Beacon Camera Club

Hi folks,
I am thinking of upgrading my camera from the Olympus OMD-EM10 mark 1 to the new OMD-EM5 mark 3 and there are some very good deals around at the moment. I was hoping to get some hands on at the photography show earlier in the year but of course that didn't happen. My trusty EM10 is no longer supported by Olympus and has not had an upgrade since 2016 and amongst other things it does not talk to my phone for remote shooting, I can control the shutter but am unable to see what the camera is seeing. The weather sealing of the new camera along with focus stacking etc are very tempting. My question is the lenses on offer are the 14-150mm f4-5.6, 12-40mm f2.8 pro and the 12-200mm f3.5-6.3 travel zoom. Currently there is the offer of a free 45mm f1.8 portrait lens as an extra plus a spare battery. My preferred genres are landscape, street and macro, apart from the kit lenses which came with the camera I also have the 30mm macro and the 17mm f2.8 prime. I am tempted by the 12-40mm pro which I think will be good for landscape and street, and then look for a decent 2nd hand 75-300mm f4.8-6.7 for wildlife albeit in good lighting only, the 300mm pro sadly being way out of my price range. Has anyone any thoughts or advice?

Hi Marilyn,
The 12-40 PRO is a great lens - a very useful range of focal length, close-focusing, bright, weatherproof, with a useful clutch mechanism for switching between manual and auto focus (you just pull or push the focusing ring to switch modes). It might also be worth looking at the new 12-45 f4 if you want something a bit lighter and smaller to carry around. I don't have any experience of the other lenses you listed, but I think they had good reviews.
John

Thanks for that John the 12-40 pro certainly seems popular with the many Olympus groups online! I thik it would be good for Landscape and street and Architecture.
Marilyn

I thought that I should mention that I went for the Panasonic 35-100 and 100-300 lenses for telephoto. Both excellent lenses, and better than the Olympus lenses available at the time, but unfortunately not compatible with the pro capture feature on new Olympus cameras. Pro capture could be very useful if you intend to do wildlife photography, so it's probably best to stick to Olympus lenses!
John

Also consider the Olympus 9-18; its short/light and would suit an em5 iii well as a walk around lens, but maybe a little small for an em1 ii . I found My hands needed the external grip on an em5, hence I bought a used em1ii. I rarely use tele lenses but have the Panasonic 100-300, but find it sometimes hunts in af, and may be large for an em5. The cheap and cheerful 40-150r performs well above expectation. I use the 12-40 Pro mostly, it is an excellent lens, the clutch works wonderfully.
Many of the Olympus gurus are offering free online 1to1 appointments at the moment during lockdown (via Olympus image space). I found Krisztina Kobanyai helpful.
Best wishes

Thanks for all your advice.