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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Additionally, when this lens is paired with the newer Olympus bodies like the OM-1, the lens and camera work superbly together with excellent image stabilization and autofocus. The stabilization is most effective when paired with Olympus bodies, where synchronized image stabilization will give you up to 6 stops stabilization. Wildlife photography simply became much easier with a modern lens/camera combo like this. Close Focusing Ability 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. 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. Theres obviously a lot more to think about with this combination. Im interested to see how its close focusing (down to 1.4 metres would you believe) works for dragonflies and other small subjects like lizards, and theres also still the question of how well the auto focus performs over time compared to equivalent DSLR combos.

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. 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 focus capability of the E-M5 MKII just wasn't up to birds in flight, which was something I was keen to have a go at. The lens was so sharp, I even found moire on birds feathers, an issue I’d never encountered before! DC-G9 + OLYMPUS M.300mm f/4 @ 300mm, ISO 800, 1/500, f/4.0 Bokeh Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.The Olympus 300mm f/4.0 IS PRO is admittedly an expensive lens. Does it’s performance make up for the high price tag? Sharpness 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. 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. On average it took the Olympus 300mm f/4.0 IS PRO 0.52 seconds to acquire focus. Interestingly, both the Olympus 100-400mm f/5-6.3 and the Olympus 100-300mm (a relatively old copy, though) took 0.80 seconds on average to acquire focus. In other words, the Olympus 300mm f/4.0 is about 50% faster than my copies of these other lenses. DC-G9 + OLYMPUS M.300mm f/4 @ 300mm, ISO 1000, 1/160, f/4.0 Use with Teleconverters 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.

I think it’s pretty clear what Nicholas is saying here. It’s not just the DOF that is changed, but also total light gathering capacity. In other words, if all else is equal (i.e. exactly the same subject and distance, light, etc.), a 600 f/4 lens on full-frame will gather much more light than a 300 f/4 on micro four thirds. This matters especially in the case of wildlife: in low-light scenarios, a 600 f/4 shot on full-frame will be much less noisy than a 300 f/4 shot on micro four thirds, where both shots have been equalized to the same viewing size. Thus, it makes sense to say that a 300 f/4 on micro four thirds is like a 600 f/8 on full-frame, when you are talking about equalized viewing size in terms of both DOF and noise/total light gathering! (Not light gathering per unit area) It's not just the focal length and aperture that are doubled; the MC-20 also doubles the maximum shooting magnification of the mounted lens, which opens the door for unparalleled super telephoto macro photography.The Olympus 300mm f/4.0 IS PRO is a prime lens fixed at 300mm. There are longer options available for Micro Four Thirds that reach up to 400mm. However, the Olympus 300mm f/4.0 IS PRO is so sharp and high performing it feels like it is over 300mm, simply because the increased sharpness allows more cropping compared to the Olympus 100-300mm f/4-5.6 that I previously used. The sharpness of this lens is truly a thing of beauty. Compared to other telephoto options for Micro Four Thirds I’ve used, the Olympus 300mm f/4.0 IS PRO blows them out of the water in terms of sharpness. 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.