Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 Pro Lens Part 1: For Photography

A couple of weeks ago I managed to get my hands on one of the first Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 Pro lenses available in Australia, or so my local retailer told me.

The Oly 40-150mm is the perfect size and weight distribution for the Panasonic GH4. You can hand hold this for a long period of time and it doesn’t feel front-heavy. Unfortunately, there are some trade-offs when you use this combination. Firstly, you aren’t provided with any image stabilisation. This is something to consider because, when shooting at the long end, you really ought to be using shutter speeds above 1/300 sec. The Panasonic GH4 does not deal well with noise and so this constrains the Oly 40-150mm for use in times when the scene is moderately lit. Secondly, the GH4 is able to shoot photos at a rate of knots but it lacks autofocus accuracy to a fairly significant degree. I find that ordinarily I might only get 2-3 shots out of 10 remotely in focus when using the high-frame burst rate. Now you might be inclined to blame the user but my shot accuracy when I was working as a sports photographer was much higher than that, albeit with a Canon 1D mkIV.

On the Olympus OMD EM-10 this lens is way too front-heavy and is reasonably fatiguing to carry around for the average person. In my mind this makes the lens somewhat redundant as a micro-four thirds. The weight unbalance is a shame because this lens really shines as a photography lens on the Olympus system. The in-built image stabilisation makes quite a difference when shooting at the extreme lengths of this lenses range. The Olympus OMD EM-10 seems capable of providing the user with a good 8 out of 10 shots when the subject is relatively stationary. And if you are into pixel peeping the Olympus is generally sharper at 200% than the shots the Panasonic produces that are in focus.

The range of this lens is phenomenal. Being able to have a range equivalent to that of the Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 in 35mm for half the price and almost a quarter of the weight makes this a serious option for the micro-four thirds user. Now I understand that there is a greater depth of field with the smaller sensor size of a micro-four thirds camera and this might not be desirable. But unless you need razor thin depth of field the aperture translation shouldn’t be particularly off-putting to those considering buying into micro-four thirds. I would go so far as to say this lens is wasted as a micro-four thirds lens. This is based on a number of observations:
1. no current micro-four thirds mounted camera has enough mega-pixels to push this lens. Granted, the new Olympus OMD EM5 mkII has a feature which allows you to shoot 40MP, in the right conditions. Despite this gimmick this lens feels a bit like what the Zeiss Otus does on a full-frame DSLR, the camera is very clearly the weakest link affecting optimum image quality;
2. The autofocus features on current micro-four thirds cameras fall short of what is ideal to utilize this lens as a sports lens. I will continue to try various settings in an attempt to increase my image retention rate from my high-frame burst rates. Perhaps the more expensive Olympus OMD EM1 would be more suitable than the Panasonic GH4 or the Olympus OMD EM10 for this type of shooting. Regardless I will be keeping a close eye on future micro-four thirds releases and what they offer in regards to advanced autofocus features.
3. Both the Panasonic GH4 and the Olympus OMD EM10 have significant ISO limitations. I struggle to retain usable detail in photos I shoot at ISO 800 on either of these cameras.

Having said all this I believe the results I got using the Oly 40-150mm with the Oly EM10 are fantastic for most purposes. The Oly 40-150mm is quick to focus, it changes focal length with ease and provides a very impressive final image. Having two options for the manual focus ring is highly desirable. When the attached tripod mount is used the centre of gravity for the camera/lens combo is perfect. While this is more relevant for videography (which I will discuss in part 2 of my review) this is worth considering if you want to photograph birds and other wildlife.

I have included some photos I took at my cousins wedding utilizing the Oly 40-15mm + Oly EM10 combo. Judge for yourself the quality of the lens.