Nikon and Canon Photographers scooped up most of the wildlife awards.

C Sean wrote:

• Olympus 300mm

That with the 1.4x TC to be a 420mm f/5.6 and then patented and rumored 2x TC.

• 500mm F4

Surprisingly the 500mm F4 were featured heavily in the award winning images. Maybe because the lens is cheaper than both the 400mm F2.8 and the 600mm F4. Also the lens has further reach than the common 100-400 4.5-5.6 and shallow depth of field.

Nope, not for the shallow DOF. It is for the deeper DOF that is wanted but when it is in expense of slower shutter speed, people go for higher shutter speed.

It seems to be popular for award winning wildlife photographers and maybe we could get our own 250mm F4 for the M43 format.

Just wait that Olympus release 150-450mm f/4 PRO and you don't even look at the set of primes (200-300-400mm). You would pay for it, you would carry it, but that is the thing with these 300mm+ lenses anyways.

• Canon 100-400 and Nikon 80-400.

This could also include the Nikon 200-500. It shouldn't be a surprise the backbone lens of wildlife and sport photography would feature heavily in the photo competition. On a full frame camera and shot wide open, it will create a thin depth of field and a lot of photographers usually stop down.

Yes, stop down for the deeper DOF and increased sharpness (critical with the primes when need to crop later as your shallow DOF can be too shallow until at f/5.6-11 range when cropping etc).

Sadly M43 doesn't have a lens like this except for the Panasonic 45-200 and that probably the worst Panasonic zoom lens. But there are alternatives like the approx 75-300 and the approx 40-150 range.

40-150mm PRO lens is a great combo with the TC. But it is not for those who can't get close like tiny birds at 7+m distances or bigger animals like bears and moose at 50-100+m distances.

• Nikon 200-400 F4

Surprisingly the Nikon 200-400 F4 featured heavily and I don't think I saw a single shot from the more expensive Canon counterpart with the in built teleconverter. The good news is Panasonic will be releasing their own version of this lens aka 50-200mm F2.8-4. It probably cost one third of the Nikon and one fifth of the Canon's.

Would like to see that lens more as a 50-200mm f/4 constantly. But if that rarely used feature gets more buyers... then be it.

• Conclusion.

Approx five years ago both Olympus and Panasonic were starting to release pro lenses and bodies in the M43 format. We saw the GH3/EM5 and later the 35-100mm 2.8/40-150mm 2.8. Both lenses were great for animals and birds who were close but there weren't the long telephoto lenses to back up the mid telephoto zooms.

Problem still is not the gear, it is the weather conditions and foliage. You most often get close to wild animals in under 50m with big animals and with smaller ones like birds we are talking about 5-10m ranges. Sometimes you will end up to wrong location in wrong time while something nice happens (let's say you are moving middle of field when a pair of eagles lands on treetop 100m from your location. They know you are there but do you dare to approach them and then raise and point gear to them?).

Later we saw the release of the GH4 and the EM1. Finally a year later we finally got our long expensive telephoto lenses with the Panasonic 100-400 and the Olympus 300mm.

100-400mm is a great lens because it is a zoom. It got even better year ago since E-M1 Mk2 as one stop better sensor performance so that lens became like f/2.8-4.7 compared to GH4.

I will be studying the pictures more but there were pictures I think I could get the same results or similar with my existing M43 kit. The only problem is when it comes to the blurred background the M43 can't compete very well against the Full Frame cannons. That said do you want cheaper and smaller gear or do you want very large lenses to create truly stunning art shots.

Shallow DOF != key to stunning shot.

Learn the lighting, composition and then learn the subjects behavior and then study individual behavior and your given situation where you are. That is the key to the success. Not the shallow DOF.

Ugly light is ugly light no matter how you blow half of the subject out of focus.

Ugly timing is ugly timing no matter how you blow half of the subject out of focus.

Ugly pose is ugly pose no matter how you blow half of the subject out of focus.

Ugly individual is ugly individual no matter how you blow half of the subject out of focus.

No matter how you get all those above things right, but if half of the subject is out of focus, it is out of focus, but you still can get a rare shot that no one else has got before and bring you fame. But same thing is with noise, missing focus or even having most ugliest background ever.

It will be interesting to see what the bokeh will look like on the PL 50-200 and maybe we will see a 500mm F4 for micro four thirds if the system would benefit from the lens.

The system doesn't benefit from the primes as much as it would a usable 150-450mm f/4 PRO ZOOM compatible to TC's from Olympus. Already the Panasonic 100-400mm is great, but it is just those extra 1.3 stops that is holding back at the long end and its softness.

It is almost better just to invest to 75-300mm and shoot at f/8 anyways to get enough DOF on subject.