Olympus zuiko 70 300 f4-5.6 quick review

[charles_reid]

After telling myself i would NOT spend 400 on a lens this week (ya you guys

know how this goes already right?) I called Ball photo in asheville. Being the

person-who-knows-all-things i told myself that merely requesting they try to

match the Amazon/Net price for the lens would Assure they wouldnt meet my price

and thus.. i would not spend $400 this week i could spend to help my pregnant

sister, save the world from hunger, donate to Barack etc.

 

The bastich's screwed me. They came down to very close to what id have paid to

have amazon ship the lens in a week. How underhanded can you get? Not only that

i talked a woman there to have her old prosumer camera cleaned into buying an

e410. And yet they laughed when i demanded a lens as commission!

 

Anyway i left the store already having buyers remorse. The lens doesnt look

special. Its big compared to the kit lenses of course. Its even bigger than my

sigma nikon mount 300mm zoom though microscopic compared to my sigma 400. It

feels Very well constructed, just as the kit lenses, probably better.

 

Looking through the lens it doesnt look like anything special. Though my

self-installed focusing screen is um... dusty i expected more clarity through

the viewfinder. But as id just whacked out $400 i thought id go to a park and

shoot some shots.

 

One thing i noticed quickly was the focus hunt problem. It isnt horrendous by

far or even that common. But it is quite noticeable and annoying. It seems to be

fairly random actually as sometimes the lens would focus lightning fast in

slightly darker situations and at other times hunt a bit in Bright situations.

But to be honest this is far from a deal killer. You might very well miss 2 out

of a hundred shots. But we lose far more shots than that if we're honest to bad

framing or other choices so its acceptable IF the lens is sharp.

 

And on that score judge for yourself :

 

Please note that these are all handheld shots with an e510. Some aperture

priority mostly auto. I didnt use a monopod and indeed didnt even use standard

long lens bracing techniques. Most of the shots i took are even wide open,

though i didnt notice any problem at all in the bright sunlight with blurryness

or hunting.

 

Imho the results are astonishing. This is literally the sharpest lens ive ever

shot anywhere near this focal length. It doesnt just blow away my sigma and

tamron lenses they arent even within light years of the sharpness. It is far far

far sharper than the kit lenses (as i had hoped) which is pretty nifty when you

realise that on other cameras the shorter focal length kit lenses would sell for

near what this lens sells for.

 

The "candid" picture of the fisherman were taken from perhaps 50-100 feet

standing up handheld in bright sunlight. The cardinal and bluejay were taken

from various distances between 20 and 50 feet handheld and , again , standing up

with no bracing. The "macros" were taken at from one to five feeet away with no

"macro filters" though i did often have to manually focus. That actually

astonished me. This lens simply shouldnt be able to do that. Add that macro is

almost always done with a tripod or some sort of bracing and even those were

handheld by a guy with permanent caffeineshake.

 

Conclusion - if you have an oly and dont buy this lens you're a fool. Given the

money and choice id buy this lens first then consider the shorter 200 for its

fast focusing. I hope to eventually match this lens with the 2x or 1.4 converter

depending on in-hand comparisons to top out at 600/1200equiv mm which should

frankly complete my kit except for an ultrawide lens (Dear lord im seriously

going to take up gold collecting to save money).

 

This lens imho beats anything available for any slr in its price range by a mile

and comparing apples to apples is a match for the Canon 400/4 (both equiv to

about a 600mm with the canon a hair brighter and inbody vs in camera stabilisation).

 

If you were in any doubt whatsoever buy this lens. With the kit lenses and this

(you could even forego the 45--150) this gives you a complete kit up to 300mm.

 

[GerrySiegel]

Very nice, Charles. I would wonder,(niggling issue), if adding a teleconverter, as you plan, might make the focus problem more problematic because of loss of aperture. Just a speculation. Worth a try though. I have been thinking of this optic for a while since I have only occasional need for long teles. . Olympus offers some tantalizing choices -as you discovered. Thanks for the sample shots. Impressive indeed. And the price aint half bad.

[val_kelly1]

I have the 70-300 and I love it. I also bought the teleconverter 1.4 which takes really good photos with a tripod but I have also taken good sphotos by hand hold but there are misses if your not really stable. I would not be without them Ive taken really nice photos of birds in midstride. Love it.Have fun val kelly

[ilkka]

Another happy 70-300 owner. Fully agree on its value for money. The focus hunting is made a bit worse by the long focusing range, down to 1:3. But that is a strong benefit as well, so cannot complain too much.

[lmcginnis]

I am new to this, and I am anticipating the purchase of this lens. It is suppose to be coming tomorrow. Thanks for your opinions, I feel good about the purchase I made, and hope it meets all my expectations!

[charles_reid]

Gerry im thinking the same thing. But realistically if you're shooting a 840 or 1200mm equivalent.. AF speed isnt even going to be in the ballpark of your problems. Even shooting 1000mm equiv you (or I rather) need a cable release, mirror lock etc etc to be sure. At 800mm you nearly always need a shutter release to maintain sharpness and just FINDING what you're trying to shoot is a problem!

 

As long as the 2x maintains sharpness i'll be happy. Total $800 for 140-1200equiv at f4-11ish ultrasharp is one heck of a deal and imho better than the less sharp but quasi-idiotproof Bigma is one heck of a deal.

 

Now to get off my butt and sell my nikon tamron 70-300 and maybe my sigma 400 and i could be well on my way to the 2x!

[bobrock]

With 2x converter won't your max aperture be F8 Charles

[ilkka]

With a 2x extender it would indeed be 140-600 F8-11. Considering that the lens is already slow at focusing wide open (at 4-5.6) and 2x extenders usually lose a lot of image quality, much more than 1.4x extenders, I would not recommend this setup for regular use.

[charles_reid]

Old post but i was considering the 70-300 without telecon at low range up to telecon with at top end.