Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 75 to 300mm II F4.8-6.7 Zoom Lens, for Micro Four Thirds Cameras

I enjoy using this lens for shooting wildlife and astrophotography. I have several lenses in my inventory and this is the one I seem to use the most and I enjoy using it. I’ve managed to get some amazing shots using the lens. Bright conditions make this lens really shine, but overcast conditions the lens can be pretty slow on autofocus which would be my one major gripe. It works great for astrophotography, especially for moon and larger DSO’s. Pros: 1. You get a 600mm equivalent reach using this lens compared to the equivalent full frame DSLR camera. 2. In bright light you can get some amazing picture of moving wildlife. 3. Inexpensive compared to full frame equivalent lenses. 4. It is flexible to use since it has a wide zoom range (75 mm – 300 mm) Cons: 1. No lens hood. 2. Can be slow to auto-focus under overcast conditions. I have missed some potentially good shots due to this, but you would need to go to the 300 mm f4 prime lens which is 5x the cost to help with this issue. Overall this is a fine lens when you consider price. If I were a pro I would consider the pro 300 mm prime lens, but it is substantially more expensive. I would recommend this lens for anyone trying to get more reach than they get with the 40-150 mm lens. Tip: Ive been able to get good results action shots even in less than ideal lighting conditions by using manual shutter speed @ 1/500 sec with auto ISO set and using high speed shutter sequence. Note: 1. I am using an Olympus E-PL5 camera body. 2. I used multiple 30 second exposures and Deep Sky Stacker for my picture of the Orion Nebula, but the frames were collected using this lens.

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First I am using it on the OMD E-M5 and the lens is one of only 2 options in the native micro four thirds mount, so if you are shooting a Panasonic body buy the Panasonic with OIS. If using the Olympus body the decision is harder a few stops of light of the Panasonic vs size and extra focal range of the Olympus. I chose based on the range and slightly closer minimum focusing distance. I found the 75-150 range perfect, the AF is accurate the images are sharp and color rendition is signature Olympus blue skies and contrasty details. Low light AF is poor but I have to admit this is my only lens slower than f/2.8 so I may have a biased opinion. This one seems to hunt anytime I need to push above ISO1250, or shutter speeds creep downwards. That being said in good light eve heavily overcast daytime light it is fast to confirm focus and adjust. I imagine the newer sensors and faster processors would further improve the speed also. It is an equiv. 150-600mm lens and it is the size of a 12oz soft drink without hood, a 22oz bomber can with the hood. That is unheard of, when I was testing the lens taking the images I uploaded there was a guy hauling a FF camera and a 300mm canon L lens he had a luggage trolley a backpack and a tripod that could have held my weight, hopefully his images were better than mine. Looking at his set up he had roughly $18,000 in his lens and body alone, I had 10% of that and was able to carry my kids lunch and water bottles as well as my set up in a sling bag. The true advantage of this lens is size and range. There are other options and even super zoom cameras that will compete for IQ at the long end, but none that give you size and adaptability of the micro four thirds system and this lens is a must have as of 2014 there is no native option that offers all of this.

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I was not sure what to expect from this lens. Certainly the price was right so I had to give it a whirl. I bought it right before going to the US Open tennis which always presents a bit of a photo challenge because Im far away from the action and there are often sharp light and shadows on the players. I do NOT have steady hands which is one of the ways in which I am cursed as a photographer. Long slow zooms often present real challenges for me. I am a part time professional photographer who shoots both micro 4/3 as well as full frame dslr and often have terrible shots with big zooms when I am not on a tripod. Since I was just shooting the Open for my own pleasure, it really didnt matter how the shots came out. Shock of shocks, I got some really good crisp images. I am sure the credit for that belongs with the lens more than my unsteady hands. I was pleased with how quickly it focused. But it was sunny and contrasty as the open which makes a big difference. If you compare this to a fast nikon or canon tele zoom you will clearly see that this is quite a bit slower to focus and doesnt give nearly the same bokeh. But I am not comparing it to those lenses. For the price and for the range of what it can do, this is a bargain. Just dont expect it to perform at the same level as some of its more expensive brethren. This is not going to perform well in humid or hazy conditions. It really needs a contrasty world to show what it can do Bottom line: Is this as sharp and crisp as a canon 70-200 f2.8? No, definitely not in the same class in my opinion. But if you are looking for a somewhat solid and affordable performer for your micro 4/3 camera, I would recommend this lens. It has good reach and though slow, was able to handle the sports at the US Open and delivered some crisp action shots. It is good for the price. By the way, I paired this with the olympus OM-D E-M5. I am eager to get my hands on an E-m1. Would love to see what this lens could do paired with that camera.

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This zoom lens completes my m4/3 travel lens lineup which is consisted of 12-100, 9-18 and this 75-300. I also have 40-150 but need something longer than 150, which is quite a bit worse than the 75-300 especially at the edges and corners. However, among this 3-zoom lineup, the 75-300 is the weakest in terms of IQ. It is, however, not surprising given the much lower price of this lens compared to the other two. While it is not as good optically as the other two zoom lenses, it is still very good in absolute term. I am extremely pleased with the performance at the edges and corners. There is no need to crop out the edges, they are perfectly usable even when pixel peeping. Wide open performance is only very slightly worse than f/8. This very useful since this is not a fast lens. I terms of sharpness over the zoom range, I found that the extremes (75 and 300) are weaker than the rest but both FLs are still perfectly usable. Since I have the 12-100, I doubt that I will need the range between 75 to 100. I bought this lens primarily for the just in case situations where a longer FL is needed; I typically use WA and UWA most of the time. As for AF, it is silent and fast enough for my style. The MF ring is stiffer than I like, however. Zoom ring OTOH is smooth. Construction is typical of this class of lenses, solid enough for normal handling. Overall, this lens is a very good, quite affordable long zoom, especially for travel when weight is a serious consideration.

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For the price and weight, this is a super lens. Its not a professional one you could use to shoot an eagle in flight at sunset or a touchdown across a stadium at night, but if you can work with the F stops it can do, itll get the job done. With the IS on the Olympus OM-D E-M5 I can take clear shots in cloudy daylight at full zoom without a tripod. Some chromatic blurring on high contrast areas at full zoom, but less than Ive seen with other lenses at the same or lower price point. I prefer metal to this ones plastic, but it seems sturdy enough. Its a few hundred less than the Gen 1 version too. Its about half the length and what feels like 1/3 or less of the weight of my Canon 70-200 EF 2.8 which cost much more, yet with the MFT factor gets me to a 600mm equivalent - 3x as far. It would be nice if more of the Olympus and Panasonic MFT lenses used the same filter size. I picked 3 lenses plus the kit, and every one is a different size. At least the smaller filters are less expensive than the full frame lens ones.

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This is an excellent lense for wild life shots on bright days. Cons are poor prrformance in low light and loss of image quality (sharpness) at 300. That being said, it is a great lense for the price, and some performance loss is to be expected at this price point. A comparable distance range in a higher end lense is three times the cost, so this is actually my go to lense for distance. Sharpness is consistant up to about 270.

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This lens lives on my E-M10 now. The reach, image quality and the small size is really amazing, however there are a few minor things that you need to know (they are minor). - The barrel of the lens does extend just a little beyond the base of the E-M10 and on my tripod mount that is enough to block the smooth turning of the zoom ring as it extends up to the lens mount. I resolved this by putting a hose gasket between the base of the camera and the tripod mount but it can be annoying. On the other hand there is really no reason to use the tripod as the lens is long and tends to wobble when fine tuning zoom or focus. - At full zoom the lens can be a little soft and I usually need to go to f8 or higher and keep the shutter speed high. It often forces me to use ISOs of 1600 or a little more.

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