70-300mm First Impressions

[jtfrazer]

Hi,

The weather is not cooperating here so I haven't been outdoors to take any photos with it as yet. Hopefully, the rain will stop soon!

First Impressions from an amateur:

The lens is well built in my opinion. The lens barrel can be wobbled slightly bu hand when it's fully extended, which I think is to be expected.

I like the ability to switch from auto to manual focus using the switch on the lens body.

At long focal lengths, it takes a second or more to focus when you switch from a nearby subject to one that's far away.

The IS in my E-510 will be coming in handy with this lens. I'm just not as steady as I used to be.

More to come...

[bwenzel]

I just got mine yesterday. I have to agree that switching focus from near to far and end range is slow and it will hunt occasionally, especially as darkness falls. This may be remedied by the superior AF in the E3, I dont know. I got to test it a little in the light today. It did a good job focusing quickly today in the brighter conditions. No CA or distortions noted but I didnt pixel peep either. It is a little thicker in diameter than I thought it might be but I can deal with it. It is similar to the 1st gen 40-150, so its not too bad. I cant wait to try it out at some local sports games! Wish I had IS too...

Tested with an E-500

[jtfrazer]

I'm hoping for an opportunity to get outdoors over the weekend and get some use out of the lens.

[tspore]

I am really looking forward to your initial finds. Let me know if you can edit now.
I can try 2 things.

So I am trying option #1

[gregmacg]

I got mine today but didn't get to shoot anything during daylight so I shot the moon with my E-510. This was handheld at 300mm Focal with IS on F10, 1/50s. UnSharped in PS. Not too bad. I can't wait until this weekend. Watch for more.

[bilzmale]

Neat image for handheld.

[srf4real]

The dof is amazing with this lens- I think the bokeh is nice and soft too. It will be good for closeups. This shot was taken with the L1 and 70-300 combination, from a distance of about fifteen feet where I was sitting in the sand with monopod. 300mm, f/6.3

[jtfrazer]

I am really looking forward to your initial finds. Let me know if you can edit now.
I can try 2 things.

So I am trying option #1

Tony,

I still can't edit here.

[DoubleDAZ]

Is that cropped or just resized?

[jtfrazer]

Hi,

The weather was much better today and I was able to get a few shots with my 70-300mm lens. All shots were taken with the E-510 and were hand held, with IS turned on. I did do a little cropping on some of the images but otherwise, nothing else. I posted the pictures on my smugmug site, which is here:

http://jfrazer.smugmug.com/gallery/3849384

If you're not familiar with smugmug, you can get exif information by hovering over the large photo in the display. You can also view larger versions by clicking on the appropriate item in the menu that appears while hovering.

A few of the shots look a little soft to me and I would appreciate any comments.

[dpalugyay]

Here are some photos I took with the E-500 and the new 70-300 lens this weekend. I think the new Zuiko lens is an excellent value, and blows away the kit lenses. These are all handheld and converted from RAW with Olympus Studio 2.
Dave

http://flickr.com/photos/davepalugya...7603232723793/

[NrthrnHrse]

Hi Dave. Love the detail in the birds, thanks for sharing!

[superman]

Got my ZD 70-300mm from Japan on 24th Nov night & just in time for the A1 GP at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Sunday, 25th Nov. Here's some clean shoot I got @ 300mm end.

Alex Yoong of Malayia, Close in @ 300mm....

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2109/...bcce2a9c_o.jpg


Jeroen Bleekemolen of Netherlands, zoom in from back @ 300mm

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2177/...63ae0a06_o.jpg

The lens is sluggish on my E-510. The trick to get life a little easier is pre-focus before the car get near to your position.

Please comment.

[jtfrazer]

Hi Superman,

Those are great looking shots! I have a grandson that plays ice hockey and I'm looking forward to using the 70-300 to see what it can do. Unfortunately, I won't get to do that until February, 2008.

[thx1138]

What's the aperture at 150mm and 200mm for this lens ? I would like to compare that against the 40-150 kit lens and the 50-200.

This 70-300 looks like a nice street photography lens, since it's more compact then the 50-200, and has more reach. And the price is also more attractive. Not sure about the impact of loss in light though.

[jtfrazer]

Hi thx1138,

Maximum aperture at 150mm is f/4.5. At 200mm, it's f/5.0. I measured this on camera by setting the lens at the two focal lengths and then seeing what maximum aperture I could get in Aperture mode. I hope that's the right way to do it.

[Bojan Volcansek]

Hi thx1138,

Maximum aperture at 150mm is f/4.5. At 200mm, it's f/5.0. I measured this on camera by setting the lens at the two focal lengths and then seeing what maximum aperture I could get in Aperture mode. I hope that's the right way to do it.

That is precisely the way to do it, and it is great info, thank you very much for doing it for all of us!

Yours Bojan

[thx1138]

That is precisely the way to do it, and it is great info, thank you very much for doing it for all of us!
Yours Bojan

I second that

[stumac1985]

I had a play with this lens at the weekend. Was terrible weather and appalling light, but managed to get a few decent shots. Was shooting at ISO800 and maximum aperture for all of them.

http://www.swthomasphotography.tk

You can view larger versions by clicking the thumbnails.

[jtfrazer]

Hi,

I'm getting a message that Internet Explorer can't find your URL.

[srf4real]

Took this one over Christmas break with the L1+ZD 70-300mm combination, hand held, 1/160 sec. at full tele, wide open.(f/5.6) This is a 100% crop to which I have done no p/p... and it looks better on my monitor than in the photobucket for some reason.

[NZDI]

Shooting with the 40-150 kit lens there are lots of occasions where I just didn't have enough reach.

I was originally planning to get the new 50-200 SWD, EC-14 and EC-20. Still waiting on availability of the new 50-200 and EC-20 in NZ so after a lot of research decided to purchase 70-300 in the interim.

As it is Auckland Anniversary this weekend there will be lots of events on the Waitemata Harbour and I needed some extra reach.

Just picked up my 70-300 yesterday, so went out and took some shots with my E-510 after work for a couple of hours.

You can view a couple of images here:
http://www.digital-images.co.nz/gall...-0012.jpg.html
http://www.digital-images.co.nz/gall...-0043.jpg.html

My initial impression is that the image quality is better with the 70-300 than the old 40-150, which in turn is better than the new 40-150 kit lens.

It's definitely not the fastest lens in the kit but it certainly fills a gap that I had. I was shooting some images at 400 ISO and post processing in Lightroom with an excellent result. I will do some more experimenting at 800 ISO to see how it performs (though I don't normally like going above 400)

It works well on the E-510 and in complemented by the IS, it is easily and comfortably managed hand held.

If you don't have an endless budget and are looking for something with more reach than the kit lens it will certainly fill this gap.

[Eleanor]

Some really good results in this thread, thanks for sharing them

[Heron]

Most of the photos in this set were taken with the 70-300. My impressions, quick focusing, nice bokeh, sharp, great reach!!!! I used the C-AF a lot, and did many bursts to catch the action.

I got one great example of the awesome reach of this lens.

Here's a photo taken with my 14-54 at widest setting:



And here's a photo zoomed all the way in to 300 of the peak in the center-right of the above photo.




Best seen as a slideshow!

Cheers,
Heron

[stumac1985]

Hi,

I'm getting a message that Internet Explorer can't find your URL.

works for me....