Olympus m.Zuiko 75-300 f/4.8-6.7 hands-on review

[Four Thirds User]

Four Thirds User (Fourthirds-user.com) is a sibling site to the e-group.

The new Olympus Micro Four Thirds telephoto zoom is small and light, but also expensive and slightly quirky in its specification. We give the m.Zuiko 75-300 f/4.8-6.7 an initial once-over and you can evaluate initial performance for yourself via our original RAW and JPEG sample image gallery.

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[Ian]

Re: Olympus m.Zuiko 75-300 f/4.8-6.7 hands-on review

I'd be grateful for any feedback on this article

Ian

[Xpres]

Re: Olympus m.Zuiko 75-300 f/4.8-6.7 hands-on review

Can I be critical... ?

[Ian]

Re: Olympus m.Zuiko 75-300 f/4.8-6.7 hands-on review

Can I be critical... ?

But be gentle

Ian

[StephenL]

Re: Olympus m.Zuiko 75-300 f/4.8-6.7 hands-on review

At its full zoom this lens has very little room to stop down before the dreaded diffraction cuts in. It's almost as if the lens was released just to make up the numbers. I reserve judgement until I see results from the Panasonic 100-300, which, as has been mentioned, is much cheaper. I doubt I'll be buying one.

What Olympus deserately need to do is release higher-grade m4/3 lenses, if only to accompany its much-rumoured m4/3 semi-pro body. Otherwise everyone will simply buy Panasonic lenses.

[Ian]

Re: Olympus m.Zuiko 75-300 f/4.8-6.7 hands-on review

At its full zoom this lens has very little room to stop down before the dreaded diffraction cuts in. It's almost as if the lens was released just to make up the numbers. I reserve judgement until I see results from the Panasonic 100-300, which, as has been mentioned, is much cheaper. I doubt I'll be buying one.

What Olympus deserately need to do is release higher-grade m4/3 lenses, if only to accompany its much-rumoured m4/3 semi-pro body. Otherwise everyone will simply buy Panasonic lenses.

To be fair, the difference in brightness between the Panasonic 100-300 and the m.Zuiko 75-300 is only about half a stop.

But the Panasonic has OIS built in, so this will give it a firm advantage for Panasonic G-series camera users. The 75-300 is a more ambitious design, optically, with the use of high and extra high refractive index elements, as well as several ED elements. I have a 100-300 ordered for review, so I will be running a back to back lab test of the two as soon as it arrives.

Ian

[OlyPaul]

Re: Olympus m.Zuiko 75-300 f/4.8-6.7 hands-on review

I think the biggest drawback to this lens is the price, it's not expensive it is very expensive when you consider you can get a weather proof HG 50-200mm swd lens for very near that!

To be honest and even being a Oly fan if I was thinking of going mtf I would be looking at panasonic for my needs.

[Ray Shotter]

Re: Olympus m.Zuiko 75-300 f/4.8-6.7 hands-on review

Ian,

The price is high but the images are very good indeed especially as they were all hand held. I have just bought an E-P2 and am still considering what long zoom lens to buy but I doubt if it will be this one simply because of the price. Thanks for the article and the images - very instructive.

Ray.

[Xpres]

Re: Olympus m.Zuiko 75-300 f/4.8-6.7 hands-on review

Well ok... I can't see the point of the lens unless olympus have a new m4/3 camera up their sleeve that will balance it in use. The EPxs seem more suited to shorter lenses, I thought the 14-150 was going to be too much with the EP2 but in fact quite like it... although that's as much as it can handle I think.
What do you mean by 'initial performance', is it going to change as the lens gets older? First impressions, although a cliche, might better describe the article.
I'll look forward to the comparison and the more in depth version...

[Ian]

Re: Olympus m.Zuiko 75-300 f/4.8-6.7 hands-on review

Well ok... I can't see the point of the lens unless olympus have a new m4/3 camera up their sleeve that will balance it in use. The EPxs seem more suited to shorter lenses, I thought the 14-150 was going to be too much with the EP2 but in fact quite like it... although that's as much as it can handle I think.
What do you mean by 'initial performance', is it going to change as the lens gets older? First impressions, although a cliche, might better describe the article.
I'll look forward to the comparison and the more in depth version...

I said 'initial performance' because the time using the lens to produce the sample images in the article was a short period while there was some rare sunshine a couple of weeks ago. The next stage is to gain more experience of the lens and to test it using test targets and compare the results with comparable lenses, like the 100-300 from Panasonic.

I do take issue that Pen bodies are not suited to this lens. I think you should probably use the VF-2 finder as you really need to brace your arms against your body and that means bringing the camera close to your face. I felt comfortable using the lens on the E-PL1.

Ian

[Nova Invicta]

[StephenL]

Re: Olympus m.Zuiko 75-300 f/4.8-6.7 hands-on review

If you term the Panasonic G2 a DSLR then by that reasoning the E-Px with the VF-2 is also a DSLR, just that in the Panasonic the viewfinder is hidden in a hump. Olympus will not be making the lens specifically to cater for Panasonic owners as neither the Olympus lens or the Panasonic body have image stabilisation.

But I certainly accept your argument re pricing and market placement. To me, it points to a future Olympus "true" DSLR in m4/3 format.