Thanks, Ken. When I used to shoot Canon, I used to shoot quite a bit
of telephoto. And never "nature" (wildlife) photography :-)
In my opinion, there are so many more exciting things than "look,
ANOTHER Elephant/Giraffe/Lion/Hippo/Bird" (hey, I live in South
Africa, give me a break - most serious amateurs here become amateur
wildlife photographers - it's so clichéd, and so easy - drive a couple
of minutes / hours to the nearest game park, point yer' big tele lens
out the window, and snap away. Where's the fun in that??)
My past favourite lens was Canon's 200mm f/2.8L - still such an
amazing lens, equivalent to 250mm FOV on my then 1D-series body. When
I got into the OM system, I thought the 300mm f/4.5 would give me back
some of that style of shooting, but it inevitable never did, I simply
do not use that lens enough. Reasons are:
- f/4.5 is simply way too slow for my needs, I am not a tripod kind of
guy, and no longer can I crank the ISO up to a clean ISO3200
- 300mm is a little bit too long for my style
- I've complained about it before, but the OM 300/4.5 is a pain in the
@ss to focus quickly/smoothly because of the massive lens extension,
and also the long minimum focusing distance
As I said, I suspect the 180/2.0 would have fit my needs ever so
slightly better, and I had settled on the idea of one, "one day" -
also because I was always under the impression that the 250/2.0 was
simply unobtainable. In short, it would have been the more practical
choice. I've never been too much of a practical guy though (otherwise
I'd not be shooting B&W film in an OM-1 day-to-day to begin with).
Anyway, when the 250mm F2 opportunity presented itself, the rest
really is history. For somebody who is such a committed daily user of
the OM system, and planning to be so for a couple of years to come, it
all of the sudden made sense to obtain "this non plus ultra" of the OM
system, with the intent of mastering it. And building some seeeerious
chest / arm / back muscles hand-holding this thing.
This lens is the shallow-DOF-lover's dream. I mean, in this shot,
although I admit I was shooting at f/2.0 all morning just to test
performance, I was a hundred meters plus away from the boat, yet I
could easily isolate it from the not-too-distant background to isolate
it, and draw the eye to the main subject. Not everybody's cup of tea,
but I love the ability to do this, and it is this aspect, more than
any other, which I will use and master with the 250/2.0.
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs51/f/2009/317/c/e/Bert__s_Tub_by_philosomatographer.jpg
Otherwise, I'd much rather be out and about with the optically great
200mm f/5 with its 49mm filter. Damn, the REAR (slot-in) filters of
the 250/2.0 beast is about that size (46mm).
Ken, in closing, I feel your pain man - when it comes to items with
limited availability, one man's realisation of a shared dream
inevitably hurts somebody else. Oh well, think of all the cash I saved
you :-)
A couple of weeks ago, I was begging the list to show me some sample
shots made with the lens. I can't tell you how thrilling it is to be
able to produce my own now, as I get to know the lens.
regards,
Dawid
On 13 Nov 2009, at 10:37 PM, Ken Norton wrote:
>>
>> Give the guy a break, Piers. He's just hocked the furniture and the
>> missus to get the 250!
>>
>
> My sincere apologies to John and a congratulations to Dawid. I was
> going to
> buy the 250/2 myself but the price exceeded my allowable budget by
> about a
> thousand bucks. Man, I wanted that lens!
>
> But, Dawid, I'm glad to see you get it and even though the pain of a
> month's
> starvation is discomforting, rest assured that most of us could
> stand to
> fast for a few weeks. I know that if I were a fish, I wouldn't have
> to worry
> about being tossed back in the water.
>
> Nice shots, and I'm looking forward to seeing you become the master
> 250/2
> user.
>
> AG
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