Darin wrote:
> I'm thinking about getting a lens in the 300mm to 400mm range and was
> wondering what you all think of the Zuikos in that range? I know the Great
> White 350mm is supposed to be a great lens, but that would be way beyond my
> means. Any thoughts?
>
I think the 300/4.5 is a great lens. Nice solid optical performance over
a wide range of apertures. Relatively small and light, yet hefty enough
and with different balance with the tripod collar, that the vibration
problems that beset the shorter teles aren't much of a problem.
If you look at Gary's tests, you will see that the 300/4.5 with 1.4x
teleconverter starts to have vibration issues, but with aperture/mirror
pre-fire (and/or a 5# bag of lead shot), it is a 420/6.3 roughly
comparable performance to the 400/6.3. That combo is more flexible than
either lens alone.
He didn't test the 300 + 2x teleconverter with any sort of vibration
control. It's a lot better with an OM-4Ti and mirror/aperture pre-fire
on a CF (vibration resistant) tripod than his test indicates.
If you want zoom flexibility, there's the Tokina 100-300/4 that AG is
liking a lot. There are also a Tokina 150-500/5.6 and similar Tamron
200-500/5.6. there's a big penalty of size and weight for those. The
Tamron is probably easier to find, as it's an Adaptall2, so any one of
them can be fitted to OM.
For a first class 400, there's the Tamron SP 400/4. Bigger, heavier and
much faster than the Zuiko and a better performer.
Moose
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