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Fun with Olympus M.75-300 MK II

dirk

dirk

DPRF-Founder
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Joined
May 15, 2002
Messages
3,267
Hi,

I bought last summer the Olympus M-75-300/4.8-6.7 MkII specifically to make photos of my son while surfing.

Since there are often questions on the net how this relatively cheap zoom performs in general and on Panasonic cameras in particular, I wanted to show some images I made with that zoom and my Panasonic GX80/GX85.

All images are not edited. I simply took the RAW file and converted it in Adobe LR6 into a Jpeg with 1200x1200 pixel dimensions with maximum size limit of 500KB. No cropping. So the images shown are "the worst case" scenario :)

Since I had no experience with shooting surfers, I took the first images with too slow shutterspeeds. Even 1/1000s is too slow, to get critical sharpness IMHO

The GX80/85 did well with its AF tracking by the way. I was positively surprised...


P1010110_web.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/1000s
  • ISO 250


All photos were shot handheld. Almost all of them at 300mm (=600mm fullframe). Exif data are in the photos.

I will show more photos over the time, if time permits it...

Would be great if others could join and show their photos too...
 
Here is a series to show how the Panasonic GX80/GX85 is able to track with its AF with that Olympus zoom. All shots handheld. All I think at 1/2000s, open aperture @300mm and ISO 800. Exif data in the images.

This misfocused shots could be also my mistake. Maybe I was not stable enough pointing to my son so the AF picked up something else. I do not know. But the hit rate for a beginner in this kind of photography is very good IMHO.

web-1010171.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 500


web-1010172.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 500


web-1010173.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 400


web-1010174.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 500


web-1010175.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 400


web-1010176.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 400


web-1010177.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 500


web-1010178.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 500


web-1010179.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 500


web-1010180.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 500


web-1010181.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 500


web-1010182.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 500


web-1010183.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 500


web-1010184.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 500


web-1010185.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 500


web-1010186.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 500


web-1010187.jpg
  • Panasonic DMC-GX80
  • OLYMPUS M.75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II
  • ƒ/6.7
  • 300mm
  • 1/2000s
  • ISO 800
 
Some seriously good images!

That lens is pretty impressive - especially at its price-point. I still have the old 4/3 Zuiko 70-300 which works surprisingly well (and fast) on the E-M1 but is slower to achieve focus on any of the other Olympus m4/3 bodies (except, probably, for the E-M1 MkII which is way beyond my budget right now!). I doubt it would perform well on any moving subject on a Panasonic body. I think I might keep an eye on Ebay for a used copy of your lens...

And well done to your son - looks like he could be a natural surfer.
 
He just started to learn it and it seem to be more difficult than he thought it would be :)

I decided for this zoom because it is very small and light for this kind of range and images on the web from it seemed to be "good enough" for my purpose. The other option would have been the Panasonic 100-300mm, but that is bigger and heavier The Panasonic 100-300 is 1 stop faster, but for surfing weather is good enough to have low ISO and for DOF control, I would not go below f6.7.

I was surprised that even @600mm (in fullframe terms), it was not long enough to get tighter shots. But longer zooms are too heavy for me. I do not want to carry 3kg around during vacation... But with this IQ, you can crop easily to 50% and everything is still sharp and clear.

The image stabilization of the GX80 works amazingly good. I would have never believed that. If you turn IBIS off, you will see immediately a huge difference. Even at 1/2000s.

I found it very hard to keep the subject in the viewfinder. You breath a little too much and the surfer is not anmyore in the viewfinder. And with 600mm it takes time to find him again :)

Zooming out first and then zooming in was for me the fastest way to fnd him again.

Viewfinder blackout is no issue with the GX80 if you pick the fastest speed with which you can still follow everything. There is a specific setting for this in the menu.

This lens is for me a special purpsoe lens, which I will use onbly for the seldom situations like surfing etc. Although it is small and light for what it offers, it is too big and heavy for an all-around telezoom. For that I have the Panasonic 35-100/2.8 HD, which is an excellent zoom.

This is a side by side compariosn between the Panasonic 35-100/2.8 HD on the left, the Olympus 75-300 MkII in the middle and the Fujifilm XC50-230 on the right. All 3 zoomed out to the longest focal range. I made these photos before the vacation to make a decision which system and which lens to take with me on my vacation...


R0006577.jpg
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. GR
  • 18.3 mm f/2.8
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 18mm
  • 1/125s
  • ISO 560


R0006578.jpg
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. GR
  • 18.3 mm f/2.8
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 18mm
  • 1/125s
  • ISO 2200
 
JosephSavage said:
I like your photos, but the day was not too sunny, right?
Click to expand...

It was very sunny, but on the island Teneriffe, you have a lot of humidity. At 600mm you can see that on the photos. I did not use any filter/polarizer.
 
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