Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 II

[Glee]

Hi, I bought the above lens in anticipation of gaining more reach for birding. The results are mixed but I'm not sure if this is technique, camera settings, raw conversion and processing or a mixture of all of them, or even unrealistic expectations?

I have an em1 and have used on aperture priority, ISO 800 or less. I use adobe raw converter and import to L R 4.4 for pp as dng raw files.

Firstly near and medium range subjects seem to work better in terms of good image quality. I think I would describe this rage as 0-20 metres, much after that the resolution deteriorates exponentially and noise or grain becomes more pronounced.

I can accept the optics may not be as good as my primes but I don't want to be too quick to blame the lens if I should look else where.

I would be grateful for any thoughts or pointers.

Kind regards

[Guest]

Re: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 II

I bought mine for the same reason. The trick for me was to turn off the IS of my E M10, stop the aperture down a little, 1/3-2/3 of a stop from the widest available, try to avoid 300mm in favour of 270-280mm and keep the shutter speed faster than or equal to 1/1600s even at the expense of upping the ISO.
Hope this helps.

[Glee]

Re: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 II

Thanks, I will give your suggestions a go, I plan to go to Saltholme tomorrow as all the indications are there will be good weather and therefore good light.

Kind regards

[pdk42]

Re: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 II

Using long lenses hand-held needs a lot of technique, esp in anything less than very good light. Look into using a beanbag as a support and avoid the very end of the zoom range - I know that my Panasonic 100-300 deteriorated quite significantly beyond about 250mm. I'm not sure if this is true of the Oly lens too, but it's not uncommon for tele zooms in this price bracket to be softer at the long end.

I'd also be tempted to let the ISO go up to get faster shutter speeds. Blurred low noise images are much worse than sharp ones with a little noise. I wouldn't be shy of 1600, and 3200 or even 6400 is you are happy with monochrome.

[Daveart]

Re: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 II

Hi I have this lens and use it on the em5 it can be a little hit and miss on some subject with confusing backgrounds at the long end on smallish objects with a busy background, I have used it at I so 6400 to get the shutter speed up to 1/640th wide open. And printed at A3 size with no noticeable noise and good sharp detail and good. Colour and contrast.

It does need some careful handling and practice.

Dave

[PeterBirder]

Re: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 II

Hi, I bought the above lens in anticipation of gaining more reach for birding. The results are mixed but I'm not sure if this is technique, camera settings, raw conversion and processing or a mixture of all of them, or even unrealistic expectations?

I have an em1 and have used on aperture priority, ISO 800 or less. I use adobe raw converter and import to L R 4.4 for pp as dng raw files.

Firstly near and medium range subjects seem to work better in terms of good image quality. I think I would describe this rage as 0-20 metres, much after that the resolution deteriorates exponentially and noise or grain becomes more pronounced.

I can accept the optics may not be as good as my primes but I don't want to be too quick to blame the lens if I should look else where.

I would be grateful for any thoughts or pointers.

Kind regards

Hi Glee.

I'm not sure what size bird you are trying to capture but small birds at 20m are going to be pretty small in the frame. Here is a shot I posted this spring of a Skylark.

Full frame (4608 x 3456 pixels).


Cropped to 914 x 685 pixels.


This was taken with the E-M5 + 75-300mm @ 300mm, 1/1200 sec, f 8, ISO 500 and centre weighted metering and the EXIF gives a focus distance of 18m. The dots in the frame are midges which have been cloned out in the crop. This was taken on a bright day hence ISO 500. This was processed from raw using DxO Optics Pro.

As others have said don't be afraid of using higher ISO, my normal practice is to use Auto ISO. A factor that can significantly affect apparent sharpness is the degree of humidity/haze and often dust we get in this country. Many birdwatching telescopes will give a 60x magnification but even on apparently clear days will be pretty useless at this magnification due to haze in the atmosphere.

Regards.

[Glee]

Re: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 II

Thanks to all for the suggestions and also in assisting me better understand the characteristics of the lens, the shooting situation and the camera settings. I am getting some better results and I am quite pleased with the output.

Kind regards