Calling all photography experts

I need your help/advice please ladies and gents - Mrs C has a Panasonic Lumix G2 (pretty sure its a G2), anyway I know its a four thirds fellow, and I was wondering if there was a macro lens available to fit it without spending an absolute fortune?

Just thinking about the fat man in a red suit coming.......

 

I don't quite get that - the Panasonic lens is £549 - - surely that lens at £20 isn't going to be the same?

 

What about something like this or am I completely barking up the wrong tree?

I am the first to admit that I know less than now't when it comes to stuff like this.

 

For the amount of use it would get, the add on would probably be fine - assuming that it actually works without destroying the picture quality completely.

Spending £549 on a lens for occasional use is a non-starter.

I shall await Armandii's expertise.

 

Thanks for the call, mowgley.

Hi FC, sorry for the delay in replying. You're right the G2 is a micro four thirds sensor camera and it's a quality camera.
Firstly you have to consider [and you probably already have] your budget and whether you want to buy new, buy second hand, Panasonic lens or third party or opt for close up filters as suggested. To be honest I would not go for close up filters as the image quality can be not as good as required. Has it got the 14-42mm f3.5-f5.6 zoom lens on it?
There are other things to consider as well, so excuse the quizzing but how good a photographer is Mrs C?.......if she's got a G2 then I would logically think she's a fairly knowledgeable enthusiastic photographer. Also what kind of macro photography does she want to do, general?, flowers? insects? etc, and how often does she take pics? , because on the answer will depend how much it'll will strain your budget if you're willing.
Let me tell you some of the second hand older glass are of high quality and can be in mint condition without costing an "arm and a leg". I've got around 17 lenses now for specific purposes and around 4 macro's for different situations....all of them second hand in mint condition and high quality so you really can buy a suitable lens second hand fairly cheaply.

Some good second hand macro lenses for the G2 are:

Pana/Leica 45mm f2.8, Olympus 35mm f3.5 and 50mm f2 [the last two would require the extra expense of an adapter but are great lenses].

One trick I use for macro photography where the subject will fly away when you poke a lens at it is to use a telephoto lens that will focus down to around 1.5 meters or less and that will give a shallow depth of field, the magnification to get a close up in macro mode plus you can use it in the telephoto mode!!. I took the following shots using a 20 year old second hand 80-320mm Pentax telephoto lens which cost me less than £80 so new is not always the best .......but it is the most expensive.




It is difficult for anyone to recommend what path for you to follow as buying for the other half can be quite complex, giving your want to buy the best and exceed the budget!!!

 

Thanks @ARMANDII

Mrs C has gone off to work now, so I can get my paws on the camera to give the right info (as said, camera stuff is double-dutch to me, much as I have tried to learn it, my head just doesn't want to know)

Right, the camera is confirmed as a DMC-G2. There are 2 lenses currently in the family, a 45-200, 3ft to infinty, with Panny's Optical Image Stabilisation (am I right in saying that this is a zoom/telephoto lens?); the other is a 14-42, 1ft to infinity.

She is a good photographer, and her job involves processing/printing photogragphs, however her use is very much general use (home, garden, parties & gatherings etc); the macro images that she is likely to take would be flowers and insects in the garden (or anything else that makes her go "Oooooh, let me get my camera")

As for budget, well I am not really sure - - £20 seems too cheap to me, and being ebay I wouldn't go near it anyway (I just do not trust ebay, and although I know that there are really good sellers/bargains on there, the risks outweigh the benefits to me); having said all that, I don't want to spend a mint either, as I don't think that its usage will be huge.

 

Hi FC,

You're right about the £20 "close up Macro and Wide Angle lens" I think it would be £20 of disappointment.

So far I have bought all my lenses [not including the two kit lenses that came with my K5] from E-bay and I must admit I was full of trepidation on the first couple of buys. However they proved to be in mint condition and worked perfectly. So I basically searched out recommended sellers and bought from them as and when they had a suitable lens. But if you're not happy and have no confidence in that path then don't go there. I would recommend that you pop into your local camera shop [if you've got one] and have a look to see if they have a reasonably priced second hand one.

You're right. the 45-200mm is a "zoom telephoto lens" while the 14-42 is a wide angle lens.

Doing just a little research I noticed that Mifsuds [01803 852400] have an Olympus 50mm f3.5 macro second hand lens for £99 and Ffordes [01463 783850] have some Olympus 50mm f3.5 macro second lenses from £75 to £119 and an Olympus 80mm f4 second hand macro lens for £175. I do prefer a macro lens of around the last size as it works for me. I've done business with both of them and they're reputable. If you do enquire about the lenses then just check that they will fit the G2 or if you need an adapter.

There is another option but not as good as a macro lens and that is using an extension tube which goes between the lens and the camera body. However the negative side to that is that while cheaper than buying a macro lens you "lose" some of the light gathering qualities of the lens and it would have manually focused etc as the lens will not be able to "talk" to the camera.

 

Champion - do either of those companies have websites @ARMANDII, or are they telephone only? As far as I know, there is only one wee camera shop locally (if its still there) - sadly, like most other things nowadays they are a dying breed.

And do the likes of the 50mm or 80mm lenses you mention simply screw into the front of the existing lenses?

 

I must admit one of the reasons I like the K5 is that the image stabilisation is in the camera and not the lenses and so works well with the legacy lenses.

 

Hi FC,

Both have web sites:

www.mifsuds.com for general and e-mail [email protected]

and Ffordes e-mail is [email protected]

I believe they do but I'm not absolutely, positively, definitely sure as I'm not a fourth thirds man so that's why I strongly recommend that you talk to them by some means but I assure you that they are quality lenses and your Good Lady would be pleased with them. If they do need an adapter it's not a bad thing as it will open up the range of lenses that you might want to buy Mrs C in the future. Let us all know how you get on.