This is the first image of the almost final version of the upcoming new Olympus 300mm f/4.0 IS PRO Zuiko lens. As you can see Olympus added in lens stabilization as there is a new IS on/off switch. In short here are some features sent to me by an anonymous source:
1) The same retractable lens hood design as 40-150mm
2) minimum focus distance: 1.4m
3) IS on/off switch
4) focus limiter switch
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Thanks to the anonymous source who sent me this!
53 Responses
Lookin’ good!
1.4m minimal focus distance for a 300mm (600mm equiv.) lens is very nice indeed. While the ZD 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 (also as a 280mm f/4.9, when used with EC-14), though, gets even closer (1.2m)…
Yes, 1.4m is nice, but I was secretly hoping it would be a bit closer. I’m guessing that the magnification of the 300mm f4 will possible be greater than the 50-200mm with a 1.4x converter. Zooms tend to shorten their focal length more than primes at their closest focus distance. Although this depends on lens design.
Now all they need to do is start selling them 😉
OLY only have to set up a good store in S.A. and a comparison E-M1II with Canikon and the lenses + camera will sell like cheecake !
This should be one of the best in m4/3. I doubt Olympus will disappoint us on this one… I’m expecting 75 1.8 level of optical perfection.
How big is this compared to e.g. Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8?
Probably about double the size and triple the weight.
The difference should be huge. The 35-100mm f/2.8 isn’t very big, even compared to the Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8.
Thanks for the info on the closest focusing distance. This is what I was waiting to hear. Whilst it is good, and about as close as any current 300mm f4 prime will focus, I was hoping for it being a touch closer. I would be interested to see what the magnification is at the closest focus. This is what really matters, and it depends on the lens design, and how much it shortens it’s focal length. I’m guessing the reproduction ratio will be somewhere between 1:4 to 1:3, and of course it will be better with the 1.4x converter attached.
I had money put aside for this lens, but it came too late and I had to get a Tamron 150-600mm and a 70D to tide me over as I needed something now for some projects. I’m likely to get an E-M5 mkII or E-M1 for the focus bracketing along with the 60mm macro. I’m still interested in this lens long term for the carry around lightness. However, I admit in the shorter term that I’m likely to get a Canon 100-400mm mkII. I got the Tamron to keep a bit of money aside and to think about which way to go. I’m a bit worried that the Olympus and Panasonic/Leica 100-400mm will be a bit over-priced at first.
What’s the difference compared to the legacy 4/3? Focus speed? I mean the specs are the same? I understand that telephoto users most of times shoot moving subjects… yet, OLY is not really that sort of tool and F4 s pretty dark. The legacy one is still extremely good… and way cheaper.
The difference is in size. The F4 lens is more compact and light weight.
Yep. Got it. Sorry. Dunnow why I was talking OLY but I had in mind something different. Been using too many different platforms lately…
What legacy lens are you talking about Michele?
The only one I know of is the 300/2.8, which sells for over $6k?!!
You are right DonTom, my bad! The 4/3 300 is F2.8 and is a massive bazooka, now that I recall! And expensive as you say…! For some reason I over impressed over a Nikon 300… dunnow why! Sorry guys!
Got it guys. My bad! I had wrong recollection of the old OLY 300…
Also…we have no price on this lens yet. …and I for one, am not believing the chatter here from unknown sources.
It’s evident, that this Picture is a fake. The lens hood optically doesn’t fit to the lens…
It made me wonder. The lens hood for the ZD 35-100mm f/2.0 (or even the 14-35mm f/2.0) is huge.
What makes you say that? The 40-150 hood this is supposedly based off/the same as rotates then slides back along the barrel of the lens for storage. This looks like it fits quite nicely.
I can tell you, that it is no fake. My brother was in tokyo and he have seen the lens in an meeting with Sigma. But the problem is, that lens will cost between 3.799 – 3.899 €.
Greets Peter
I also read somewhere that a most likely price would be over 2000$. I was wondering if it couldn’t be cheaper fitting a speed booster adaptor and using a FF Canon/Nikon lens (cheaper). You loose 0.7 of cropping, but you earn 1 stop of light… The only problem is that you can do it on EM5. I saw a vid showing how speed booster will not fit EM1 because of a sort of design issue.
The trouble is, in order to use a Speed Booster and a Canikon lens, you would need a 420mm f5.6 lens to match it. A Canon 400/5.6 still costs $1200, and then you wouldn’t have very good autofocus (if you had it at all), and a huge 3lb setup. Seems like a poor substitute.
Well, certainly it would be a compromise. I have just started getting into it, mostly for movies, but it looks promising. I believe the OLY 300 will be much more expensive than that. A Sigma 70-300 with the F you says is pretty cheap. With Canikon you climb a bit, but still stays under 1000$ (I am referring to Amazon.jp). You have to go to Nikon 300 F4 to climb to around 1600$. But, as said, yes it is a compromise. I’am just skeptical about the buyers at the price it will be proposed. It usually is a price of optics fit for higher end cameras. I myself am still reluctant investing in the new 40-150, which is way cheaper, yet expensive for what OLY can deliver professionally. As a matter of fact I am using used 50-200 at less than half its price (plenty on the market even if you waste it by chance in action). Not that much bulkier.
I’d also expect it to come in well over 2000. It’s an exotic telephoto, the longest prime in the system, of which nearly perfect optical performance will be expected. It needs to deliver to sensors that amount to at least 64 MP on FF in terms of resolution (on a per mm basis).
I higly doubt that, it wouldn’t be competitive or even in the same price range with anythin similar for that price.
$3800 would clearly be way over board (at least for me).
And the rumors for the 100 400 are more $1500 $1700 …
I agree, I doubt the market would be huge if it retails for over $2000. It will be small enough at $1800, given that there is probably a new EM-1 next year. Anyone buying this lens would probably want the latest AF system to go with it. Kind of an expensive year coming up!
Rumour is that the Panasonic 100-400 will likely be in the $1500-1700 range according to representatives.
If the Olympus 300mm/f4 is 3.799 – 3.899 € I might expect them to sell…a dozen of them? Maybe?
If that minimum focus distance is true, that makes this almost a macro lens.
300mm and 1.4m MFD = 0.45x magnification (1:2.2) which is really surprising and impressive.
Assuming the effective focal length is still 300mm at MFD which is far from guaranteed.
Fair point. Anyone have a sense of the order of magnitude of typical focus breathing?
Not really possible to say without knowing more about the optical design. The 12-40 and 40-150 have almost zero focus breathing but the 7-14 breaths pretty noticeably near MFD. I would hope they try to minimize focus breathing but we’ll just have to wait and see. Also, the Canon 300 F/4 has a similar MFD and corresponding magnification so it definitely wouldn’t be unheard of for the same to happen with the Olympus.
I was about to write on that.
I’ve kept on saying for quite a while that long macro is missing to the line up. Well, now we are about to have very long macro 🙂
edit : I’ve noticed a focus limiter on the Leica zoom too.
Yes, but that’s based on the assumption that it is still 300mm focal length at it’s minimum focusing distance. Almost no lens retains it’s focal length close-up. Primes tend to preserve more of their focal length than zooms. I expect it to have a a reproduction ration of somewhere between 1:4 to 1:3. This is simply based on what the other 300mm f4 primes on the market achieve at a minimum focus distance of between 1.5m to 1.4m.
this lens was prefect for bird shooters. What we need is an em1 mkii with much improve continues focus tracking AF system. Which similar with Sony a7R ii 399 pdaf but give much better frames per second and huge buffer……
yes we can see the IS switch thanks….
Seems like they really beefed up the tripod ring quite a bit compared to the earlier prototypes. I wonder if that means they had to either increase the weight of the lens significantly or the center of mass moved forward for some reason.
Thoug even if I had the money I would rather buy Panaleica 100–400 this is a remarcably good and highly welcomed addition, hope the price will not be that high.
Not everyone is fixated on the minimum focus distance. Much more important to me is the sharpness with 1.4x teleconverter, bokeh quality, autofocus accuracy and continuous AF performance (I know the camera matters here too–hopefully the E-M1II will help improve that), build quality, etc. Is that an Arca Swiss groove on the lens foot? Hope so.
Dave
The only hope I have is that they’ll actually support the Panasonic lens IS when Olympus put their cooperating IS patent into operation.
Birdwatchers will be happy with the 300mm, though, regardless but the IBIS wouldn’t be enough by itself.
[note I was the “Anonymous Source” that sent this to the admin; I gave him this handle, just had not signed up until now] -Nihao, all!
1. I wouldn’t bet much on it, but the best thing that could happen for m43 would be if Pana and Oly both start thawing the freeze of locking out the other’s lens features, starting w/ OIS.
2. Min Focus Distance imho, should be considered right up there with the most important specs of most any lens, and I applaud Oly for their trend of not ignoring it in the PRO line. It can really expand the usefulness of a given lens, prime or zoom. I’d like to see Pana continue tp compete in this area going forward (their 45 does. I think they should make even closer focusing more of a priority. It would be a great quality to associate a brand or a given lens line).
3. Focus Breathing, too: it would be nice to see more attention paid to this attribute, it will become increasingly important as video use evolves. But it can make lens design harder =more expensive.
Sounds like they’re rushing to get this out on the street before the Panasonic. Price?
This lens is obviously anything else but an „almost final version“.
It seems cobbled together from existing parts, and as Sigma has a role in it, it might be a part from a completely different system.
“As you can see Olympus added in lens stabilization as there is a new IS on/off switch.”
Not seeing any evidence here of lens stabilisation. Just an on/off switch for image stabilisation. Given that this lens is designed to fit directly onto a tripod (which is when you don’t want IS), a quick way of turning IS off seems sensible.
My bet: no lens stabilisation.
I would hope for the arca swiss type rail foot shown here (IMO a missed feature of the 40-150), However, even the foot doesn’t look final to me, so it might be just a prtotype feature.
No. That’s just dumb. There’s no way Olympus would add an extra switch for the body IS on the lens when there’s already the L-FN button that could be assigned for that use if the user wanted.
Well, any function to swtch IS on the lens is kind of redundant… this switch does not proof anything.
There is no dedicated IBIS switch on any other Olympus lens. The switch is quite obviously not for IBIS.
That’s a pretty ‘unsmart’ (read ‘dumb’) comment to make. First of all, Olympus released a patent for Dual IS where it will allow the lens to operate its OIS fully but added rotational correction in body only. This IS switch on the lens is pretty good proof that it will be OIS (unless it could by some slim chance be a fake, which I doubt).
That is really ugly ! most Zuiko’s are quite lovely but that think is really ugly!
I don’t agree. It would be better if the photo hadn’t been taken through glass with all those reflections and bloom.
This is fugly, I agree. However, this looks not at all like a near production lens. This is a lens prototype cobbled together – eventually by Sigma (who work together with Olympus in lens designs). Which makes the whole „proof“ thing pretty weak if you ask me.