Olympus OM E.Zuiko 200mm F4

piggsy · Joined: 04 May 2015 Posts: 84 Location: Brisbane, Australia

I found a few threads on this lens but they generally seemed to kind of peter out in a single post and ... not be about much. If a mod wants to move this then that's fine Very Happy

I'm quite happy with it so far. Perhaps not the best technical image quality but I quite like what comes out the other end of it - kind of ineffable quality to it that is just, well, really pleasant to me.

Some samples, shot at f4-5.6 (CA is kind of well, nasty here sometimes), RAWs via my PEN E-P5, done in Olympus Viewer 3 to mimic SOOC jpgs (0 sharp, 0 contrast, 0 saturation, normal graduation, no noise removal, natural colour profile, warm colour off). Please forgive any elementary errors in composition or exposure since they were mainly just taken to show the lens at its nastiest, and typically shot into the light as well.

Click for full size.

Some from a day later, usually around F/8-11. PP this time (some with some fairly savage highlight / exposure recovery and CA removal). Birding is not my thing and birding with an MF lens is uh, well, let us say I experienced a greater degree of difficulty than I expected Very Happy

these turned out OK though, I thought -

Some flowers - CA/bright/sharp work only, colours left at SOOC levels -

For a lens that cost $69aud, in excellent condition (seller's words, better than a lot of stuff I've seen rated as such) with a UV filter and caps thrown in - this was pretty damn good, I thought.

piggsy · Joined: 04 May 2015 Posts: 84 Location: Brisbane, Australia

I'm an ... indifferent birder (you are looking at something like shots 15 through 20 I have successfully taken of any birds ever here Very Happy

) but it occurs to me that once you ditch the entirely useless UV filter off the front of this lens and give it a little PP work, it is not at all bad image quality wise.

Lloydy · Expire: 2022-01-01

I would be happy with that lens, you have some fine pictures from it.

vroger · Expire: 2016-10-21

Nice shots, and yes birding with a mf lens is a challenge. :0)

piggsy · Joined: 04 May 2015 Posts: 84 Location: Brisbane, Australia

Yeah I guess if you only see the ones that work collected like this, it seems pretty good Very Happy

For the bolder and more common birds you can find anywhere here (rainbow lorikeets, noisy miners, butcherbirds etc) you can pretty much shoot as much as you like. It's when you find something slightly more rare or shy, or you get an opportunity to shoot a bird doing something specific that's hard to repeat, that the cursing begins!

Also I should post some shots of this with the Vivitar 2x Macro Focusing Teleconverter on it - it's pretty funny looking even fitting it on my camera (combination of OM/M43 adapter, extended 2xmftc, lens, extended lens hood is not small). And then you get, what, an 800mm F16 equivalent lens to try and swing around and aim at things, with some truly psychedelic CA even at that Very Happy

WNG555 · Joined: 18 Dec 2014 Posts: 784 Location: Arrid-Zone-A, USA

That would be a fun photo! You should take a shot of the extended rig next time.
I just learned about the Vivitar macro converter and picked up a Canon version to try out. Looks quite impressive for a 2x teleconverter. Images don't suffer much degradation.

I also have this OM Zuiko 200 f/4. If I hadn't run across this post, I think I would have forgotten all about it. Initial test shots were quite good, with color like your wonderful captures. But I didn't see much if any CA. Only some PF in OOF areas.

I've discovered 200mm isn't a FL I often use on my APS-C Sony. Plus I found a cheap Konica 200 f/3.5 that was notably sharper than the Zuiko. That pushed the Zuiko further back on the stack.

A few quick test shots...

DSC02260 by wNG 555, on Flickr

DSC02268c by wNG 555, on Flickr

DSC02288c by wNG 555, on Flickr

The shot of the bomber is a crop. I heard a some odd sounding engines and looked up. Photo op! Like birds, this one came out surprisingly clean for a manual-focused moving object capture.

piggsy · Joined: 04 May 2015 Posts: 84 Location: Brisbane, Australia

Wow nice catch with the B-25!

Some samples from when I first put the 200mm/f4 and Vivitar 2xmftc together - unfortunately the weather here has been pretty miserable the last few days so I only have a few from a brief period of bright sunlight a few days back. Similar subjects to before and as in the top of the first post just at camera default post process, pretty sure all of them are at maximum extension on the tube and closest possible focusing distance.

^ same flower as compared to the Tokina 90 2.5 here - http://forum.mflenses.com/tokina-at-x-90mm-2-5-macro-t71198.html#1436768 Very Happy

^ the CA seems to go in several directions at once if you've got a highlight in focus, and OOF areas seem to head into green in a way that seems more difficult than usual to remove, since there's not really an "edge" to it.

Very difficult to use handheld, even with the E-P5's 5 axis IBIS - though again as an 800mm equivalent doing macro from a few feet away I should probably be grateful to have gotten anything at 1/125 - 1/200 Very Happy

. Nonetheless these are pretty much the best picks out of a dozen or so attempts at each. Would maybe be usable stopped down more but it's already quite a slow lens used "wide open" with the MFTC extended.

Should also add, it's quite possible there are better examples of this lens - I came across something some time ago (on photo.net ?) detailing what the different initials and markings indicated on the 200mm f/4, and I believe this is one of the earlier non-multicoated versions (e.zuiko, no "mc" mark).

Oh and - mounted and everything fully extended -

Hoping that when it arrives, the Vivitar 135 2.8 Close Focusing turns out to be more agreeable with the 2xmftc Very Happy

WNG555 · Joined: 18 Dec 2014 Posts: 784 Location: Arrid-Zone-A, USA

Very cool and LONG set up. Wink

Still pretty impressive, resolution is still acceptable. Looking forward to trying this Vivitar 2x MFTC.

So, you got me curious and I went to dig out my Zuiko, and it's a later release, with MC and black nose.
I think I'll keep it out and capture some light with it. I just got another Zuiko that I've been jonesing for, a 24mm f/2.8. Take the two of them with me next chance I get.

piggsy · Joined: 04 May 2015 Posts: 84 Location: Brisbane, Australia