Lens problem?

Rich E500

Rich E500

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Rich
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When using my 17-45 lens I can never get the picture really crisp. I thought it was maybe the picture quallity setting, but I tried changing that and it didn't help. The auto focus works ok, but just doesn't quite get it sharp enough. I tried my other lens and that seemed to focus nicely, so I would say it is defo a problem with the lens and not the camera.

What could be the cause of it and is it fixable?

(Olympus E500 by the way)
 
Difficult to tell without some examples with 100% crops and details of settings you used, preferably shot on a tripod.

I'm not a Oly user, but from cursory googling, the 17-45 seems to be, er, a bit cheap (£75?). Kit lenses that come with a camera often don't bear close inspection.

What other lens are you comparing it with?

How does your copy compare with this http://www.biofos.com/esystem/1745test.html ?
 
Hi Rich. As a former E500 user I had a similar issue with the kit lens. The autofocus was really fast and looked fine in the viewfinder. The photos never looked as sharp as I wanted them though.
The reason I moved away from the Olympus camera was the cost of lenses. It's enough to scare tinks out of a tent. I compromised by buying OM lenses and an adapter which helped loads. I managed to borrow a 50mm four thirds lens to try and was blown away by the difference. The lens I borrowed came in at about £400 though, too rich for my beginners blood.
 
I just looked them up and your right, a tad pricey for my pocket just now. Are there any other makes of camera/lens that I could go for with an adaptor or whatever?
 
You can buy all manner of lenses and adapters for most cameras. I bought some old OM lenses very cheaply, and even got a free camera with one. The downside is you lose some of the automatic functions on the camera. The lens won't autofocus, you have to set the aperture manually. This was actually a good thing for me, as I was forced to learn how to use the camera in manual mode. Unfortunately my eyesight isn't what it could be and I had quite a lot of out of focus shots.
This thread has a recommendation for the Tamron Adaptall-2 range. It might be a good starting point too.
 
Is OM the type of lens used on film cameras? And what type of adapter did you need to make it fit?

What would be a good replacement for my 17-45 lens in the OM range?
 
This is the one I bought, but there are plenty of others out there. You can even pay silly money and buy chipped ones with AF confirm.
I replaced my kit lens with a 28mm, a 50mm, and a 75-300mm zoom. These lenses gave me more functionality, and once I got the hang of focusing properly allowed me to get more out of my camera.
There are stacks of cheap lenses out there, but a fair amount of dross too.
 
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