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So helpful, thank you!!! For BIF with busy background, at what distance in metres would you place the cutoff for the OM-1 comparable advantage vs the A1?
How would this compare to a FE Sony 400mm f2.8 if you or someone has any experience shooting with both? Thank you!!!
Extremely helpful and thoughtful, thank you very much. I have updated a bit my current thinking in another thread here.I have never shot the Sony 400mm but have shot exotic teleprimes for Canon and Nikon. In terms of sharpness and detail resolution, I expect it to be a wash. The Olympus 300mm is insanely sharp - no 300mm lens of any other manufacturer even comes close. For similar framing, you will get more detail with the 400mm and A1 thanks to the bigger sensor and more megapixels.
However in real life, you can rarely get a similar framing on a wild bird with a 400mm lens and a lens with a 600mm equivalent reach. So you will have to crop the photo from the A1, which eliminates the noise and detail advantage. You will be able to shoot the 300mm from farther away, and will need the Sony 600mm to get the sensor size and noise advantage again.
More importantly, with the Sony 400mm or 600mm, you're looking at 6lb+ lenses which cost $12,000 or more. The Olympus 300mm weighs less than half as much and costs under $3000 new. Plus, you can find used 300mm Pros in excellent condition around $1600-$1800. As inexpensive as a used Sony 200-600 but better in every respect - brighter, better built, sharper etc.
With the Sony primes you will have to use a tripod much of the time. With the Olympus, you can leave the tripod at home. This may or may not be important to you.
For grouse in flight, you will obviously get a cleaner image with the Sony 400mm f2.8 thanks to the brighter aperture and full frame sensor (unless cropped). However for grouse who are on the ground, it isn't necessarily true. The OIS of the 300mm Pro syncs with the camera body's IBIS to give stabilization that is impossible to achieve in other systems. With good technique, you can easily shoot sharp, handheld photos even with the 2x TC on (1200mm equivalent reach) at f8 and 1/10 sec or 1/5 sec! This takes away the Sony's ISO advantage and would also require setting up a tripod first.
So there are pros and cons, and many photographers use Micro Four Thirds along with a full frame system to get the benefits of both. Also, I am a (serious) hobbyist and you are, I believe, a professional who sells photos to clients. So it also depends on whether your clients want 50 MP files shot with negligible noise. Then again, that difference is often minimal and can be all but eliminated in post processing. Also, with Olympus you'll get the kinds of shots that you probably won't with a different system. All I'll say is, don't knock it till you try it.
Thank you very much arbitrage! The more I learn about the OM-1 the more I feel it could do a good job for me; ProCapture looks spot on (for what I do). I would love to try one too, but it might not be possible without paying for it...
Thank you for the example... ProCapture looks really useful
Please keep us updated on your findings, it should be valuable info for the AF system
Apologies, just to clarify, so generally speaking any BIF (even if against busy background) further than 5 meters away, in your experience so far, you would pick the A1 over OM-1 to attempt the shot? Not trying to put you on the spot or anything or particularly defend one vs the other, I am just trying to figure out what would work best for me! And as far as I know, you are the one person lucky enough to own both! Many many thanks in advance
yes, of course it is, thank you
Thank you again, invaluable info all along from your comparison and experience. I guess I want it all... and that is not possible!
Sorry further question please, what sort of loss of AF lock speed would you expect by using the 300mm f4 Pro vs the PL 200mm f2.8? You mentioned that you preferred the rendering of the PL, have you also tested the 300mm and could you expand a bit on how they compare to each other in your view?
Once again, thank you so much for sharing all your findings on both cameras, it has really helped me a lot
www.sulasula.com
200mm is too short for me.
So useful, thank you very much for taking the time to provide so much informationCzech photographer Petr Bambousek used to shoot the Olympus 300mm but switched to the Panasonic 200mm because he liked the focal length more. His review is worth a read.
OM-1 in Ecuador (part 2) | Petr Bambousek | Wildlife Photography
I do not own the 200mm - I would if 300mm wasn't my most-used focal length (I agree with Fsi that it has better rendering for out of focus areas). I have been shooting 300mm on Micro Four Thirds since I got into photography, starting with a Canon FD 300mm f4 S.S.C.
However, I do own the Panasonic 50-200 which comes close to the 200mm in terms of performance. In terms of AF speed, it's just as fast as the 300mm Pro. I find the 300mm slightly faster, but it's so close that it might be my bias. For a long time, I thought that the AF was slower on the Panasonic. It turns out that having the OIS on was slowing the AF ... ever since I turned it off, it's about as fast as the 300mm Pro.
However, as I've said, the 300mm Pro's OIS syncs with the camera's IBIS to make the excellent Olympus stabilization downright unreal. On paper, it provides a 1 stop advantage over IBIS alone, but I know for a fact that I get much better stabilization than I used to with my Canon 300mm f2.8L. What I mean is, on paper the 300mm f4 OIS + Olympus IBIS should be equal to the 300mm f2.8 used with the body's IBIS alone (since f2.8 has an inherent 1 stop advantage), but I find the f4 lens rock steady in low light, leading to sharper photos. Of course if you're shooting fast action in low light, the f2.8 lens will be better.
The 300mm Pro has some nice touches that would make me prefer it over the 200mm, even if FL weren't a factor. Olympus tests each focus motor individually, and only the best ones go into the 300mm Pro and 150-400 Pro. The 300mm Pro has 2 AF motors which make AF fast. I do not know about the Panasonic. It has an ARCA Swiss tripod foot. And an integrated lens hood. Also has a programmable button which I do not use. The Panasonic's button won't work with the OM-1.
Also, keep in mind that a 1.4x TC (included for free with the Panasonic 200mm) will bring it to 280mm f4. The 300mm Pro has an inherent reach advantage that means that it can go all the way to 1200mm equivalent whereas the Panasonic maxes out at 800mm. Even with the 1.4x TC, the 200mm is plenty sharp, but a bare 300mm will always be sharper.
They’ve been easily available in Australia. I got mine at launch.
Hey only 15 and half hours from Los Angeles International!
The photos I've shared were taken last year with my E-M1ii. Fsi22 is the one with the OM-1 and he's been running the tests. I too have my camera on order with Roberts Cameras and haven't heard a peep yet. They had received a batch 2 weeks ago but looks like it wasn't our turn yet, lol.
