• 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.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Olympus ed 70-300 (1 Viewer)

E

Egret

Well-known member
Spotted all the publicity for this new lens and thought "the equivalent of 140-600; I'll have one of them" but I was wrong. Weeks after the big publicity Olympus suppliers still don't have stocks of the lens.

Why do companies do this? They alienate suppliers and customers alike and it's not as though Olympus can afford to do this as they are not exactly front runners in the marketplace.

Should have bought a Cannon or a Nikon!

Andy
 
Could you post some pics when you receive your lenses as I'm considering getting an E510 along with the 70-300 as my 1st dslr?

On paper looks like the most cost-effective route to quality 600mm shots.

Ta.
 
Hi,

I waiting for the arrival of the E510 and twin lens kit (14-42 and 40-150) but think the long lens will not be long enough at 300mm after the 2 times 3/4ths multiplier? Has anyone actually got the new 70-300 and is it any good compared to the 2 sigma zooms 135-400 and 50-500.

Another thing that puzzles me is the 2x multiplier in regard to f stop figures. When Sigma give figures of 135-400 f4.5-5.6 its easy to see that it becomes a 270-800, but what about the f number? I cant see it being 270-800 f4.5-5.6, am I right?

Lastly, if I get a 400 or 500mm lens, is there any point in trying to digiscope with the camera body or will the camera be "long" enough?

Regards, Pete.
 
The f stop stays the same no matter which format the lens is attached to. The light hitting a sensor is precisely the same, you are just 'wasting' some of the coverage if that lens has been designed to cover bigger sensors with a different mount.

The time it changes is if you use a 2x or 1.4x teleconverter between the body and the lens.

J
 
I have; about a month ago the nice people at LCE trawled around till they found one for me. It cost £300 including a skylight filter. Of course, I could have got it cheaper on the net but no supplier, that I asked, had it in stock.

The lens is light and comfortable to use but at that price it is a compromise solution. I am very happy with it, have taken some good photos (my photos tend to be good, rather than great - whatever the quality of my optics!) and am looking forward to using it in Botswana in April.

Andy
 
Egret said:
I have; about a month ago the nice people at LCE trawled around till they found one for me. It cost £300 including a skylight filter. Of course, I could have got it cheaper on the net but no supplier, that I asked, had it in stock.

The lens is light and comfortable to use but at that price it is a compromise solution. I am very happy with it, have taken some good photos (my photos tend to be good, rather than great - whatever the quality of my optics!) and am looking forward to using it in Botswana in April.

Andy
Click to expand...
Sounds interesting. Could I ask which camera you are using it with? I have only recently noticed the Olympus DSLRs and the 410 and 510 get excellent reviews on DP Review. The 410 is available for about £330 now so is fairly affordable with the ED 30-70 zoom but I suppose the lack of IS on the camera could be a problem and the 510 is worth the extra money?

Ron
 
IS not really a problem with E-410 I've hand held and took pictures at 1/25th of a second and they came out very sharp. The E-system do seem to take a back seat compared to canikons but in terms of image quality they are on par or slightly better. If you check on the net for photo forums you will see some great photos taken with Olympus cameras. All the ED lenses preform v.good and better than most lenses from other brands.
 
trealawboy said:
Anyone care to share some thoughts about the 70-300mm having spent some time using it?

Thanks
Click to expand...
I have been using mine on my new E-510 for a couple of weeks and am very pleased so far.

It is reasonably light and compact and I have been leaving it permanently in place as a walk-about lens. It needs fairly good light to work at its best as it's not incredibly fast but under most circumstances it focuses rapidly and accurately. It seems very sharp and the colours are normally good.

The reach with the four thirds format is not bad but, as has been mentioned, you do need to be quite close to small birds to fill the frame. It is also no substitute for digiscoping where distant waders are involved. I am considering the 1.4 tele converter when funds allow but I would like to know how well this works with the 70-300 before I commit.

I attach a shot which I took on Sunday and the ten most recent images in my User's Gallery were all taken with the E-510 and 70-300 lens. They were all hand held, using IS. There is plenty of room for improvement but overall I am very happy so far and I think, for the money, the lens is excellent.

Ron
 

Attachments

  • Squirrel-small.jpg
    Squirrel-small.jpg
    141.5 KB · Views: 533
Last edited:
Having used mine for some time now I would agree with you; the lens is a compromise; it is slow but light and easy to carry. I am pretty sure that I carry it when I wouldn't bother with a bigger lens. I think the question is how commited are you to image above all else?

Andy


NoSpringChicken said:
I have been using mine on my new E-510 for a couple of weeks and am very pleased so far.

It is reasonably light and compact and I have been leaving it permanently in place as a walk-about lens. It needs fairly good light to work at its best as it's not incredibly fast but under most circumstances it focuses rapidly and accurately. It seems very sharp and the colours are normally good.

The reach with the four thirds format is not bad but, as has been mentioned, you do need to be quite close to small birds to fill the frame. It is also no substitute for digiscoping where distant waders are involved. I am considering the 1.4 tele converter when funds allow but I would like to know how well this works with the 70-300 before I commit.

I attach a shot which I took on Sunday and the ten most recent images in my User's Gallery were all taken with the E-510 and 70-300 lens. They were all hand held, using IS. There is plenty of room for improvement but overall I am very happy so far and I think, for the money, the lens is excellent.

Ron
Click to expand...
 
Any chance someone with this setup (E-510 and 70-300 Oly lens) could take a picture of it and post it here? I would like to get an idea how much larger such a setup is than say a super-zoom like my Canon S5.
 
RAH said:
Any chance someone with this setup (E-510 and 70-300 Oly lens) could take a picture of it and post it here? I would like to get an idea how much larger such a setup is than say a super-zoom like my Canon S5.
Click to expand...
I don't know if this page will work for you but it should be possible to configure the E-510 with the 70-300 lens and view it from all angles. The camera is similar in size to most of the smaller Nikon or Canon DSLRs.

http://www.four-thirds.org/en/products/matching/index.html

Ron
 
Last edited:
RAH said:
Any chance someone with this setup (E-510 and 70-300 Oly lens) could take a picture of it and post it here? I would like to get an idea how much larger such a setup is than say a super-zoom like my Canon S5.
Click to expand...
Here are some rather poor photos of my camera with the lens attached. Hopefully they will give you the general idea.

Ron
 

Attachments

  • Front-side-+-hood-small.jpg
    Front-side-+-hood-small.jpg
    98.6 KB · Views: 275
  • Front-side-2-small.jpg
    Front-side-2-small.jpg
    98.1 KB · Views: 238
  • Side-+-hood-small.jpg
    Side-+-hood-small.jpg
    98.8 KB · Views: 256
  • Side-extended-+-hood-small.jpg
    Side-extended-+-hood-small.jpg
    97.1 KB · Views: 307
  • Side-extended-small.jpg
    Side-extended-small.jpg
    99.9 KB · Views: 275
Warning! This thread is more than 16 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

J
My First Experience Purchasing Birding Binoculars
Replies
11
Views
2K
tenex
tenex
G
Zeiss Binoculars
Replies
0
Views
1K
gr8fuldoug
G
G
  • Article
Perfection Of The Simple Things
Replies
0
Views
635
Green Sandpiper
G
C
New Maven B.6 10x50: A brief comparative review
2 3
Replies
56
Views
20K
adhoc
A
D
Review: Orion Otter 10x42 ED roof prism binoculars
Replies
3
Views
2K
yarrellii
yarrellii

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top