Thoughts and sample images with the Olympus 100 400mm over several months
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- čas přidán 30. 06. 2024
- After shooting for several months with the Olympus 100-400mm F5-F6.3mm, I wanted to share my thoughts and photo samples on this lens.
Topaz Denoise Software
www.topazlabs.com/denoise-ai?... - Krátké a kreslené filmy
"Don't want to bore us with images?" I was anything but bored. These are just beautiful.
Really excellent review. One of the very best I’ve seen, the examples you were able to capture are fantastic and pretty compelling.
Wow, those are some stunning shots. I think you got me sold on the 100-400. At first I wanted to get the 40-150 and save for the 300, but the quality of your pictures showed that its gotta be good enough for me. Thank you!
I know this is two years old at least, but these images are stunning, incredibly sharp…I hired a 300 f4 and although it’s a stunning lens, it’s a prime and using it for a day with kingfishers it didn’t get used very much, I spent most of the day using my 40-150 f2.8…..why? Because the zoom gave me so more working distance from diving to perch shots. The 300 f4 just didn’t cut the versatility of the 40-150. Yes, the 600mm equivalent distance is awesome, but it gave me no room to compose for the bigger picture……I think I may hire this and see how I fare. As for high iso, I am using the new LR AI update and it’s stunning. I no longer shoot as a business, I retired early so I now shoot for myself and I am more than content with the images I produce…..thank you…this has been enlightening to say the least. Why is it Canadian photographers talk more sense than the rest of YT put together, between you and Simon d’Entremont, even as a ex pro photographer I have learned so much about shooting wildlife photography, you have both reawakened my love for photography…..
Just when I am thinking of getting rid of all my heavy Nikon Pro gear, I was thinking of Olympus OM1, but had several concens. I am now convinced! Thank you, great video and awesome shots.
I loved watching as you went through your images. It was both informative and interesting! Would easily watch an hour of that.
Beautiful work, Anny and a nice introduction to a lens I just picked up recently as well.
Nice to see another Oly fan in Canada. We are a rare but intelligent breed!
Probably the finest high iso images I've ever seen shot with this lens! You have amazing technique Anny. Shooting distant subjects with long focal length zooms requires an extraordinary level of skill and you've certainly achieved this. Congratulations on some amazing images. I never thought it was possible to get this level of image quality at such high iso's with an m43 camera. Well done!
Your photography is stunning! I'm a young/newbie photographer who shoots with an Olympus Pen-F and just got into birding, and your photographs are so inspirational to me. You've got both the artsy aesthetic sensibility and technical abilities that I aspire to! If you are ever interested in making a video about the post-processing techniques you mentioned, that's something that someone like me would be very interested in watching! It's the side of photography that I am not at all familiar with yet.
So many excellent shots! I think I'm going to purchase that lens.
Thank you very much for sharing your outstanding photos with us. I recently switched from fullframe back to MFT due to cost and weight savings and I'm totally impressed with the capabilities.
Topaz is the tool I'm using as well and in my opinion it seems to work better with MFT sensors. There won't be any details lost, even wegen pushing the noise reduction to it's limits. Keep on going
Great review and superb photography!
Thanks for sharing 👍
Incredible shots, very well done :)
Thanks for the video! You got some nice captures with the 100-400. Your shots are very nice and reflect a lot of time spent pursuing them. I have the 100-400 on my back burner with the idea of using it for sports-action. It looks like it will do a super job there for a very good price. Thanks again for your review and thoughts on this lens.
These images are stunning.
Many excellent images. The pictures do not lie.
Great video and pictures!! Thank you
Really love your photos
Love the tennis ball idea. Subscribed. Really enjoy your videos. Your OM1 Bird detect with samples video has the comments off. So great job on that one too.
Very impressive. Thank you for the review
Fantastic review. The tennis ball is a great idea. I appreciate your thoughts on using a high ISO andTopaz Denoise. I am going to try this as I have both the software and the lens. I usually use a tripod. And I agree the lens is a keeper.
Thank you for the review. I'm going to rent the 100-400 for a week to experiment and find this video very helpful. Featuring the settings was a big help also. I will mostly be using it for bird photography. I currently use the 40-150 f2.08 + MC-20 and wanting a longer reach.
2nd time of watching and have just watched or animal detect but couldn’t comment. Just to say fantastic shots and so encouraging - I know what to aim for. Fingers crossed and a big thank you.
Anny, thanks for the well thought out video and for sharing the great photos. I agree with just about everything you said, including the great benefits from Topaz Sharpen AI and Denoise AI. Interestingly, I too have found that I get better image Stabilization results using only the IBIS in my E-M1X -- which, by the way is the best camera I have ever owned, hands down. If OMD Systems would do a firmware upgrade to add 'Starry Sky AF' and improved human eye recognition, the M1X would be the undisputed 'King' of Micro Four Thirds.
Great video, the first of yours I’ve seen. Really lovely photos. I like many others have been reluctant to push ISO in favour of shutter speed, but will be having a go now. I have the 40-150mm 2.8 pro and was wondering if you have done a similar review? Great work.
Nice video! Great photos as well. Topaz has certainly been a game changer for me. I am a M43 shooter (Panasonic G9) but for the past 9 or 10 months I have been shooting a Canon R6 with it’s magical bird tracking AF. But it’s definitely a load to carry. My heart is really with M43. The AF on the new OM-1 looks nice and the AI bird recognition may be a significant step forward for M43. If that bears out I would love to be able to sell my FF gear and go to M43 exclusively. If that happens this lens will be high on my list.
Great photos. I love my 300 Pro lens. Might have to give that lens a try.
Bonjour Anny,
thanks a lot for your effort showing these excellent real world examples shot with the Olympus 100-400.
After watching Robin Wong and your video, I am pretty sure that this lens can deliver.
But of course you need to know what you are doing. Long lenses are always challenging and many photographers do not have a clue about it.
Again thanks a lot and OM Systems should call you to become an OM Ambassador. They have so many 2nd best wildlife ambassadors out there which do not provide the same quality, you do here!
All the best!!!
Great review, great images! Love to see more!
I use ISO6400 for JPEG straight out of camera all the time (with low or no noise filter). Would even use ISO12800 if they enable it for Auto ISO. The new body appears to have the full range for Auto ISO. IBIS and lens IS seem to give similar results to me, but IBIS only appears quite jumpy in the EVF at 400mm while much more solid/stable at lower range.
Nice video thank you! I walk around with a high shutter speed for sudden action and birds in flight but I have a back button set to just drop the shutter speed down to about 1/320th to 1/500th for a stationary subject and then I can go back to my regular shooting. Best of luck to you!
Thanks for the tennis ball tip!!!
I love this lens for similar reasons, the 300 f4 was more expensive & limited with fixed focal lengths & I already had the MC14 (& MC20) to use with it if desired, but the 100-400 lens is my 'go to' wildlife lens (mostly birds around my home). It was a similar price for us too in Australia.
Do you have 40-150 pro? interest how it does with the mc-20 vs the 100-400mm. For me 300mm would be enough and I have a 40-150 so it'd be much cheaper to just get the mc-20
@@kirbygriffin778 I was using the MC20 with the 40-150 Pro lens, but I wanted more reach, hence I'm now using the 100-400 lens. Look up my photos in flickr with my same name here to see how good the results are (that I achieved), mostly of birds etc.
I rented this lens, and I was really happy with it. I just wish it were a little faster in terms of aperture. But then, it would be larger and more expensive.
I agree with your review. I also use Topaz. Will try the tennisball. Best wishes.
I just found this.....some of the images are SO sharp, they cut me!!!! Great review of what looks like something that is going to make my credit card cry.....
When you said boring that was your best picture
Wonderful video. I have just put together the same setup, including DXO software. Your comments on ISO have eliminated my apprehension to use much higher values. Thanks much !
bravo superbe images
nice video. thanks.
Fantastic Photo's I Have the Olympus EM1 Mark II with the 300f4 I'm over the Moon with it couldn't afford the mark 3 but Wildlife's my priority Hopefully I'll be getting some photo's of Wildlife in Lanzarote next week
excellent
Wow. Fabulous images. Amazing lens. Out of my $ range unfortunately
Off go buy a tennis ball. Amazing captures.
I'm contemplating this lens for aviation photography, judging by the birds you took in flight.
Recent subscriber. I know you use Olympus exclusively, but have you tried the panasonic equivalents? The panasonic system has hybrid stabilization that is supposed to be superb when you combine the in lens stabilization with the in body stabilization. I personally have the gx85 and have tried it with the 100 to 400 and that lens is on my wishlist when I can get the chance to buy it.
Wondering if you can make a short video of your denoising pics from Oly camera
Great video, I’m thinking of buying one, I already have the 40-150pro with both 1.4x & 2x. What’s it like with the teleconverters?
Hi, cool images. I wonder if you can try to compare it with the 40-150 and 2x teleconveter. I can't decide which option would be best... Thanks
Very interesting, which collimator settings are you using for BIF with the EM1 Mk III ?
thanks for the tennis ball suggestion, I'll try out this idea before jumping into a monopod. Just holding this lens for 3 hrs numb my finger for about a day. May I know if you had used an off camera flash for the damselfly shot ?
I love the Oly 100-400 on my Panny G9, but dang, I didn't get the version with the tennis ball :) must try that. The teleconverter issue meant the Panny 100-400 was not in consideration. Especiall since telecons make the Oly a superb macro lens. I love tele-macro because being further from the subjects means the just behave naturally because they have no fear of a close camera and person.. This Oly 100-400 is a very versatile l;ens that fills various roles for various people, but always providing superb image quality.
At 400mm which lens is better?
Nice review. Just a slight correction. The Panasonic 100-400 is compatible with Olympus bodies as thay use the same mount. You can't use in body and lens stabilisation combined when mixing and matching the 2 brands but the Panny 100-400 lens stability is first class in my experience. The Panasonic has the advantage of being faster at the short end which is useful when the light isn't great and the lens is lighter and more compact than the Oylmpus version. Having said that I don't think you could go wrong with either lens really. Both should do a great job
I may be wrong, but I believe she said you can't use the Olympus teleconverters with the Pany lens, and that is correct. Just for the record, I had the Pany lens and got a ton of great shots with it -- and the lens IS is excellent. I sold that lens and bought the Olympus 100-400mm and am glad I did. The Oly is a little larger and heavier, but it is also a tad sharper. In addition, with my E-M1X, I use only the IBIS with the lens IS turned off and get better image stabilization than I did with my Pany lens. I have just about quit using a tripod, other than as a camera rest when I'm not shooting. Both are excellent lenses, but I'm definitely getting better results from the Olympus lens.
@@gregm6894 I think there's quite a variation with the Panasonic lens samples. Some are clearly sharper than others. A fellow photographer had an identical set up to mine and could not get the same sharpness even when he copied every single setting in my camera. I know 2 others that own the 300 F4 as well as the Panny zoom and experience only marginally better resolution with the pro lens when comparing the 2 which is impressive. Luckily I've got a good copy too so not really worth switching, and living in the UK I'm greatful for the bigger aperture at the short end when the light isn't great. As I said before though either lens would be good
Thanks for your video and samples. I am currently using the Olympus 300 mm prime with a 1.4x teleconverter but am considering "downgrading" my glass to the 100-400 zoom for the reasons you explained: sometimes I find myself too close to the subject and it's impossible to move back. But also, sometimes the reach of the 300 + teleconverter is still insufficient. Sometimes the bird I'm trying to shoot is still too far away (perhaps across a lake) and with the 20 megapixel sensor there is only so much cropping one can do without losing detail and pixelating the image. So I am considering switching to the 100-400 zoom but also adding the teleconverter; that would increase my reach by about 1/3 to an effective 1,120 mm (full frame equivalent) resulting in less need for mega-cropping. My hesitation and questions for you are:
1. Image stabilization. I've never gotten a clear answer from anybody on this but the 300 mm prime's IS syncs with the body; the 100-400 zoom does not. I don't know what that means in practical terms. Do they fight each other so you have to choose between the 2? Or are they still additive and you can keep both on? I know Olympus released a firmware update for the bodies a while ago but the explanation is as clear as mud: "Image stabilization performance when using "M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 100-400mm F5.0-6.3 IS" has been improved. Roll compensation is available with the image stabilization function of the body, along with the pitch and yaw image stabilization function of the lens. NB: The "M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 100-400mm F5.0-6.3 IS" is not compatible with 5-axis Sync IS."
2. Do you have experience adding the TC to the 100-400 lens? I am concerned that at the longest focal length the lens will become extremely slow with a maximum aperture of f8. In good light I commonly use f8 anyway to get a bit better depth of field and focus reliability. But in low light situations or birds-in-flight I will use shutter priority and keep the lens wide open so that I don't go past ISO 5,000. Any thoughts on this??
By the way, my workflow is to run almost every image through Topaz Denoise as a RAW file before doing any processing whatsoever. You are right: that software really cleans up the noise nicely. I find that with wildlife images my Olympus OMD EM 5iii gives me somewhat noisy images even at ISO 400. So instead of dealing with them after processing I find it's easier to simply run everything through Topaz first.
Thanks!
My understanding is that to use that lens as described by Olympus, one must alter the IBIS settings. Then both the lens stab and IBIS complement each other, again as described by Olympus in your post. YT Robin Wong has two excellent videos on this lens, shoots both the M1 MkII and M5 MkIII. Search on YT for the videos.
Wong also has YT video images with the 2X TC at 400mm and shows only modest softness.
Do you find you have to fill the frame and avoid cropping with this lens. Great video
I be been lately comparing some Nikon and Olympus shots and I was surprised by getting approximately double ISO values on the Olympus using the same fstop (and prob approx the same t-stop) lens. Turns out, as per dxomark, the manufacturer iso is approx double of real iso , hence the difference. Which also explained to me why i was so positively surprised by let's say 2500 iso shots. Well cuz they are technically ~1250 .
Thanks....perfect review, this is the way to do it and with photos that tell us all we want to know. I think I'm going to have to get one.......Anyone for tennis?
Extraordinario tu video,mis felicitaciones.Me hubiese gustado pasar una jornada fotográfica contigo.Dispongo del mismo equipo y aprendería mucho.un saludo.
Hey Anny, maybe leave your Flickr handle somewhere so people can follow you there. Great images!
How bad is the IS? On my pany gh5 and the pany 100-400 I can handhold video no problem at all. Can you do the same with your combo ? I’ve got an om1 coming and will be a bit gutted if the oly combo can’t match the IS.
Thanks for this, how'd you think this lens would fare on the G9?
Unfortunately I've not used the G9.
@@AGag47 Thanks, I have the 40~150 Pro which works great, and the Panasonic stabilisation is fine
I mostly take widllife and landscape photographs, and I just laugh how people honestly think that you can't shoot with ISO 200 and f/8 anything.
There are moments when you need to raise shutter speed and exchange it with ISO from 200. Be it birds flying, or some animals jumping etc.
But I am from era when ISO 200 was considered fast, and ISO 1600 was considered as super fast and ISO 3200 was "You better be printing post stamp size".
Many doesn't even understand that famous landscape and nature photographers like Ansel Adams and others that started the f/64 group, did their photography with f/64 (hence the name) and for them the FAST shutter speed was 1".
You read it right... When they took a photo with one second exposure time, it was fast and rare. They more often used 4-8 seconds than faster. Using something like ISO 25 (comparable DIN), f/64, you got to exposure values that are:
- 3 stops slower by ISO (200 > 100 > 50 > 25)
- 6 stops slower by F-stop (f/8 > 11 > 16 > 22 > 32 > 45 > 64)
- few (6-7) stops slower exposure time (1/125 -> 1/60 > 1/30 > 1/15 > 1/8 > 1/4 > 1/2 > 1")
In total they worked with anywhere from 9 stops to 20 stops slower exposure....
Just let it sink for a moment...
Just think about it...
Sure they had instead 4/3" sensor a macificient 4x5" or 8x10" field cameras, but today a m4/3 camera with 4/3" sensor is superior by any means to anything those masters ever had.
There are even modern master printers, that are by the definition the masters of prints, that enjoy using a m4/3 cameras as they get a better results than they did with medium and even large format cameras.
When you are working to produce 30-40" prints (that is 75-100 cm diagonal print, so example something like 90x50 cm makes 103 cm diagonal) you need to learn to know how to frame the shot, and how much you can crop from your 16 Mpix image and what image works and what doesn't.
That means, you know can you get away with ISO 3200 or need to go to ISO 800 or 200 even?
So when people show photos taken with ISO 3200 or ISO 5000, I laugh, because those are really absurd ISO values considering what they would be thought just 15 years ago! Neverthless 20 years ago!
I look today some of the Nikon D2x shots (first DSLR for me) that offered 12 Mpix with ISO 3200 maximum extension (first one ISO 800). It was so crazy to shoot at a such values that you thought you never need more.
It is like people don't value the ISO values they have with m4/3 cameras when they think quality is bad when above 800...
HAH! The tennis ball is brilliant!
Please note that your audio is too low. According to YT, it is -16.0dB. Try and keep it as close to 0dB as possible.
Try 300 f4 you will be blown away…!!
I own both the Olympus 100-400 and the Nikon 200-500. Comparing my M1 mkII to a Z7...well there's no comparing mft to high resolution full frame, especially when cropping. Do I get decent photos with the Olympus system? Most definitely, but I get amazing photos with the Nikon system. The advantage the Olympus has is size and weight but when it comes to image quality the Nikon wins every time. Each can have their place, that's why I own both systems. .Different tools for different jobs.
thank you for your comment. I use M43 and FF but in 12 MPX cameras that it is time to renew. I do some nature and spotting, among other and was thinking which one to buy between the OM-1 and the 100-400 or a D500 and the Nikkor 200-500. And analyzing your comment and my previous experience with these sensor sizes, the fact that I can hardly cut in M43 keys me to the D500. I know that the Olympus have advantages that other systems don't offer, such as "Pro Capture" and the advantage of being compact, but I don't feel like using a denoise on every photo.
With Nikon you have to crop your images, with MFT - don’t. That’s the only difference. So why to use FF sensor and carry around all the stuff if you have to crop your “high resolution full frame” every time?
@@bulbigood6558 Cropping is far from the only difference. I don't crop every photo. My point was that is where you can really see the difference between systems. There's much more low light noise with a smaller sensor, not to mention the difference in dynamic range and bringing up shadows in post. I also find a major difference in dof and quality of background blur. There's plenty of good reasons why most pros shoot either full frame or medium format. MFT has advantages with size and weight and video overheating. That's why I own both.
Thanks for the tennisbal tip😉