100-400 MKii worth it or not

[blackfox]

had a full day out with the lens today on my om1 , in varying light conditions both bare lens and with the 1.4 tc on static birds and birds in flight plus various man made objects ...
now take into consideration that over the years I have owned and used the PL 100-400 and two of the MKi versions of the olympus so I think I can come to a very quick appraisal of whether its any good or not . but this is my own appraisal so either take it or leave it . the main reason I got this lens is I felt tied down with just the 300mm prime and t.c's so it was nice to have zoom capabilities back .
the lens looks and feels exactly like the MKi version but performs well above its price bracket ,is it sharp yes indeed it is , does it work well with the 1.4 tc again yes ( with obvious light caveats) is the i.s better yes its now on a par with the 300mm f4 . its never going to outperform the big white lenses but as a lightweight , sharp ,cheaper alternative its not going to let you down .. will I keep it most definitely yes . so here's a few samples/test shots from today I won't bore you with the other 700 but it is what it is

[MK1]

Results are looking good Jeff the Jackdaw looks very sharp. So your opinion is it's a keeper?

[blackfox]

Results are looking good Jeff the hooded crow looks very sharp. So your opinion is it's a keeper?

That’s a jackdaw mark .. and yes it’s a keeper for sure , enjoyable to use

[MK1]

I thought it was a Jackdaw

[Keith-369]

Thanks Jeff, it does look good ...... then again, your skills could make anything look good.
Do you think it's worth trading in a sharp Mk1 version for the Mk2?

[blackfox]

That’s a question only you can answer keith ,I paid £840 brand new for this from Cotswolds cameras,depends what you get for your old one today was just day one l will be using it more as time moves on , it does seem to grab focus quicker to probably got a 95% hit rate in fast moving action as we fed the gulls

[Keith-369]

Thanks Jeff. If I was going to change, I would buy the Mk2 from Cotswold myself first, then see what I could get for my Mk1. I'm in no rush (not been out with the camera for a good while for health reasons, my wife's especially).
I look forward to seeing more of your shots with this lens and your findings over a longer period.

[blackfox]

I need to test the hyperfocal distance really ie when it starts to l get blurry, but saying that all todays were shot wide open and still virtually all are sharp

[MJ224]

Excellent set Jeff. The Jackdaw looks very good, a bit far south for the Hooded Crow..

[pdk42]

These are looking great Jeff - much better than anything I saw when I tried the 100-400 mk 1.

[Olly B]

Thanks for your appraisal, it’s a lens on my wishlist if the premium bonds come up! I have the OM3, but various reviews suggest the combination is not too overbalanced with the use of a grip on the camera body.

[blackfox]

I would not worry about that because it’s a really lightweight lens

[Olly B]

Good to hear it’s lightweight!!

[Wildwood]

Thanks for your appraisal, it’s a lens on my wishlist if the premium bonds come up! I have the OM3, but various reviews suggest the combination is not too overbalanced with the use of a grip on the camera body.

Espen Helland seemed to manage in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_L6n2Eyglk

I'm sure a grip will help.

[ronidog]

There are grips by leofoto and small rig. The lens is fine with these.

[Olly B]

Thanks for the info, i have set up an email alert from wex for the lefoto grip, they appear yo be unavailable in the uk at present, i will look at smallrig.

[blackfox]

The main point people forget is the tripod foot is easy to remove , will check weights in a bit

on a om1 body .... camera and lens all up weight is 2kg =4.409 lb or a bag of sugar
camera and lens minus tripod foot is 1.75kg =3.85lb

[blackfox]

Update
A quick half hour session after the rain stopped , didn’t give as many keepers as previously … looks like I will have to increase minimum shutter speed a bit .. light will undoubtedly be the Achilles heel of this lens . Will post a few shots later .

[griffljg]

Jeff, it looks like you have encountered the same problem as I did when I first got the 100-400mm (mk I).

My solution was to set the camera for shutter speed priority with AutoISO and accept that, with a f/6.3 aperture when fully extended, depth of field wouldn't be much of a problem and ISO would probably get to be quite high. - Even in the 12,800 to 25,600 region.

When I got home, my procedure was to first cull the images and then run the "keepers" through DxO PureRAW for lens correction and noise reduction (elimination?) purposes, before importing the resulting DNG files into Capture One Pro for further editing. In place of Capture One, you could use your editor of choice.

Look at this image which was taken with a 25,600 ISO. - I have left the EXIF intact on Flickr.

Variegated Fairywren (M) by Laurence Griffiths, on Flickr

[drmarkf]

Yes, that's great Larry.

I use the same processing route as your good self, and with the OM-1i I normally draw the line at 6400 if possible, although I do go to 12800 if necessary to get an adequate freezing of motion.

At that level I find it's really important to get as good an exposure as possible (ie ETTR but making sure you don't burn out highlights, allowing for the reduced latitude at that ISO) and I find the dark areas of the image often get a bit of a magenta tinge. CO makes it very straightforward to correct that back slightly towards the green by tweaking the 3-way Colour Balance panel.

I've never tried 25600, but having seen this I clearly should give it a go!

[blackfox]

yeah that's one way Larry , I have increased minimum shutter speed to 1/1600 and see what that does I also had the focus limiter switch maxed out 6m-to-infinity and I think some may have been inside that .plus the weather was chunks of blue sky but the sun was behind storm clouds .. the joys of English winter . what came out o.k was o.k but not as good as the first two days and as above possibly user error

[griffljg]

One thing to bear in mind is that, on the OM-1(i), the maximum ISO available under AutoISO when using ProCap is 12,800.

[blackfox]

I use sequential mainly Larry