200mm lens are not the sort of thing you use everyday that's for sure but they have their place in the photographic scheme of thing such as Landscapes - mountain images - where their stacked perspective is easily recognizable 0r for sports photography.This is the Zuiko F4 which as such lenses go is quite light so you can use it handheld although support in the form of Monopods or Tripods really is best as the greater magnification increases the risk of camera shake.I bought mine in May 1997 and really like it's quality.
This is the classic Zuiko 135mm F3.5 moderate telephoto lens good for sports, isolating people at events and air shows.
Although this is half a F stop slower compared to the regular F2.8 version the viewfinder is such you can't notice it and you save quite a bit of weight together with the advantage of using the same size filter thread (49mm) as your wide angle lenses. It makes for an easy to use lens handheld as well as on the tripod.
As standard you got the 50mm F1.8 lens whenever you bought a new Olympus camera and many used are sold with one.
I find them very useful for nature photography and the Olympus one is really clear and can be used with Teleplus's 2x Macro converter for 1:1 close ups if you don't own a dedicated macro lens.
I wouldn't be without it.
I consider wide angle lenses to be a basic requirement allowing you the opportunity to take broad landscapes, photograph groups of people at social functions as well as travel pictures and have two for the Olympus OM bodies I use.
In general I am not given to using standard zoom as I find the image quality falls below that which is obtainable from so called fixed length lens and many have the apertures varying as you zoom which messes up manual and spot metering readings.
As I use a tripod making small adjustments to frame the image and keeping it all level is not a big deal to me
For general landscapes I use the Olympus Zuiko 28mm F2.8 pictured below a lot liking its colour renditions and ease of use. The construction of Olympus's own lens is extremely good being all metal.
Another good feature of them is the aperture settings are at the front making for rapid focusing and metering while you are looking through the viewfinder.
I bought this lens in September 1996 for the OM10 when I was test driving it.
My first love though is the 35mm F2.8 which I bought around 2002 from Camtech over the phone.
I found whenever I used a zoom most of time I was using around this focal length because it's ideal for travel photograph and has less of a problem with converging verticals when you photograph buildings. Although the edges wide open are slightly soft they come in by F8 and it looks really good. Some say they found the contrast a bit low but honestly I've never found it on the films I've used (Velvia 50/Reala 100).
I got mine boxed with the case and thin front cape used and love it.
