Well the Panasonic 100-300 gives you an equiv. fov of 200-600 while the Oly 75-300 gives 150-600. They are slower glass (both around 5.6) and don't compare to a Nikon/Canon 600 but they are both pretty cheap and decent for the price. Currently that's about it for super tele's in m43 world ATM; unless you want to go with an adapter.
String wrote:
Well the Panasonic 100-300 gives you an equiv. fov of 200-600 while the Oly 75-300 gives 150-600. They are slower glass (both around 5.6) and don't compare to a Nikon/Canon 600 but they are both pretty cheap and decent for the price. Currently that's about it for super tele's in m43 world ATM; unless you want to go with an adapter.
Thanks, but I am referring to a 400mm that gives an equiv. fov of 800mm.
I could live with an adapter, but only if it still gave me decent AF.
With the x2 crop you'd think u4/3 companies would make developing some really awesome telephoto lenses a priority, but the two main options are both pretty mediocre.
joxang wrote:
With the x2 crop you'd think u4/3 companies would make developing some really awesome telephoto lenses a priority, but the two main options are both pretty mediocre.
I would say its coming in due time. It takes a lot of resources to design a lens and u4/3 companies have had to flesh out an entire lens lineup, something that the big DSLR players have spent decades doing. So far they've done a pretty good job of hitting many of the major bases especially with the latest generation of fast primes. I'm sure that longer telephotos but these companies don't have infinite resources.
Have you tried manual focus lenses? I have not tried any long teles on the E-M5 yet but found it surprisingly easy to manually focus e.g. my 50/2 Summicron on it, thanks to the excellent EVF. Since contrast detect AF means piss poor tracking at best you are not going to get any use out of that functionality anyway, so maybe a manual focus supertele might be worth a look?
I think right now, for supertelephoto, your best bet is going to be adapting lenses. I use the Panasonic 45-175mm as my quick easy small telezoom, and it does a decent job, but when I want real reach or subject separation on telephoto, I grab my adapted FD lenses (currently FD 200/2.8 IF and FD 50-300mm f/4.5L) which work really well. Especially the 50-300L, which is just a fantastic (if huge) lens. I'd look for a good manual focus 400mm f/5.6 prime, which will get you 800mm effective, will likely be quite sharp, and still without the huge size.
The E-M5's IBIS is surprisingly effective even at really long focal lengths. I did some testing a while back with my 50-300L, both bare and with a 2x TC to get me 1200mm equivalent. I was getting 2-3 stops at 300mm (600mm equiv) and even 2 full stops at 1200mm equivalent!
For wildlife photography, manual-focus is not a viable option for me. Even piss-poor AF is better than MF when it comes to me shooting birds-in-flight.
Imagemaster wrote:
For wildlife photography, manual-focus is not a viable option for me. Even piss-poor AF is better than MF when it comes to me shooting birds-in-flight.
Sorry to say (really sorry!) that there are still no native M43 long options in sight. Only very good manual focus skills (and some s*** luck) is gonna getcha a bird in flight with M43. Never-the-less I am fully committed to M43 and continue to hope. In the meantime I bought a 200mm f/4 Pentax M and I'm trying to get some MF practice...
CalW wrote:
Sorry to say (really sorry!) that there are still no native M43 long options in sight. Only very good manual focus skills (and some s*** luck) is gonna getcha a bird in flight with M43. Never-the-less I am fully committed to M43 and continue to hope. In the meantime I bought a 200mm f/4 Pentax M and I'm trying to get some MF practice...
I guess I will have to wait until Olympus brings out a body with better AF and a native 400mm lens.
It would be quite a candy having a proper 400mm 2.8 for m4/3s, I wonder what the size/weight would be but taking in considerantion that the Canon one is around 5kg...I would guess for some 2kg.
"I guess I will have to wait until Olympus brings out a body with better AF and a native 400mm lens."
IMO the OM-D E_M5 has the AF chops (along with its great in body stabilization) to support a native 400mm prime lens should anyone deign to produce one. Me, I'd settle for 300mm or even 200mm f/4 fer cryin' out loud! Jeesh!
