkic]

I adore my 50mm--I use it almost exclusively for portrait work...

Just my 2 cents...

[alert_bri]

My favourite portrait lens is actually a Hexanon 57mm f1.2 - this is a great focal length for 4/3rds portraits.

I have a few examples here :
E-400 ~ Hexanon 57mm f1.2 Photo Gallery by Brian Mosley at pbase.com

and here's a favourite (natural light) E-400, 57mm f1.2 :
:


Kind Regards

Brian

[oldugly]

I sure hope it is the 50mm f1.2 Macro, because I just bought one for that reason.

[dannn]

Very nice photo Brian!

[alert_bri]

Thanks Dan,

the A3+ print is even more beautiful...

Kind Regards

Brian

[keepright]

Originally Posted by kenwae

I will be doing environmental portraits and using the 40-150 kits lens, for now. But, if I were to upgrade with portraiture in mind, which way would you go?

If you upgrade, will it still be with an eye to environmental portraits, or would you be looking at more of a 'straight' style?

Normally I'd say that the 50f/2 is a great portrait lens, but I'm not sure it allows enough 'environment.' (Since you're using the 40-150 now, I suppose you can make it work. ) It has the extra advantage of being smaller and less intimidating than the 35-100, which is the lens that I would probably use.

The 35-100 is a great lens, and very flexible, but it's also a little more expensive than the 50mm macro. It comes down to how you plan to use it and what you can afford. But for environmental portraits, it's more important that the lens gives you the creative options that suit your photography -- I can also see the 11-22 or even the fisheye producing great environmental portraits.

[Paul Shields]

From my experience I don't think you'll go wrong with the ZD 50mm f/2. I've also really enjoyed taking portraits with the 150mm f/2, even though it seems like such a long lens for this style. I've still to get to use the 35-100mm f/2 in this context but will remedy that once the weather improves (I use this excuse for all my photography ). At the slightly cheaper end, the 14-52mm and the 12-60mm seem very well designed for this from shots I've seen as well as those I've taken myself. A great compromise is the 50-200mm - lots of focal length for that creamy background.

If you want to be a bit more adventurous then Brian's shot above is an excellent example. The 4:3rds design is really adaptable to 'legacy' manual focus lenses, which is a fascinating area to explore.

Personally I like longer focal lengths when doing portraits. They have the dual advantage of being a bit more flattering and easier to control shallow depth of field (not that this is a requirement all the time). Some examples:

50-200mm





Legacy 50mm OM lens at f/1.8


12-60mm

[alert_bri]

Cracking shots there Paul, here's one from this afternoon - with my favourite portrait lens... and my favourite subject

E-3, Hexanon 57mm f1.2 @f2.8



Kind Regards

Brian

[Mr. Pickles]

Might just be me, but there is a great collection of portraits gathering in here....

[Paul Shields]

Beautiful pastel shades Brian. I'll put it all down to that lens - though I think that E-3 is a lot closer to the E-1 than some people think .

[alert_bri]

Thanks Paul, I'm experimenting with Capture One 4... but can't tear myself away from LightZone for final touches.

And thanks Mr.Pickles - I need to get out and do more portraits though... it's one of the best things about the UK Photo Safari Group outings, I get to scoot around taking portraits all day long

Kind Regards

Brian

[phrounds]

From dpreview.com
Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 12-60mm 1:2.8-4.0 SWD Lens Review: 4. Conclusion & samples: Digital Photography Review

"Indeed the Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 12-60mm F2.8-4.0 SWD is quite simply a superb lens, which can lay claim to being one of the very best standard zooms currently available. This is a design which would have been almost unimaginable even five years ago; a 5x wideangle to telephoto zoom which, though the use of some exotic optics, manages to perform almost flawlessly across its entire range, and throws in some impressive macro performance too. The relatively fast maximum aperture (a half to a full stop faster than APS-C equivalents such as the Sony Carl Zeiss 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 or Nikon 16-85mm F:3.5-5.6 VR), coupled with the excellent wide-open performance, also allows the use of lower ISOs at equivalent light levels for maximum image quality."

Respectfully,
phrounds

PS: My son and I are Olympus fans and together we're exploring the wonder of his new E-510!

[Paul Shields]

Agreed, the 12-60mm is lovely. I doubt if there's much difference between it and the 14-54mm when the focal lengths match, but the extra width and extra length are useful. It's also amazingly fast to focus - particularly on the E-3.

[SecondFocus]

Superb photos here! Wow!

[SecondFocus]

The 12-60 does a great job and would give you a lot of versatility...