Olympus 100-400mm f/5.0-6.3 IS lens

[Holoholo55]

I do own a very sweet manfroto monopod, but I never use it.
I have used my tripod as a monopod many times however. More versatile!
This morning I spent time in our biggest city camera shop, hoping to see this lens, but no sign of it...
I nearly walked out with a brand new M1 mkii and accompanying 50-150 2.8... but came to my senses when I checked my wallet and only some old moths flew out.

The image of the moths flying out of the wallet just cracked me up. Ain't it da truf.

 

[Lcrunyon]

The shots Robin got with the lens and x2 teleconverter were really impressive. He spoke a lot about how difficult it was; but frankly the results of his 50% keeper rate were a lot nicer than I thought would’ve been possible at all. Really, it gets me more excited for the 150-400 mm pro.

 

[Holoholo55]

The shots Robin got with the lens and x2 teleconverter were really impressive. He spoke a lot about how difficult it was; but frankly the results of his 50% keeper rate were a lot nicer than I thought would’ve been possible at all. Really, it gets me more excited for the 150-400 mm pro.

More so because, as he admits, he's not a long lens guy. Yet, he got some pretty good results.

 

[retiredfromlife]

The shots Robin got with the lens and x2 teleconverter were really impressive. He spoke a lot about how difficult it was; but frankly the results of his 50% keeper rate were a lot nicer than I thought would’ve been possible at all. Really, it gets me more excited for the 150-400 mm pro.

Robin always gets very good hand held shots. Unfortunately for me his results will not translate to anything like I will ever be able to get.
Me, the lowest I can reliably get with the EM1.3 & 12-100 is one second. Good enough for me but nowhere near his multi second results.

This lens is on my radar but I don't expect the same results that he can get

 

[MichailK]

Good enough for me but nowhere near his multi second results.

did you see his arms size?

 

[Lcrunyon]

Robin always gets very good hand held shots. Unfortunately for me his results will not translate to anything like I will ever be able to get.
Me, the lowest I can reliably get with the EM1.3 & 12-100 is one second. Good enough for me but nowhere near his multi second results.

This lens is on my radar but I don't expect the same results that he can get

I do pretty well with long shutter speeds using the EM1X and 12-100; even shots of several seconds are rarely soft. But I don’t usually get good results with teleconverters. I’m hoping that will change.

I’m still on the fence about this lens, but if I can get a good trade-in for it, I might pull the trigger eventually.

 

[RAH]

did you see his arms size?

Yeah, if I had mitts that big, I could handhold 1600mm shots for MINUTES! But alas!

Concerning whether to use IS on a monopod, this is a topic that has been argued about (discussed) for years and years. It's almost as long-going as whether crop factor is magnification or not (oh no, I've mentioned it; now we're in for it!!). I think the final take-away I had on the monopod issue was that it depends on the shutter speed and focal length, which got so damn complicated that I stopped thinking about it. I think I finally decided that you SHOULD use IS on a monopod. I think...

 

[retiredfromlife]

Yeah, if I had mitts that big, I could handhold 1600mm shots for MINUTES! But alas!

Concerning whether to use IS on a monopod, this is a topic that has been argued about (discussed) for years and years. It's almost as long-going as whether crop factor is magnification or not (oh no, I've mentioned it; now we're in for it!!). I think the final take-away I had on the monopod issue was that it depends on the shutter speed and focal length, which got so damn complicated that I stopped thinking about it. I think I finally decided that you SHOULD use IS on a monopod. I think...

I remember the last coffee with Olympus that I attended they mentioned for stills just leave the IBIS always on. Video was not discussed, and this was a beginners session if that counts as giving simplified information not sure.

I use a monopod a lot, [with IBIS on] but with my skills I would not know if the out of focus shots I get with both Panasonic or Olympus are due to me or the gear. Longest lens is the Panasonic 100-300 at this stage.
For my use I always leave the stabilization on, cant be bothered turning it off and I get enough keepers to keep me happy

 

[RAH]

The big problem I have with monopods is getting the camera mounted to one. I mean, with a tripod, it stands there, but with a monopod it seems like you need 3 hands. Grrr! I know a lot of folks attach the monopod to the camera when they first start out for the day (all as a unit). But that seems a bit dangerous with the tripod attachment on the E-M5III being questionable...

 

[Mike Peters]

So, now we have two 100-400 zooms to choose from. And for some reason no one will do a head to head comparison. Next best thing, the same review site having tested both...

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/...0-400mm-f-5-6-6-3-is-review-34898/performance

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/...400mm-f-4-0-6-3-asph-review-28971#Performance

Seems the P/L betters the OLY at every focal length in terms of MTF performance.

 

[Ross the fiddler]

So, now we have two 100-400 zooms to choose from. And for some reason no one will do a head to head comparison. Next best thing, the same review site having tested both...

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/...0-400mm-f-5-6-6-3-is-review-34898/performance

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/...400mm-f-4-0-6-3-asph-review-28971#Performance

Seems the P/L betters the OLY at every focal length in terms of MTF performance.

I don't think that is the opinion of a number of others that have tested the Olympus lens though.

Here's a comment from someone there.
" It seems strange to publish charts which don’t give an accurate indication of sharpness. It begs the question why present them at all if the data they’re presenting is at best misleading? What’s the point?"

 

[Ghostbuggy]

So, now we have two 100-400 zooms to choose from. And for some reason no one will do a head to head comparison. Next best thing, the same review site having tested both...

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/...0-400mm-f-5-6-6-3-is-review-34898/performance

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/...400mm-f-4-0-6-3-asph-review-28971#Performance

Seems the P/L betters the OLY at every focal length in terms of MTF performance.

I know he doesn't have any charts to back it up, also he is a Olympus Visionary (which should always be kept in mind!), however Petr Bambousek has done a short comparison between both lenses on a recent blogpost:
https://www.sulasula.com/en/olympus-100-400-is/
It's just a short observation by him though, so you won't get a full gallery of samples comparing them. In short he says in terms of image quality both are very similar, sometimes he preferred the Panasonic, sometimes the Olympus.
I guess there will be further comparisons once the lens becomes actually available.

 

[hoodlum]

So, now we have two 100-400 zooms to choose from. And for some reason no one will do a head to head comparison. Next best thing, the same review site having tested both...

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/...0-400mm-f-5-6-6-3-is-review-34898/performance

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/...400mm-f-4-0-6-3-asph-review-28971#Performance

Seems the P/L betters the OLY at every focal length in terms of MTF performance.

The below site did a good head to head comparison. Lenstip is a much better site than ephotozine for doing accurate tests and they currently have the Olympus 100-400mm in for review so you will soon be able to compare with their PL 100-400mm review for comparison as well.

https://mirrorlesscomparison.com/micro-four-thirds-lenses/olympus-100-400mm-vs-panasonic-100-400mm/

 

[MichailK]

I think I finally decided that you SHOULD use IS on a monopod. I think...

we need an IS bracketing tripod drive mode!!

 

[Aristophanes]

I remember the last coffee with Olympus that I attended they mentioned for stills just leave the IBIS always on. Video was not discussed, and this was a beginners session if that counts as giving simplified information not sure.

I use a monopod a lot, [with IBIS on] but with my skills I would not know if the out of focus shots I get with both Panasonic or Olympus are due to me or the gear. Longest lens is the Panasonic 100-300 at this stage.
For my use I always leave the stabilization on, cant be bothered turning it off and I get enough keepers to keep me happy

Your first sentence used the words “coffee” and “stills” together.

Just sayin’.

 

[ac12]

The big problem I have with monopods is getting the camera mounted to one. I mean, with a tripod, it stands there, but with a monopod it seems like you need 3 hands. Grrr! I know a lot of folks attach the monopod to the camera when they first start out for the day (all as a unit). But that seems a bit dangerous with the tripod attachment on the E-M5III being questionable...

I put an AS plate on the bottom of the tripod foot of the lens.
And an AS clamp on the monopod.
Put the lens plate into the clamp on the monopod and turn the screw. Even easier and faster if you use an AS clamp that has a lever clamp.

MUCH faster and easier than threading the screw into the tripod socket.

 

[Reflector]

I see Robin Wong has posted his test of this lens with the MC 2.0

Robin Wong also put up 100% shots on the accompanying written article as well, click the images for the full resolution image:
https://robinwong.blogspot.com/2020/08/1600mm-beast-olympus-mzuiko-100-400mm.html

This is a 100% crop from one of his photos in the article. Not bad for a 2x TC on a mid grade lens, especially given the frame fill from the additional crazy reach.

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[Mike Peters]

I know he doesn't have any charts to back it up, also he is a Olympus Visionary (which should always be kept in mind!), however Petr Bambousek has done a short comparison between both lenses on a recent blogpost:
https://www.sulasula.com/en/olympus-100-400-is/
It's just a short observation by him though, so you won't get a full gallery of samples comparing them. In short he says in terms of image quality both are very similar, sometimes he preferred the Panasonic, sometimes the Olympus.
I guess there will be further comparisons once the lens becomes actually available.

I imagine they will be very close. I just haven't seen any direct comparisons, yet.

 

[Holoholo55]

The big problem I have with monopods is getting the camera mounted to one. I mean, with a tripod, it stands there, but with a monopod it seems like you need 3 hands. Grrr! I know a lot of folks attach the monopod to the camera when they first start out for the day (all as a unit). But that seems a bit dangerous with the tripod attachment on the E-M5III being questionable...

That is a real issue. I mounted ballheads with Arca-Swiss QR mounts on mine. That helps a little, but the best would be the Manfrotto RC2 mount, which auto-clamps in loosely until you can lock it down. Two hands enough. I've sometimes thought about converting all my mounts to RC2. As for the 5.3, I got an L-bracket for it.

 

[Franka373]

I put an AS plate on the bottom of the tripod foot of the lens.
And an AS clamp on the monopod.
Put the lens plate into the clamp on the monopod and turn the screw. Even easier and faster if you use an AS clamp that has a lever clamp.

MUCH faster and easier than threading the screw into the tripod socket.

WIMBERLEY makes a gimbal mount for a monpod that is really nice. AS compatible. Makes it really easy to move the lens around. I quit using ball heads.