Olympus 100-400mm/5.0-6.3 IS - my review

[Petr Bambousek]

Hi, I am happy to share my personal experiences with brand new lens from Olympus. I had opportunity to test the lens for few weeks and finally even side by side with Panasonic 100-400.

Link to my review: https://www.sulasula.com/en/olympus-100-400-is/

Few sample pictures attached.

Have a nice m43 day

Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus M.Zuiko 100-400mm/5.0-6.3 IS

Olympus E-M1 III, Olympus M.Zuiko 100-400mm/5.0-6.3 IS

Olympus E-M1 II, Olympus M.Zuiko 100-400mm/5.0-6.3 IS

--
Petr Bambousek Wildlife Photography
http://www.sulasula.com/en/oly | http://500px.com/sulasulacom | http://instagram.com/sulasulacom | http://facebook.com/sulasulacom

 

[Dennis1972]

Photos look quite soft despite the small size you share.

Looks wayyyy over-sharpened as well.

Great photo nonetheless, but compromises and corners have to be cut on a "budgeted" 200-800mm f10 - f13 equiv lens.

 

[cpt kent]

Nice work, as usual.

Did you get the chance to actually use it with a TC?

 

[Marko_Finland]

Lovely review and pleasant shots as well.

Based on the review the lens does look interesting and will definitely have a closer look when it hits the market.

Performance wise looks quite similar to the Pana lens. The comparison though to my understanding was made between a review sample provided by Oly and an off the shelf Pana lens? At least in the industry where I work, there tends to be a bit more scrutiny on the review and test samples compared to actual serial production .

Marko

 

[Petr Bambousek]

Photos look quite soft despite the small size you share.

Looks wayyyy over-sharpened as well.

Great photo nonetheless, but compromises and corners have to be cut on a "budgeted" 200-800mm f10 - f13 equiv lens.

Yes, you are right, it is soft and oversharpened mess. I also cut all available corners to get at least something soft sharp. Based on your last forum activity you enjoy every m43 related post.

 

[Raist3d]

Looks pretty amazing. I wonder how sharp the lens is at 100% as a curiosity on the optics, but clearly at certain reasonable resizes-down plus I am sure print sizes it looks great.

Of course, I attribute the shot to you more than the lens, obviously

Obviously you are an Olympus ambassador so I take your review as a product demonstration more than review. But though I think comparisons by am ambasador with another brand (Panasonic) are usually a bit of bad form due to the inherent conflict of interest, I appreciate going into *details* with descriptions of those details and examples.

That's a lot of work- thanks for that.

--

Raist3d/Ricardo (Photographer, software dev.)- I photograph black cats in coal mines at night...
“The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it.” - George Orwell

 

[Petr Bambousek]

Nice work, as usual.

Did you get the chance to actually use it with a TC?

I did 1.4x, but I don't feel there are much situations to use it. My friend Rosta Stach (his review mentioned at the end of mine) tried more. It is quite challenging handheld over 800mm

 

[Petr Bambousek]

Lovely review and pleasant shots as well.

Based on the review the lens does look interesting and will definitely have a closer look when it hits the market.

Performance wise looks quite similar to the Pana lens. The comparison though to my understanding was made between a review sample provided by Oly and an off the shelf Pana lens? At least in the industry where I work, there tends to be a bit more scrutiny on the review and test samples compared to actual serial production .

Marko

Yes, I added the disclaimer it was preproduction sample (still fw version 1.0) to czech version later than translation to EN was made. I will add to EN version too

 

[Raist3d]

I see you are using the EM1-MKIII for all these shots. Any reason why you decided to pick the EM1 MKIII over the EM1X? I understand you have both but I could be wrong. Maybe you had a loaner for each and picked the EM1 MKIII to buy.

 

[Petr Bambousek]

Looks pretty amazing. I wonder how sharp the lens is at 100% as a curiosity on the optics, but clearly at certain reasonable resizes-down plus I am sure print sizes it looks great.

Of course, I attribute the shot to you more than the lens, obviously

Obviously you are an Olympus ambassador so I take your review as a product demonstration more than review. But though I think comparisons by am ambasador with another brand (Panasonic) are usually a bit of bad form due to the inherent conflict of interest, I appreciate going into *details* with descriptions of those details and examples.

That's a lot of work- thanks for that.

--

Raist3d/Ricardo (Photographer, software dev.)- I photograph black cats in coal mines at night...
“The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it.” - George Orwell

If you are interested in sharpness of the lens, feel free to check all pictures on shared Google drive folder. Those are virtually untouched directly saved from RAW.

 

[Vahur Krouverk]

Photos look quite soft despite the small size you share.

What are you talking about? Full size photos are available, no need to shoot from the hip.

Looks wayyyy over-sharpened as well.

Great photo nonetheless, but compromises and corners have to be cut on a "budgeted" 200-800mm f10 - f13 equiv lens.

I don't want to shoot lens with corners anyway, round barrel is much better to hold in hand...

 

[Raist3d]

[No message]

 

[Petr Bambousek]

I see you are using the EM1-MKIII for all these shots. Any reason why you decided to pick the EM1 MKIII over the EM1X? I understand you have both but I could be wrong. Maybe you had a loaner for each and picked the EM1 MKIII to buy.

 

[Vahur Krouverk]

Thanks for review. When I looked at spec and saw minimum focus 0.17m then it got quite interesting but it looks like typo and in reality it's 1.3 meters. Sigma lens which this seems to be based on has similar difference in spec and description (0.16 vs 1.6 meters):

https://www.dpreview.com/products/sigma/lenses/sigma_100-400_5-6p3_dg_os_hsm

Looks like nice lens but I'm on hold until 150-400 is available and then will see which zoom to buy. For now I'll be more than happy with my 300 mm.

 

[Petr Bambousek]

Thanks for review. When I looked at spec and saw minimum focus 0.17m then it got quite interesting but it looks like typo and in reality it's 1.3 meters. Sigma lens which this seems to be based on has similar difference in spec and description (0.16 vs 1.6 meters):

https://www.dpreview.com/products/sigma/lenses/sigma_100-400_5-6p3_dg_os_hsm

Looks like nice lens but I'm on hold until 150-400 is available and then will see which zoom to buy. For now I'll be more than happy with my 300 mm.

Based on my experiences with 100-400 I am looking to 150-400 even more. I found that midrange lens very interesting and based on that I expect to be 150-400 superexciting

 

[Raist3d]

I appreciate the answers. You know I am not a fan of the EM1X as an Olympus m43rds strategy camera ;-) , but I agree that it has great ergonomics and build.

 

[Vahur Krouverk]

Based on my experiences with 100-400 I am looking to 150-400 even more. I found that midrange lens very interesting and based on that I expect to be 150-400 superexciting

I'm sure that 150-400 will be optically good as they have polished lens elements long enough to achieve perfection For me deciding factors are price and weight.

 

[Auf Reisen]

Amazing shots as always, Petr.

Do I understand it correctly that you are saying that this lens is not offering Sync-IS with Olympus bodies? Or that the Sync-IS did not work as well as other lenses? Could that have to do with this being pre-production?

 

[Petr Bambousek]

Amazing shots as always, Petr.

Do I understand it correctly that you are saying that this lens is not offering Sync-IS with Olympus bodies? Or that the Sync-IS did not work as well as other lenses? Could that have to do with this being pre-production?

It is not IS synchro lens at all. I thought it was just sample lens "feature" but it is not officially synchronized (don't ask me why ). Attached on E-M1 III or E-M1 X it is 7EV vs 7,5EV difference so not big deal at all. But yes, once IS on the lens, why not allow sychro...

--
Petr Bambousek Wildlife Photography
http://www.sulasula.com/en/oly | http://500px.com/sulasulacom | http://instagram.com/sulasulacom | http://facebook.com/sulasulacom

 

[Sleepy Capybara]

So my PL 100-400 is only 340mm on the long end. Reason enough for me to opt Olympus.