John/All;
I just returned from holiday on which I used the originally mentioned
Tamron 70~150 and have to say that were it not for 'losing' the filter
when zoomed to 70mm, this lens would be a definite keeper and may be
despite that.
It has a couple advantages (IMO, of course) over the Oly 75~150:
- Focuses to .7m/2.3ft vs. 1.6m/5.2ft for the Oly and results are
remarkably good in close.
- Tamron is multicoated and apparently very few if any of the Oly examples are.
Andrew, the Vivitar you mention is indeed a good lens but uses 52mm
filters. BTW, it was made by Kino.
The 49mm filter limitation is clearly self imposed. It's clear that
one can build an OM kit based on 55mm filters and, from what I can
see, premium lenses. I intend my kit to be used for leisure, i.e.,
personal shooting. I want something that is small and simple so I'll
be encouraged to grab it on the way out of the house. Multiple filter
sizes, larger diameter lenses, etc., as fine as they might be, work
against my goals. And, coincidentally, my budget.
>From what I've been able to determine, 49mm choices for this zoom
range come down to the Oly and Tamron and it looks like the virtues of
the latter outweigh the former for my uses.
FWIW, I initially planned to get an Oly 85 or 100 but realized that in
practical use a zoom is far more handy in this range, so . . . .
And I pretty much already guessed that a non-rotating front element
was a pipe dream. ;o)
Thanks!/ScottGee1
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