Some people asked about hiking outfits. For nature photography, I normally
carry the following:
one OM body, Vivitar 70-210/3.5 Series 1 with Nikon 5T and 6T closeup
diopter lenses, a Mamiya Press Deluxe with 2 6x7 backs, a wide angle
and standard lens, and a reflex viewing back, and a Bogen 3221 with ball head.
I had been using the 50mm and 90mm lenses for the Mamiya Press, but
I just decided to sell the 50mm and get a 65mm one instead. 65mm in
6x7 is about like 28mm in 35mm format. But my motivation is that
the 65mm lens is a fair bit less $ tied up in it, and is a very compact,
pancake lens. I might get the 100/3.5 standard to carry with the
65mm lens instead of hte 90mm one as a result. I sometimes throw in
a Tamron 90/2.5 SP macro lens also.
But the total outfit is not really any heavier than some 35mm outfits
I see people carry. Rather than having every last imaginable lens for
every imaginable purpose, I use the tool that best accomplishes the
task at hand for 950f the shots I do. Hence, if I miss 1 shot out of
every 1000 because I don't have an 18mm superwide, well, c'est la vie.
Instead, the majority of landscapes and scenics I do take, will be
6x7 transparencies. And the Mamiya press has rear tilt, so they can
have razor sharp depth of field.
on the other hand, 35mm is better for telephoto shots and closeups,
and so I don't try to do this work in medium format. you might notice
there are no Zuikos in this outfit-- it doesn't really matter whether
Canon/nikon/Leica/Contax/Olympus/etc has the best optics-- the camera is
just an accessory to the Vivitar zoom and tamron macro here.
When I want an even more compact outfit, I just carry a Mamiya C220F TLR
with 55mm, 80mm, and 180mm lenses, and a Bogen 3221S (S = short) with
3030 pan head.
So, why do I use Olympus? In short, I like Olympus for macro work. The
other type of work I do is flower photography, for this I carry
two OM bodies, a 35-70/3.6 Zuiko, Tamron 90/2.5 SP macro, extension tubes,
Tamron 2x flat field teleconvertor (matched to 90/2.5 macro), and
Vivitar S1 70-210/3.5. I am soon going to add a Kiron 1.5x teleconvertor
to that outfit (for use on the 70-210 zoom).
So, right now the 35-70/3.6 is the only Zuiko I own! In the past, I have
had 2 dozen different Zuiko lenses (not all at the same time!) But I've found
it is much more effective to find specific tools for specific jobs rather
than trying to have a 1-size-fits-all camera system. And the total cost
of the equipment is about the same as the large 35mm system I once had,
slightly less actually.
re: extension tubes: Olympus did make some non-auto tubes that are
cheaper than the auto ones. but the good budget solution for tubes
are the current Vivitar ones. you get 12mm, 20mm, and 36mm auto tubes
in OM mount for about the price of a single Olympus auto tube. they
both stop down the lens automatically, but communicate f-stop to the
camera properly for metering as well. If you use a floating element macro,
you may still want the 7mm tube so that you can go just a little past 1:2
while still focusing at or near full extension to put the floating elements
into closeup mode.
Note that I prefer a non-floating element macro lens as a workhorse
lens for macro work. although the 90/2 macro is the better general
purpose lens, and a superb macro lens as well, I find the Tamron 90/2.5
or tokina 90/2.5 macro's to be more convenient for actual macro work. the
reason is that they are *not* floating element lenses, so it doesn't
matter whether extension is in a tube of in the lens helicoid. with
these lenses, extension is extension is extension.
That's assuming I worry about the floating element in the Zuiko.
The Zuiko macros are so good that it isn't clear you have to worry about it.
the tamron 90/2.5 Macro, both 49mm and 55mm filter thread versions are
outstanding macro lenses. The 49mm one is a compact design that is thus
right at home in an Olympus camera bag.
Joseph Albert
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