Olympus M.Zuiko 300mm F4 IS PRO Lens Review

Important Notes:

1. I am an Olympus Malaysia employee. 

2. This is a user experience based review, based on my personal opinion which can be subjective.

3. All images were shot in RAW and converted directly to JPEG (High Quality) via Olympus Viewer 3.

4. General camera settings, Noise Filter = OFF, Contrast/Saturation/sharpness = 0, White Balance = Auto (with an option maintain warm color = OFF), Gradation = Normal

5. Minimal post-processing applied to the images, with slight brightness/contrast balance tweak. All images were almost as good as straight out of camera, with minimal cropping for better presentation.

I am finally back in Kuala Lumpur after being away to my hometown, Kuching for almost a month, taking care of my beloved mum who underwent a surgery. Everything was well, mum can walk steadily and I am now back to action in full swing. Thank you every one for being so supportive and understanding all this time. This blog is now officially off the short hiatus and I will be actively shooting and blogging again. The first gear review for the year 2016 will be none other than the Olympus M.Zuiko 300mm F4 IS PRO lens which was released earlier this month. 

The Olympus super telephoto lens, M.Zuiko 300mm F4 IS PRO completes the full PRO lens lined up as announced, and there is very little to complain about lens choices when it comes to Micro Four Thirds any more. I have written about my first impression handling the lens briefly earlier here (click to read the blog entry). Earlier today, I have spent the entire day shooting with the M.Zuiko 300mm F4 PRO mounted on the OM-D E-M1 at several locations, and now I have sufficient photographs and shooting experience to complete a full blog review of the lens. 

Olympus OM-D E-M1 was my choice of weapon to review the M.Zuiko 300mm F4 PRO lens. 

I was shooting hand-held all the way, hence I took off the tripod collar. The lens itself is rather long. 

A quick recap of the important highlights of this M.Zuiko 300mm F4 PRO lens:

1) The Best Olympus Lens Ever. Designed to perform optically the best among the history of all Olympus lenses. I expect this lens to be super, super sharp. 

2) New 5-Axis Sync Image Stabilization mechanism that takes full advantage of combined body IS + lens IS working together. I have stated in my hands on preview that I could hand-hold my shots down to shutter speed as slow as 1/10th of a second. There will be plenty of tests to prove this point. I was not exaggerating. 

3) Respectable close up shooting, with minimal focusing distance of 1.4m. Perhaps, this is the ONLY lens in this category/range out there that can perform pseudo-macro shots on the fly. 

4) Full compatibility with the 1.4x Teleconverter, MC-14, providing 420mm focal length reach at F5.6 maximum aperture. 

As usual, I have subjected the lens to all possible torture in real life shooting conditions. 

Before I jump right into my review, please allow me to clarify something crucial. 

ABOUT 300mm AND ME

Honestly, a 300mm lens (we are talking about 600mm equivalent focal length here) is not a commonly used lens, and certainly not a "must-have" lens for most people. Such a long focal length is catered for very specific needs in photography, mostly for birding, wildlife/animal, sports, stage/concerts and motorsports. These are specialized photography categories, which unfortunately I have not had much chance of exploring. I have very little experience using such a long focal length in any kind of photography that I have done before, and I do not see the need for what I usually do: street, portraits, event, macro and everyday lifestyle shots. I fully acknowledge that there are better suited, more qualified photographers out there who can do a better job than me in testing the lens and realizing its full potential. Wildlife photographers and sports photographers can churn out amazing shots that I can only dream of at this moment. I am sure that there will be online reviews done by such photographers which will be more relevant in such related photography fields, which I am unable to provide. 

Edit: one of such notable reviews was done by  Peter Baumgarten, and his review can be found here (click). 

Nevertheless, I have early access to this M.Zuiko 300mm F4 PRO lens, and with my limited knowledge and experience with a 300mm lens, I am reviewing this lens from an "every-man" photographer's perspective. I am not shooting wildlife, or sports. I would imagine, if this 300mm lens falls into the hands of an ordinary photographer (such as myself), and I asked: "what would you do with the 300mm lens?". The answer would be rather straightforward - visit the zoo, the bird park and shoot whatever interesting subjects that I can come across. I live in Kuala Lumpur, and I have always been a city-boy, and no way am I going to spend a week in the jungle to shoot some animals. I hope what I am doing here will be useful and beneficial, not exactly for the pro wildlife and sports photographers, but for average, normal photographers which I think makes up of 90% of my beautiful blog audience here!

LENS SHARPNESS

Now that we have that out of the way, I shall start with the first, and most important question of all: image sharpness. Why not have a look some sample photographs first?

1/800s, F5.6, ISO200

1/125s, F4, ISO500

1/80sec, F4, ISO500

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1/80sec, F4, ISO200

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1/60sec, F4, ISO1000

1/60sec, F4, ISO1000

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1/180s, F4, ISO200

1/40sec, F4, ISO200

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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. I do not have evidence of any comparisons to show, and I understand if you have your doubts, but I do not have the necessary means to perform a fair, controlled and reasonable comparison experiments. I shall let the technical review sites do such comparisons (resolution tests, charts, etc). I am making this conclusion based on my extensive experience shooting with the Olympus M.Zuiko 75mm F1.8 and 40-150mm F2.8 PRO lenses, and I know, the new M,Zuiko 300mm F4 trumps them both. If you ask me by how much? I dare say, by quite a noticeable margin. You can instantly see it when you shoot with the 300mm F4 PRO for the first time. 

Olympus claims that this M.Zuiko 300mm F4 PRO lens has the most sophisticated lens design, and performs the best in terms of optical quality, and even surpasses the legendary, older DSLR version of the Olympus ZD 300mm F2.8 lens. I did have the intention of lugging both lenses, 300mm F4 and F2.8 to do a side by side, real life comparison test outdoor. However, the thought of carrying such large and heavy lenses, together with equally heavy tripods, just discouraged me from making it happen at the time being. 

If you are thinking that the USD2499 price tag of the M.Zuiko 300mm F4 PRO is on the high side, you may want to consider just one important point: it is the price to pay to obtain the BEST lens from Olympus, ever.

5-AXIS SYNC IMAGE STABILIZATION

The next hoo-haa Olympus created for this M.Zuiko 300mm F4 PRO lens, is the utilization of their new 5-Axis Sync IS mechanism, which is basically a combination of both camera and lens IS working hand in hand to maximize the IS performance, especially for a super long telephoto lens. It is no secret that lens based IS works well for longer focal length lenses. Therefore, to take the 5-Axis IS to the next level, and further improving on the already incredible image stabilization system in the OM-D, the 300mm F4 PRO lens is the first from Olympus to feature 2-Axis IS built inside the lens. 

Here are some important points to note: Currently only Olympus OM-D E-M1 and E-M5 Mark II bodies can enjoy the 5-Axis Sync IS with the M.Zuiko 300mm F4 PRO lens. All other Olympus camera bodies does not support this feature. It is my understanding that selected models will get firmware updates in the future to enable the support for the 5-Axis Sync IS. For E-M1 and E-M5 Mark II, you do not get the choice to choose which IS to use, meaning you only have ONE choice of Image Stabilization, which is the full 5-Axis Sync IS using BOTH lens + body IS system. However, for all other Olympus cameras that do not support 5-Axis Sync IS, you need to manually choose which IS you would want to use, either body 5-Axis IS, or the lens 2-Axis IS. 

We all know that Olympus is not bluffing when it comes to their 5-Axis IS, first introduced in OM-D E-M5, and improved in subsequent iterations of Olympus cameras. How much improvement is there this time, with the 5-Axis Sync IS? Olympus claims that with this new IS mechanism, 6 shutter speed steps of compensation can be achieved. That means, from 600mm (equivalent focal length) to 300mm equals 1 step, 300mm to 150mm is another step, and so forth. In order to prove that it really can compensate up to 6 steps of shutter speed, the Olympus M.Zuiko 300mm F4 PRO lens must be hand-held at 1/10sec while shooting. 

Imagine, using a 600mm long lens, shooting without aid of tripod or monopod, just with your bare-hands, standing, and your shutter speed is 1/10sec. 

At first, this sounded a little too fantastic to believe, even to myself. If you are telling me that the lens can be hand-held at 1/60sec, or even 1/40sec, I would have no doubt immediately. But honestly 1/10sec? 

How crazy is that?

So I pushed the lens, and slowed down the shutter speed. The following shots were ALL taken hand-held at 1/10sec shutter speed, with myself free standing and not bracing my body against anything. 

1/10sec, F6.3, ISO200

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1/10sec, F22, ISO200

1/10sec, F4, ISO500

1/10sec, F4, ISO500

1/10sec, F20, ISO200

It was possible!

I hand-held and tested the 300mm F4 PRO lens on the E-M1, and constantly getting sharp images at 1/10sec shutter speed. I could not believe it at first, and thought I was lucky, but it kept happening, again and again, with perfectly sharp images. 

Now, bear in mind that I rarely use a 300mm lens, and this lens is rather heavy (I shall explain in the handling part of my review). The handling was not exactly balanced, and I did struggle to hand-hold my shots. Despite all the difficulties, the results spoke for themselves, it really accomplished full 6 steps of shutter speed compensation. 

What is the consequence of having such an incredible Image Stabilization? Of course I am not saying you and I should use 1/10sec of shutter speed for all our shots, that would be impractical and does not make sense when it comes to real life shooting. Let me ask you another question, utilizing any non Olympus lenses on non Olympus bodies (all other brands that I shall not name else I get based and burned later), say, at 300mm focal length, or even at 600mm, without a use of monopod or tripod, at what comfortable shutter speed are you able to hand-hold? For most sane photographers, not many would dare go below 1/160sec, and certainly, almost no one would go slower than 1/100sec. Now, with this Olympus 5-Axis Sync IS, I can confidently hand-hold at 1/40-1/100sec shutter speed, and I use these shutter speeds for many of my sample photos shown in this blog without hesitation. Images came out perfectly sharp, and blur-free. That is the main advantage of having the 5-Axis Sync IS in my personal opinion: the freedom of not having to carry additional support equipment, and ability to just shoot hand-held all the time. 

CLOSE UP SHOOTING - A LITTLE BIT OF MACRO

The M.Zuiko 300mm F4 PRO can go as close as 1.4m from the subject to the image sensor, which is quite a serious close up shooting capability, considering the long focal length of 600mm equivalent. This results in a maximum of 0.24x magnification, which in 35mm format is close to half of true 1:1 macro capability. 

I would not say that this is a game-changing feature to have in a super telephoto lens. As I have discussed earlier, photographers who seek out such a specific lens are probably dedicated to specific photography subjects they are shooting. However, do consider this scenario: while you are waiting, camping for that rare beautiful bird to appear, you started to get a little bored. Birders can wait for hours, even days for the birds to show up. You are in the jungle perhaps, surrounded by nature. What if a colorful centipede suddenly crawled up a tree trunk in front of you? What if a beautiful butterfly stopped by a few meters away from you? Instead of using another camera and lens, or changing to macro lens, you can immediately use the same setup of 300mm F4 PRO on OM-D and attack whatever subjects coming into the macro distance. This convenience, can be quite useful. 

1/250sec, F10, ISO500

1/250sec, F6.3, ISO200

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1/400sec, F8, ISO320

1/160sec, F10, ISO200

1/125sec, F5.6, ISO500

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LENS HANDLING

Here comes perhaps, the only unfavorable part of this review, lens and camera handling. By far, I have rated Olympus OM-D E-M1 to have the best handling of all Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera available at this moment. I have attached the HLD-7 additional battery grip for further support, considering the 300mm lens is not exactly that small. 

Lets do some quick, logical calculations. The Olympus OM-D E-M1 body weighs about 500g, and the HLD-7 grip weighs about 200g, bringing the body and grip combo to approximately 700g of weight. On the other hand, the M.Zuiko 300mm F4 Pro weighs at 1.3kg, which is nearly TWICE the weight of the body and grip combo. It does not take a genius to figure out that balance is surely off when using the 300mm PRO on the E-M1. 

Now, for other camera brands, with the lens bazookas of 300mm or even 600mm lenses, it is universally accepted, and understood that those humongous lenses are meant to be seated on tripods. You do not hand-hold a 4kg lens for hours waiting for a bird to appear. Considering that the Olympus 300mm F4 PRO is considerably lighter than competition, I initially though hand-holding the lens for long hours would be a breeze. I was wrong. 

Do not get me wrong, the combo was still manageable, at a total weight of less than 2kg, I have used heavier DSLR + lens combo before previously. It is not the weight that bothered me. It was the lack of balance. There was no comfortable way of holding the lens while shooting. It always feel heavy at the front, and the lens is pulling the camera down as you shoot. That discomfort was not something I particularly like when I was out shooting the whole day, from morning (at the Zoo) and all the way to late afternoon (Bird Park). I cannot help but wonder how much better the handling would have been, if only the lens was about 300-400g lighter. 

While the 300mm F4 PRO lens is by no means small when it comes to Micro Four Thirds standards, I have no complains about the size. I think it does make sense to have larger diameter, for better quality lens elements as well as the F4 opening aperture. The weight of the lens was excessive and I do recommend use of monopod if you intend to shoot for very long hours. 

COMPATIBILITY WITH MC-14 1.4x TELE CONVERTER

Olympus 1.4x TeleConverter MC-14 was designed to be used for the M.Zuiko 40-150mm F2.8 PRO, and is also fully compatible with the new M.Zuiko 300mm F4 PRO. In case you are not aware, currently only these two lenses are compatible with the MC-14 teleconverter, and no other Olympus lenses can be used together with it. 

By adapting the MC-14, you get 1.4 times of the original focal length, resulting in 420mm focal length (840mm in 35mm equivalent), but you are losing aperture from F4 to F5.6, which is one stop difference. From my previous experience using the MC-14 on 40-150mm F2.8 PRO, the sharpness of the images produced were still sharp and detailed, Autofocus performance was slightly shower, but still fast enough that you do not need to worry about missing shots. Similar experience was observed with the new M.Zuiko 300mm F4 PRO lens. 

I obtained very sharp images from the tele-converter MC-14 used with the 300mm F4 PRO lens. 

The question is, do you really need the teleconverter in the first place? Any piece of adapter or additional glass in front of the sensor will decrease the optical performance, even by a small margin. For some photographers who need as much reach as possible, then the teleconverter does make sense. 

50% Crop of full size image. 

1/600sec, F5.6, ISO200, MC-14 used

50% Crop from full size image

1/2000sec, F4, ISO200 no teleconverter used

1/125sec, F8, ISO640, MC-14 used

1/50sec, F7.1, ISO200, No teleconverter used

1/200sec, F5.6, ISO200, MC-14 used

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1/80sec, F5.6, ISO200, MC-14 used

1/180sec, F4, ISO200, No teleconverter used

OTHER LENS TECHNICAL MATTERS

Chromatic Abberation

The images, converted to JPEG from RAW via Olympus Viewer 3 exhibited no traces of CA, and I believe it was due to both lens correction and software correction, working together to eliminated purple or green fringing. Looking at the following subsequent images, buildings against bright sky and the helicopter in the sky, these are the typical shots that will attract strong purple fringing when any lens is used wide open, but CA was not present at all. 

Bokeh Quality

Bokeh quality of this lens is good, and the rendering of out of focus area was pleasing and creamy at the same time. There was no observed harshness, even stopping down the lens to F10. Such a long focal length aids in isolating the subject and creating shallower depth of field than usual. 

Battery Life

I was told that using the new 5-Axis Sync IS, and also by driving the lenses inside such a huge 300mm F4 PRO, battery life will be drained faster. I spent about 3 hours shooting 200 shots in the zoo, and another 2 hours in the Bird Park, covering another 400 shots. I killed 1 battery and was running on the second one. I did not feel the battery life was significantly affected, though I have time and time again mentioned that Olympus should improve the capacity of their batteries in newer cameras. 

Autofocus Performance

AF was extremely fast, for a super long lens, and I expected it to be coming from an Olympus M.Zuiko line-up. It is perhaps, a tad slower than the 12-40mm or 40-150mm F2.8, but still on par with most M.Zuiko lens line-up, and certainly not something that needs worrying about. Accuracy was spot on, and I nailed focus 90% of the time. The remaining failed 10%? User error. To optimize the performance of the AF, it is recommended to select the best option in the AF limited switch to suit the subject distance. 

For close up shooting, select the 1.4-4m distance range, and for everything that is far away, select the 4m to infinity option. Using the right selection will mitigate the lens hunting issue and lesser the chance of having failed AF. 

Weather-Sealing

Like all PRO lenses, This M.Zuiko 300mm F4 PRO is fully weather sealed against splash, dust and freezing environment. I did not test the weather-sealing, though I believe someone else will torture the lens for this. Just wait for it!

Built in Hood and Flare

The lens features a non-detachable lens hood, though it can be extended and retracted with ease. The 300mm F4 PRO lens has new nano-particle coating that combats flare and ghosting, which I have not seen in any of the images I have taken. Flare is not the biggest concern for telephoto lenses, unlike ultra wide angles and normal focal lengths. 

1/40sec, F4, ISO500

1/80sec, F4, ISO500

Bokeh Quality Test

1/40sec, F4, ISO200

Bokeh Quality test

1/320sec, F4, ISO1000

Bokeh Quality test

1/2500sec, F4, ISO200 

No traces of Chromatic Aberration

1/5000sec, F4, ISO200

No Traces of Chromatic Aberration 

1/4000sec, F4, ISO200

I fully understand your need to pixel-peep the images, therefore I am providing full resolution downloads of 15 selected images from this blog entry. You may download it here:

M.ZUIKO 300MM IS F4 PRO LENS 

IMAGE SAMPLES DOWNLOAD

CONCLUSIONS

What I Like About 300mm F4 IS PRO

Sharpest Olympus lens, ever. Period. 

5-Axis Sync IS allows 6 steps shutter speed compensation, hand-holding as slow as 1/10sec possible. 

Incredible Close Up capability is flexible and useful

Smooth and pleasing bokeh, fast AF, Focus Limiter Switch is useful

What I Dislike About 300mm F4 IS PRO

Handling could have been better. The lens and camera combo is not balanced, and the lens feels front heavy. Uncomfortable long hours shooting hand-held. 

There you go, my FIRST review for the year 2016! 

Using the M.Zuiko 300mm F4 IS PRO lens was quite an eye-opening experience as the thrill and awe I went through reviewing the image quality produced by this lens. There is not much to write about what I dislike. Here is the sharpest lens Olympus has ever manufactured, and adding to that the introduction of even more powerful version of the already incredible 5-Axis IS system. 

This may not be the lens for every one (certainly not me), but if you do find a need for a 300mm lens in your type of photography, I think the 300mm is the answer to your prayers. 

Olympus M.Zuiko 300mm F4 IS PRO is available from B&H (click here). 

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