Help me pick a lens (1 Viewer)

Hi,

I’m going to buy an Olympus OM-D E-M1 camera body for hand-held bird photography, and I’m wondering about which lens to buy. I’m aware of these two telephoto zoom lenses:

A. Olympus M.Zuiko ED II 75-150 mm, F4.8/6.7 (model V315040BU000)
B. Panasonic LUMIX Vario 100-300mm / F4.0/5.6 / MEGA O.I.S. (model H-FS100300)

I’m specifically looking at Micro Four Thirds cameras and lenses to save space and weight. I’m a birder first and a photographer second, so I’m already carrying my binoculars, a spotting scope, snacks, water, perhaps a field guide, etc., so size and weight are a prime concern.

I have a few questions, and any help would be greatly appreciated.

1. Can one use the Panasonic H-FS100300 100-300mm, f4.0/5.6 zoom lens with the Olympus body?

2. The reason I am interested in the Panasonic lens at all is the higher speed. The Panasonic lens is an f-stop faster at the telephoto end of its range which is where I will probably spend most of my time. I’m thinking for many shots this won’t make a difference, but for shots of birds in the understory, an extra f-stop may be a real advantage. The down side is that the Panasonic lens is somewhat larger and heavier than the Olympus lens. Do you have any thoughts?

3. The Panasonic lens as image stabilization (IS) built into the lens while the Olympus body has it in the body. I assume I would generally turn off the lens IS and use the body IS, but can one turn on the lens IS and turn off the body IS? What kind of results? I assume you’d never have them both on.

4. Can one use a teleconvertor (the kind that moves the lens slightly away from the body) to get a longer focal length? If so, does the autofocus and such work?

5. The Olympus body has some Olympus-lens-specific features like correcting for chromatic aberration or autofocus microadjust. Can these be used with the Panasonic lens?

Good birding, Eric

I'm also interested in any useful answers and can help a smidgen only.
The Olympus lens you refer to is the 75-300mm lens.

1. Yes
2. The difference in apertures only half a stop. I'd love to see users' responses regarding the effect of this, too.
3. You can choose which IS to use. Anyone know the relative effectivness of them at 300mm?
4,5. Not sure.

This may help for part of question 5.

http://hazeghi.org/mft-lenses.html

For question 4, there are two similar devices,
One is the teleconvertor, which inserts a lens system between the lens and the camera to give you additional focal length i.e. a 1.4 x will increase the focal length of the lens from say 200 to 280 mm at the expense of reducing the light reaching the sensor by a factor of 1 stop, the meter will automatically compensate. A 2x convertor will give you more reach but at the expense of even more light loss of 2 stops. Generally those produced by the camera manufacturers will connect perfectly electrically. There are convertors that will fit on the front end of the lens with no light loss, but are not as good optically and may affect the focussing of non internal focussing lenses due to their weight.

If you have an early M4/3 camera you may find that a firmware upgrade (dead easy to do yourself) may be required for full teleconvertor - lens compatability.

The second device is an extension tube which merely moves the lens away from the camera body with no lens built in and is purely used to improve the close up capability of the lens at the expense of light reduction and ability to focus to infinity. This is not what you want. Not all extension tubes have full connectivity.

With all such devices check that they do communicate electrically before purchase.

For question 3, I have read that the Panasonic lens OIS is maginally better at 300mm, but by less than one stop, so its less than the effect of personal technique. I'm sure someone can comment on this from practical experience.

Eric, welcome to Birdforum!
I use the pana lens on a pana GH2, and has no problem going birding with that combo hanging from my shoulder.

Re 4: no TC has been produced for the micro4/3 system as of yet. Both Pana and Olympus bodies have a built in "TC" that works as a crop of the sensor and which is only available if you shoot jpgs.

Re 5: the CA correction would work for both types of lenses if you take RAW images and use a non-oly raw converter. I have not heard about microadjustment of lenses on the OM1, and it should not be necessary because the focusing happens with the image sensor not a separate sensor.

Ammadoux has commented in the past that the lens OIS on the pana is better than the in body os with the same lens. I do not know if that has changed now that she discovered that the in body IS by default is set to off on oly cameras if you shoot in bursts.

Niels

Eric Goodill said:

Hi,

I’m going to buy an Olympus OM-D E-M1 camera body for hand-held bird photography, and I’m wondering about which lens to buy. I’m aware of these two telephoto zoom lenses:

A. Olympus M.Zuiko ED II 75-150 mm, F4.8/6.7 (model V315040BU000)
B. Panasonic LUMIX Vario 100-300mm / F4.0/5.6 / MEGA O.I.S. (model H-FS100300)

I’m specifically looking at Micro Four Thirds cameras and lenses to save space and weight. I’m a birder first and a photographer second, so I’m already carrying my binoculars, a spotting scope, snacks, water, perhaps a field guide, etc., so size and weight are a prime concern.

I have a few questions, and any help would be greatly appreciated.

1. Can one use the Panasonic H-FS100300 100-300mm, f4.0/5.6 zoom lens with the Olympus body?

2. The reason I am interested in the Panasonic lens at all is the higher speed. The Panasonic lens is an f-stop faster at the telephoto end of its range which is where I will probably spend most of my time. I’m thinking for many shots this won’t make a difference, but for shots of birds in the understory, an extra f-stop may be a real advantage. The down side is that the Panasonic lens is somewhat larger and heavier than the Olympus lens. Do you have any thoughts?

3. The Panasonic lens as image stabilization (IS) built into the lens while the Olympus body has it in the body. I assume I would generally turn off the lens IS and use the body IS, but can one turn on the lens IS and turn off the body IS? What kind of results? I assume you’d never have them both on.

4. Can one use a teleconvertor (the kind that moves the lens slightly away from the body) to get a longer focal length? If so, does the autofocus and such work?

5. The Olympus body has some Olympus-lens-specific features like correcting for chromatic aberration or autofocus microadjust. Can these be used with the Panasonic lens?

Good birding, Eric

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Hello Eric

i have used both lens, and both IMHO are fabulous equally.

i have started with the panasonic with my old EPL1, i chose to take it over the Olympus 75-300mm, for the same reason you mentioned of being one f stop faster, as well as the fact it was cheaper.

had some real nice results with it, check those :smoke:

http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/439341/ppuser/71763

http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/465189/ppuser/71763

and this one which is taken at relatively high ISO for me (1250)

http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/398293/ppuser/71763

i was so happy with it, as it is so reliable, and gave me always some lovely details when light is good. i had the OIS always on, and it he IBIS off, found this to give me better results, but when taken video, use to prefer to support the lens on a bean bag placed on the car door.

when i decided to upgrade to EPL5, problems started, the lens started to hang and stop working for quite some time, some times it don't connect with the camera immediately, take about 5-10 mints, sometimes when after working if i don't use it for some mints it also stops and just don't get back to work, until i move the dials, take the battery out or unmount the lens and remount it back, and in many times i have to do them all.

my experience with it was frustrating but the results were also lovely.

http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/440976/ppuser/71763

http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/466748/ppuser/71763

specially with the fact that the EPL5 have an internal digital x 2TC, which make it work as 600mm on the long end (1200mm on the full frame) that gave me a longer reach than my Bigma which i use with the E5, that made the EPL5 + Lumix my favorite gear, as you say due to there convenient size, which made it go with me every where.

lived with those problems, but the lens has finally stopped to work with the camera completely . had to go for the Olympus one, and now i am using it since December, and no it is not much lighter in weight than the Lumix, yes more compact.

it took a while to get use to it, and with some advise form friends here in the forum i knew how to set the IBIS right and get some nice results, like this one

http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/487416/ppuser/71763

until now not much happy with the videos i am getting, even when supported with the car door, but that could be my weak and bad left shoulder.

until now, i am not sure if the Lumix is dead completely or only it is not connected to the EPL5, have to check with my old EPL1 or with my Uncle's OM E5 and get back to you.

finally i would say that if the Lumix did not stop i would have not replaced it, but i have read many complains about this lens that it is very fragile and in many cases it only work for six month then it start to make problems even with Lumix cameras.

finally i would say that if the Lumix did not stop i would have not replaced it, but i have read many complains about this lens that it is very fragile and in many cases it only work for six month then it start to make problems even with Lumix cameras.

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Maybe mine is the exception. One difference is that I live in an area with high humidity, not an area with dust storms.

Niels

njlarsen said:

Maybe mine is the exception. One difference is that I live in an area with high humidity, not an area with dust storms.

Niels

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BTW i am not ruling out the possibility that the problem is form the EPL5, and there is nothing wrong with the lens.

just tried my old Lumix 100-300mm with the OM D5 and it is also died. hopefully i can get a lumix body to see if it works.

Thank you all for your help replies!