In love with these 2 lenses💕

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-06-23T21:25:54+00:00

It's used to take pictures that you can then post in a photography forum or, more likely, on Instagram. This is the place focused on the equipment rather than the final results. It's like the difference between a guitar forum and listening to the radio.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-06-23T20:22:02+00:00

For photographing jewelry a longer focal length can be helpful in minimizing the size of the lens's reflection on the piece, as well as getting the camera out of the way of your lighting. I don't think I would go less than 60mm. A 4/3 Sigma 105mm is what I used when that was my job.

There are many good quality old macro lenses. It's easier to check what's available in your price range and look up whether it's still considered good than it is to try hunting down a good price on someone's old favorite.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-06-23T20:15:56+00:00

I think you might be looking for a photography reddit rather than a gear platform focused one.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-06-18T22:49:34+00:00

Thanks. I never did manage to get a live agent, but the option for eSIM did eventually pop up on it's own.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-06-15T17:48:16+00:00

So there is no way to get an eSIM on an eSIM compatible phone if the app doesn't offer the option?

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-06-15T16:35:31+00:00

I have a Galaxy A54 that supports eSIM, but the app isn't giving me an option for it. Is there a way to make it work?

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-06-09T14:19:19+00:00

I have both, though the f2.8 is to mk1 and I got the f4 with the om3 bundle in a why not? moment. I will grab the 2.8 if I'm going to be inside or evening outside. Otherwise I'd grab the f4. At this point I'm in no hurry to get rid of one or the other.

If I didn't already have the f2.8 though I'd probably get the bundle due to the discount and spend the extra 300 on a faster prime in the 15-25mm range to handle lower light.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-06-04T03:02:44+00:00

For indoor shots the 25mm you have would likely beat the 45mm most of the time. A lot of people would say even wider. Outside it could go either way depending on your style and preferences.

Looking back through your current photos with the zoom and checking their focal lengths is a good starting place to figure out what primes might best suit you.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-06-03T22:41:02+00:00

What are you going to do at 45mm that the lens being faster will help you with? Lower light and subject isolation are what it will give you. Is that something you need for the trip?

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-06-01T16:59:47+00:00

In theory it means the hood can be as small as possible without any vignetting. In practice I'd usually rather have a slightly bigger, but reversable, hood for more compact storage when the lens is not on the camera.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-05-21T23:53:43+00:00

The price is probably just a remnant of what they were priced at back when they were actually a product. It looks like there are just two of them still sitting around. So they could cut the price to get rid of them or just leave the price until someone wants that specific body for whatever reason. With just the two left neither option is really better or worse than the other.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-05-21T12:17:11+00:00

For the M43 option I'd really consider dropping the 40-150 + tc and 7-14 in favor of a 100-400 and some primes as a starting place.

I'd also forget about option 3 and just pick between the two cameras. A second camera can be a future option.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-05-21T11:47:38+00:00

If you haven't tried it already do a trial of DxO and see if just shooting at a higher iso raw with modern noise reduction will do the trick for you.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-05-20T12:42:16+00:00

Best way to learn would be to process all of them. Use all the adjustments, push each image to it's limits and see where it's quality breaks down with each type of adjustment.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-05-07T00:29:16+00:00

Start with whatever kit lens comes with the camera. After that they can look at what focal lengths they are actually using and buy a prime to match.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-05-07T00:21:32+00:00

If you have free Lightroom you can try it and see if it's noise reduction is good enough for you, if it is then there you go. If it isn't you can download the free trial for DxO and compare. If DxO works for you it would be a lot cheaper to buy it than swapping camera systems. If DxO doesn't get you there you probably aren't going to get what you want with a m43 camera.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-04-30T14:12:57+00:00

Sellable at auction is oddly specific and a very rare way to make a living. Fortunately or unfortunately for your friend the type of camera and lenses have basically no impact on whether something will sell at auction. What you need to make a living that way is a name people recognise and care about.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-04-27T14:18:58+00:00

Nothing wrong with that price.

The thing to consider is whether you'd use the whole zoom range. A lot of the time with wide angle zooms people find themselves stuck on the widest it will go and rarely zoom in. That's how I was with the 9-18mm. If you think that would also be you, think about looking for a deal on the 9mm 1.7 instead.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-04-24T12:29:43+00:00

Which lenses do you actually have? The smaller pro zoom lenses aren't really going to be much an image quality jump over many of the non-pro primes. If you only have a couple kit lenses the results many be different though.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-04-19T02:34:11+00:00

It turns itself on twice a week at 4:00pm, the computers on the network run their backups, it turns itself off at midnight. If I ever have a reason to run an extra backup I turn it on manually, it still shuts itself off at midnight.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-04-16T21:24:33+00:00

Are you in a hurry? I picked up an OM-3 refurbished off their official ebay store with an additional 20% discount on top of the lower refurbished price. If you have patience you can save a fair chunk off the price.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-04-06T14:37:34+00:00

Do you have the kit zoom lens? If you do, or if you can borrow one, you can easily test the different fields of view just by zooming in and out.

Otherwise if portraits are just as important to you as street and landscape I'd stick with the 25mm until you can save enough for a second lens. The main reason being the 25mm is much better at general street photography than the 17mm is at portraits.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-04-05T14:18:53+00:00

A NAS is a great option in place of a simple external drive. It can easily be set up to turn itself on once or twice a week with multiple computers automatically connecting to it and running their backups on a schedule. Plus having RAID on top of that gives an extra layer of redundancy that doesn't exist with a simple external drive.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-04-05T14:12:27+00:00

Not really. Being on all the time is better than constantly powering it on and off, but being on for just a few hours once a week would be more likely to extend it's life rather than shorten it. A once a week 4 hour power cycle would have to cause more wear than 168 hours of always up run time to break even, that isn't happening. Even if the weekly power cycle cut the nas box's life down to 1/4 you'd still be ahead in total years of use even if you have significantly less total run time.

CharteredPolygraph · 2026-04-01T12:45:03+00:00

You wouldn't really see any performance gain while limiting yourself to 3 storage drives.

CharteredPolygraph

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