bobbytan wrote:
Thank you, Rasmus! The Oly 300/4 PRO is an amazing lens - significantly sharper than the other PRO series lenses, or the PL 100-400 zoom. Here's the link to all my Costa Rica photos:
All I need now is the E-M1 Mk II body ... which looks very promising i.e. it will be HUGE improvement in AF speed if the rumors about the Olympus-designed Sony-manufactured sensor is true:
those are probably the best shots I've seen from the Oly 300 to date, not only technicaly best but also most interesting, very well done. As far as it being sharper then the other PRO lenses is no small feat, specially considering how bloody sharp the 12-40 and 40-150 actually are.
How do you find the rest of the performance? Overall bokeh? Focus speed etc?
Yup the E-M1 MK II will hopefully be quite awesome! Hopefully this time they will get the tracking AF right but I don't have my hopes up too high!
It appears I must get the Oly out again Rasmus, many fine images on your website, including the above link.
Your question from above, I post my images of late in the Foveon sensor image Thread here in Alternative forum. https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1287584/0
Thanks! The 300 PRO is no bokeh machine like the Sony G-Master lenses. Bokeh can be nervous when you have branches and other clutter in the background. But it's no slouch either. With enough distance or separation the OOF areas can look creamy-sweet and I have plenty of samples to proof that point. f4 is definitely fast for a 600mm FL and Sync-IS works well for the few times I used it hand-held. Most of the time the lens was mounted on a tripod, which is the best way to handle a 600mm lens.
Check out/compare this image of mine to my buddy's which was shot with his A7R II + Canon 400/2.8L II + 1.4x TC. Sure, the m43 shot is not as clean and noise-free, but it's just as sharp and because of the 2x crop factor you get more DOF so the entire bird is in focus and not just the upper half of the bird per the Sony/Canon image:
those are probably the best shots I've seen from the Oly 300 to date, not only technicaly best but also most interesting, very well done. As far as it being sharper then the other PRO lenses is no small feat, specially considering how bloody sharp the 12-40 and 40-150 actually are.
How do you find the rest of the performance? Overall bokeh? Focus speed etc?
Yup the E-M1 MK II will hopefully be quite awesome! Hopefully this time they will get the tracking AF right but I don't have my hopes up too high!
Olympus has to bring a long (100-125mm) and fast (f/2 or below) macro lens on the table, otherwise I will go on using legacy lenses for flowers and insects. Both around f/4 with Panagor 90mm f/2.8 on OM-D EM-5.
Macro or close-up photography at f2 or lower is not practical as the DOF will be paper-thin. You would normally need to stop down to f5.6 or f8 ... or do focus-stacking to increase DOF. And besides, f2 or faster will increase the size and weight of the lens, and make it very expensive. I think the Olympus 60 macro is as good as it gets.
Listera wrote:
Olympus has to bring a long (100-125mm) and fast (f/2 or below) macro lens on the table, otherwise I will go on using legacy lenses for flowers and insects. Both around f/4 with Panagor 90mm f/2.8 on OM-D EM-5.
bobbytan wrote:
Macro or close-up photography at f2 or lower is not practical as the DOF will be paper-thin. You would normally need to stop down to f5.6 or f8 ... or do focus-stacking to increase DOF. And besides, f2 or faster will increase the size and weight of the lens, and make it very expensive. I think the Olympus 60 macro is as good as it gets.
Olympus is the company that made the first f/2 macro lens for a FF camera 30-35 years ago and even now people search this lens for use in all sort machines including FFs for a reason. For some its thin DOF may be a problem but not for me and many users. I have a 60 f/2.8, it is an inexpensive and great lens, but there still room for another longer macro.
M43 is an amazing system. In fact, these days I think most systems are quite amazing in more then one way. We have so many good alternatives and very few bad ones.
I looked through your images in the foveon thread JuJu and as always they are great! Glad you're enjoying a different kind of camera and system as well!
bobbytan wrote:
Thanks! The 300 PRO is no bokeh machine like the Sony G-Master lenses. Bokeh can be nervous when you have branches and other clutter in the background. But it's no slouch either. With enough distance or separation the OOF areas can look creamy-sweet and I have plenty of samples to proof that point. f4 is definitely fast for a 600mm FL and Sync-IS works well for the few times I used it hand-held. Most of the time the lens was mounted on a tripod, which is the best way to handle a 600mm lens.
Check out/compare this image of mine to my buddy's which was shot with his A7R II + Canon 400/2.8L II + 1.4x TC. Sure, the m43 shot is not as clean and noise-free, but it's just as sharp and because of the 2x crop factor you get more DOF so the entire bird is in focus and not just the upper half of the bird per the Sony/Canon image:
Great images both of them Bobby and there is indeed very little difference between the two. Olympus does ana amazing work with their lenses, they always have and with Panasonic and their Panasonic Leica primes in the same system with really have superb quality to chose from. Don't really need a 600mm FL at the moment although I am sure I could find a use for it if I did get one (can't afford now anyway which might just be a good thing
The booked looks a lot like th 40-150mm, very smooth and beautiful in most cases but a little nervous with highlights or other too distracting things in the background.
I will indeed be interesting to see if Olympus can get the AF tracking working really well for birds and other stuff. If they can, the system can be a real winner as far as bird photos and action photos go as well.
Listera wrote:
Olympus is the company that made the first f/2 macro lens for a FF camera 30-35 years ago and even now people search this lens for use in all sort machines including FFs for a reason. For some its thin DOF may be a problem but not for me and many users. I have a 60 f/2.8, it is an inexpensive and great lens, but there still room for another longer macro.
Listera, have you ever considering the Zeiss 100mm F2 Makro Planar for m43? I've been thinking about it for a very long time (cost only thing that puts me off I think). Not only because of the great quality but also because I could use it on my Nikon analogue cameras and the fact that it is a superb portrait lens as well as macro.
Listera wrote:
Olympus is the company that made the first f/2 macro lens for a FF camera 30-35 years ago and even now people search this lens for use in all sort machines including FFs for a reason. For some its thin DOF may be a problem but not for me and many users. I have a 60 f/2.8, it is an inexpensive and great lens, but there still room for another longer macro.
Listera, have you ever considering the Zeiss 100mm F2 Makro Planar for m43? I've been thinking about it for a very long time (cost only thing that puts me off I think). Not only because of the great quality but also because I could use it on my Nikon analogue cameras and the fact that it is a superb portrait lens as well as macro.
Wilbus wrote:
Listera, have you ever considering the Zeiss 100mm F2 Makro Planar for m43? I've been thinking about it for a very long time (cost only thing that puts me off I think). Not only because of the great quality but also because I could use it on my Nikon analogue cameras and the fact that it is a superb portrait lens as well as macro.
Expensive &1:2 & manual. Thus I did not even consider it at any point.
Listera wrote:
Expensive &1:2 & manual. Thus I did not even consider it at any point.
Understandable, although manual usually isn't a huge concern with macro work IMO. 1:2 factor is a bit worse of course. And the massive hole in your wallet.
Nice, I have this lens, but sold the EM-1 that was able to use it so well with PDAF. Likely to get the EM-1 MKII when it comes out so I can use this lens for indoor volleyball . . .
