Tiger by Robin Wong, © Robin Wong 2016
I am not a nature photographer. Or, perhaps more accurately, I'm not a telephoto nature photographer. I imagine it is more or less because I don't have the right gear to do it. I don't own a 600mm f4 for my Nikon (it's a $12,000 lens!). I also don't have a 600mm equivalent lens for my iPhone or Olympus E-M5.
Come to the rescue: Olympus 300mm f4. If you've followed me, I really enjoy shooting with Micro Four Thirds. One of its advantages is the "crop factor" (though I dislike that term; it is a bit of a misnomer). A rule of thumb is multiple by 2 the focal length of a Micro Four Thirds lens to give you the 35mm equivalence focal length. You'll read a whole lot of nonsense about this but it gives you a general idea of the field of view between the two formats.
Coming in at about $2400, the Olympus 300mm f4 gives you the field of view of a 600mm but super (or relatively) compact. And as Robin Wong writes:
“If you have scrutinized the sample images as shown above, I think you can predict what I am going to say about the lens sharpness. It is extremely sharp. The sharpness was so incredible you can immediately tell the difference in terms of details clarity just by reviewing the images on the camera LCD screen (was on an E-M1). The level of fine details captured was beyond anything I have witnessed so far coming from Olympus lenses. Yes, someone will ask how does this 300mm PRO lens compare with the two sharpest lenses from Olympus, the 75mm F1.8 and 40-150mm F2.8 PRO. The 300mm F4 PRO beats both the aforementioned lenses.”
While I haven't shot with this lens, as a fan of incredible technology, this lens is really impressive. Perhaps it is the sharpness of this lens, the image stabilization that will synchronize with you E-M1 or E-M5II camera's 5-axis IS, or that it is both compact (relatively) and weather sealed, or it is a pseudo macro lens with its 1:4 magnification (at 300mm!) but the enthusiast in my would dearly appreciate using such a lens.
Whether you shoot with M43 or not, I'd highly recommend reading Robin's site and read his review and view is impressive photos. While Robin is an Olympus employee, his reviews always seem quite even handed an overall objective. Is casual writing style and qualified observations always give me an impression of non-bias and high-quality reviews.
I hope one day to have my hand at this lens and put it to the test. However, I've always been impressed with Olympus lenses and can't imagine that this lens could possibly disappoint me. Of course, the equipment isn't what takes the picture, the photographer does but having some bad ass equipment always does seem to help!
Head over to Robin's review and give his site some traffic to say thanks for allowing me to share some of his photography and review on my site.
All images in this post were shot by and are the property of Robin Wong and viewable here.