Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300 mm F4.0 PRO Lens, Telephoto Zoom, Suitable for All MFT Cameras (Olympus OM-D & PEN Models, Panasonic G Series), Black

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Our primary interest in this lens is from the perspective of shooting birds, so the lens first real test was a Treecreeper close to our local canal. This kind of no-nonsense functionality usually makes teleconverters a bit boring to write about. However, when it comes to Micro Four Thirds (MFT), teleconverters suddenly become a whole lot more exciting. Of course the caveat, as with any teleconverter on any format, is a reduced maximum aperture of a given lens. A 2x converter results in a 2-stop reduction, meaning that the 40-150mm f/2.8 becomes an 80-300mm f/5.6, and so on.

The stabilisation on the lens combined with the camera body stabilisation continues to amaze me to the point where I rarely take a tripod out with me now.At the time these shots were taken, I was still waiting for the teleconverter to arrive, so the shots were with just the 300mm lens, mounted on an Olympus EM-5 MKII. To benefit from the dual IS you need to pair it with an Olympus body, other makes are not compatible meaning you have to select lens or camera IS The only handling flaw I noticed in my time with this lens involves the focus ring. The ring rotates very smoothly, but the lens easily switches from autofocus to manual-only by sliding the focus ring into the manual position. Pair it with the Olympus OM-D E-M1X and you also get the benefit of Sync IS (which employs the in-body and in-lens stabilization in tandem) that gives you 5 stops of image stabilization – meaning that you can shoot without a tripod.A 1200mm lens you can use handheld? That alone is worth the price of admission.

There is a minute improvement in sharpness between f/4.0 and f/5.6 which is really only noticeable in lab-like conditions. I was able to take full advantage of the f/4.0 maximum aperture without worrying about paying a price in sharpness.

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It's a fantastic performer that, thanks to the optimum optical design of its master lenses, produces fantastic images that would otherwise be impossible to achieve on the system. I should add that uploading the lower image to my blog seemed to soften it a bit, the image is actually even sharper than this. Autofocus becomes slightly slower with the teleconverters, especially in challenging conditions. Again, in my tests, the Olympus 300mm f/4.0 IS PRO on its own focused on the distant wall in 0.52 seconds on average. With the MC-14, that jumped to 0.72 seconds, and with the MC-20, it took 0.87 seconds on average to focus on the same wall in the same light conditions. This difference was definitely apparent when using the teleconverters in real-world situations, too. I would recommend using them only when the light is plentiful. DC-G9 + M.300mm f/4 + MC-14 @ 420mm, ISO 400, 1/400, f/5.6 In the Field: Wildlife Photography I've now had the 300mm F4 Pro for a little over 3 months. The main development has been that I've upgraded to the Olympus E-M1 MKII as the auto...

The Olympus 300mm f/4.0 IS PRO stands out in performance among telephoto lenses for Micro Four Thirds. Of course, the steep price tag also stands out. Some cheaper alternatives with similar focal lengths include the Olympus 100-400 f/5-6.3, Olympus 100-300 f/4.0-5.6, and the Panasonic 100-400f/4-6.3. Each of these options has a narrower maximum aperture and slower autofocus than the Olympus 300mm f/4.0 IS PRO, but they do have the advantage of zooming. The teleconverter doubles the focal length of the master lens, which in the case of the 150-400mm results in an astonishing reach of 2000mm (working in tandem with the lens' integrated 1.25x teleconverter). As you can imagine, the ability to achieve such extraordinary reach made it much easier to capture shots of lions, elephants, cheetah and other animals that don't take kindly to people getting too close. Having used this lens for 2.5 years now, I can second what has been written so far. I would like to add the following positive aspects For good measure, I did a simple autofocus test with the OM-1 to see how long it took to focus from the minimum focusing distance to a distant wall. I did the same with the Olympus 100-400 f/5-6.3 and the Olympus 100-300 f/4-5.6. These are my results.

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An autofocus range switch is located on the side of the lens. It can be switched from 1.4-4m, 1.4m-infinity, and 4m to infinity. This helps limit any autofocus hunting behavior; I found it especially helpful when photographing subjects at close range. There is also an image stabilization switch on the side of the lens, as well as an LN-f function button. You’re right in the sense that a 300mm f/4 lens will always be 300mm f/4, regardless of the sensor behind it – but the concept of a crop factor is still useful in practical terms. Nicholas is right that it applies to both focal length and aperture. (It also applies to ISO, but with a [crop factor This first shot of a swift in flight I'm particularly pleased with and for me confirms that the Olympus MFT set up can now compete with Canon and Nikon for shooting wildlife. As a macro and herp photographer, I am also impressed by the 1.4m minimum focusing distance on the Olympus 300mm f/4. At such a close range, this allows for an image reproduction ratio of 1:4, which is much greater than you’ll usually find on a long telephoto lens. Combined with the maximum aperture, this can create a very nice bokeh and a ‘telephoto look’ for portraits of smaller animals. And the 2x crop factor of Micro Four Thirds means you can fill the frame with very small subjects. DC-G9 + OLYMPUS M.300mm f/4 @ 300mm, ISO 125, 1/200, f/4.0 Competition For the price difference between the two lenses, we would absolutely recommend the MC-20 –not only does it deliver super telephoto range for sports and wildlife shooting, it also doubles the magnification for super telephoto macro shooting.