[DPR] Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm F4 IS Pro: a closer look
Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm F4 IS Pro
The weather-sealed M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm F4 IS Pro is the latest in the company's range of high-end 'Pro' lenses for the Micro Four Thirds system and the fifth such lens to date.
Like the other Pro lenses, the 300mm F4 IS Pro features the company's snap-back manual focus clutch system that reveals a distance scale when you pull on the focus ring; engaging manual focus and proving a linear focus response with end-stops to the ring's travel, to give a traditional manual focus experience.
Size
The lens is relatively compact, given its long reach. Although its F4 maximum aperture is equivalent to F8 on full frame in terms of depth-of-field and light gathering (in total image terms), its still impressively small and light for 600mm equivalent lens. The lens itself is 227mm (8.9'') long, and relatively easy to add to a mid-sized camera bag.
The 300mm weighs 1.27kg (2.8lbs) meaning that it's relatively easy to handle and carry. As Olympus points out, this is around one third of the weight of equivalent full-frame 600mm lenses. However, this lightness doesn't come at the expense of solid-feeling build, with extensive use of metal giving the F4 Pro a reassuring sense of robustness.
Image Stabilization
The lens IS offers correction of pitch and yaw movement (tipping up / down or panning left / right), and this combines with the in-camera systems on the E-M1 and E-M5 II to offer six stops of stabilization, according to **** standard testing. The company explains that the gyroscopic sensors in the lens and those camera bodies calibrate one when the lens in connected to the camera, to ensure they work in sync with each other.
Sadly this full capability is not realized when the lens is mounted on the E-M10 II or older Olympus cameras, nor is it compatible with Panasonic's Dual IS system on the GX8 that works in a similar manner.
Magnification
The closest focus distance on the 300mm is a pretty impressive 1.4m (4.6') from the focal plane (1.15m front of the lens), giving a maximum magnification of 0.24x. This doesn't exactly make it ideal for macro work (Olympus would probably point out that it's akin to 0.48x magnification on a full frame camera, in terms of how much of the frame an object fills), but it does allow its use fairly close to the subject, increasing the lens's utility beyond safari and birds-in-flight (etc.).
The lens features a focus limit switch to prevent it hunting across its full focus range, when being used for more distant subjects, so this close-quarters capability shouldn't affect long-range performance. Olympus suggests wildlife, sports and stage performances as sensible use-cases, in addition to telephoto macro photography. The company's internal analysis of images uploaded to Flickr apparently shows that 54% of images shot around 600mm equivalent are of birds.
Tripod ring
The 300mm F4 IS Pro has a built-in, rotatable tripod collar, as you'd expect on a long telephoto lens. However, Olympus is confident enough about the effectiveness of the stabilization that it allows you to remove the ring that the tripod foot is mounted on and replace it with a smooth ring to cover the mounting studs. This cosmetic ring is included in the box, meaning you don't have to try to rotate the tripod foot out of the way or keep catching your hands on the mounting studs if you shoot handheld.
The foot on the tripod collar features Arca-Swiss compatible grooves cut into it, allowing a sturdy connection to a tripod without the need for an additional plate.
Elements/coatings
The lens is a relatively complex design, made up of 17 elements arranged in 10 groups. These elements include three extra low dispersion (ED) lenses, three high refractive index (HR) lenses and one extra-high refractive index (E-HR) lenses.
Olympus also touts a 'nano' coating that eases light across glass/air boundaries to reduce internal reflections and minimize ghosting and flare. Also helping to minimize flare is the retractable lens hood. It attaches using a normal lens bayonet but the outer sleeve of the hood can then be pulled back over the lens barrel when not in use and pulled forwards only when needed.
Overall
Although a 600mm equivalent prime isn't usually considered a must-have part of every shooter's camera bag, it's likely to do a pretty good job of acting as a 'halo' product - underlining the company's commitment to the system and its use in a wide range of circumstances, as well as showing-off what it is capable of. It feels significant that Olympus would explicitly highlight that the 300mm F4 is sharper than the older 300mm F2.8 for the Four Thirds SLR system - another niche but impressive optic that when it was released sat at the apex of that system's lineup.
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