Photography News 115 - Newsletter

First test

“THE PULLING POWER MEANT I COULD GET A LARGE SUBJECT IN-FRAME TO MAKE THE MOST OF THE SMALLER FORMAT” Three lens function buttons can be programmed from the camera body and there are also three focus distance limit options. The inclusion of Lens IS gives up to 7EV benefit at 150mm and 6EV at 600mm on the OM-1 Mark II. I managed sharp shots at 1/30sec and 1/60sec at 600mm but not consistently. Everyone is different and my safe lower limit would be 1/125sec with the lens fully extended. With the nature pictures taken here I used shutter-priority AE and didn’t A HELPING HAND Fit the ED 150- 600mm to the OM-1 Mark II and it weighs around 2700g – that’s quite a weight to hold for any significant time, but then it is a 1200mm equivalent lens when completely extended. The tripod foot helps, though it should be longer; an extra plate has been added here Verdict searched more when reaching the lens’ minimum focus. Closest focus at 600mm is an unexceptional 2.8m, but it’s 56cm at 150mm and around 100cm at 300mm, so those focal lengths are usable for larger insects. venture below 1/500sec. Mostly, I stuck with 1/1000sec even though that meant cranking up the camera’s ISO to 800 or 1600 even in good light. Autofocus is smooth, vibration- free, silent and impressively rapid on the OM-1 Mark II I used for this test. Responsiveness and accuracy rated highly, but it could struggle even with the OM-1 Mark II’s very capable subject detection AF. Shooting a bird with branches in front or around the subject could mean the AF failing to locate the subject or picking up on something else in the frame. Even when the focus box was on a bird’s eye, the result could still be unsharp. AF was more uncertain and The lens is fitted with a rotating tripod collar and an Arca-Swiss-

ON TEST The test shots were taken on the ED 150-600mm f/5-6.3 IS using an OM System OM-1 Mark II mounted on a Gitzo carbon tripod with an Arca-Swiss ball head. Shots were taken with the self-timer and Raws processed through Adobe Lightroom with default sharpening.

150mm

300mm

600mm

F/5

F/5.9

F/6.3

WATCH THE BIRDIE A handheld shot of a parakeet and the feather detail is excellent. Taken on an OM System OM-1 Mark II with the ED 150-600mm at 600mm using an exposure of 1/1250sec at f/6.3, ISO 800 compatible foot. That’s great, but sadly it’s too short. Carrying the lens by the foot is not comfortable, but more importantly there’s a centre of gravity issue. Mounted on either a tripod or gimbal, extend the lens to 600mm and its centre of gravity shifts forward. So if you want it balanced on a gimbal, the tripod plate is half out of the gimbal’s mounting plate. It works, but could be better. On the test chart, open aperture image quality at 600mm was decent but sharpness improved with stopping down; it was pretty good at f/11 and delivered decent shots. Performance at 150mm and 300mm was consistently better than 600mm even at wide apertures; quality at the shorter settings was impressive. In the field, I was generally happy with the lens’ optical skills and got sharp, highly detailed results when everything fell right. You have to keep an eye on shutter speeds – and the limited depth-of-field means there’s no room for error. Such awesome telephoto power on tap was a treat, though I got my fair share of shots that fell short due to shutter speed choice, subject blur or user error. I also got many lovely shots; the pulling power meant I could get a large subject size in-frame to make the most of the smaller format.

F/5.6

F/6.3

F/7.1

F/8

F/11

F/16

F/22

The OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 150-600mm f/5-6.3 IS is a powerful telephoto with enormous potential for action and wildlife photographers. Of course, it’s not going to be a mass-appeal optic, although if you shoot Micro Four Thirds and want a seriously long lens then it’s pretty decent value at £2499. Performance is sound, too, especially at the shorter and mid-range settings. PROS Awesome zoom range, satisfactory optical performance, Arca- Swiss-compatible tripod foot, useful minimum focus, lens strap and hood supplied CONS Wide-open 600mm performance could be better, big and weighty for a Micro Four Thirds lens, tripod foot too short

Issue 115 | Photography News 43

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