The slow speed does mean that it's not optimum for birding or other fast action where there's limited light, so you'll want to look at the f/2.8 Pro lens if you're serious about sports and wildlife shooting. My point is that I could easily have parted with the lens in the early days. However, I would then have missed out on one of the best lenses produced for Micro Four Thirds. The lens gives excellent results in terms of sharpness, bokeh and versatility. It is certainly the biggest lens for MFT but don’t be fooled by its appearance. It is actually not that big for what it delivers. One of the best things about Olympus latest cameras is surely the JPEG engine. I think the Truepic 7 Image Processing engine is doing a fantastic job at countering all the technical lens flaws. I almost do not see any Chromatic Aberration (CA), even if there was color fringing in high contrasty area, they were not too intrusive and are very efficiently controlled. There is no noticeable distortion (usually not a big issue with long lenses). Also, the overall look of the photograph resulting from this lens looked punchy and lively straight out of the camera. I did not do much post-processing to the images I am showing in this blog entry, they are all almost as good as straight out of camera. With the lens set to its maximum aperture of f/4, there is some light fall-off in the corners, requiring you to stop down by at least 2 f-stops to completely prevent it.

Featuring a 35mm equivalent focal range of 80-300mm, the OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm F4.0 Pro offers a constant maximum aperture of f/4 throughout its zoom range, plus fast and quiet auto focusing.

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If this is the first article you’re reading about this lens, I can tell you in advance that the 40-150mm is a great lens, perhaps one of the best MFT lenses I’ve had the pleasure to test. I used it for dance shows, day and low-light events, animals, portraits and other situations to discover how well it can serve the Micro Four Thirds system. E-M1, 1/640, f/ 2.8, ISO 200 – 97mm E-M1, 1/640, f/ 5.6, ISO 200 – 56mm E-M1, 1/200, f/ 2.8, ISO 3200 – 45mm The lens weights about 760g without the tripod mount, which is heavier than the E-M1 or any other MFT camera. I decided to use it with the E-M1 without the HLD-7 battery grip, not only to keep the combo as small as possible but also to see how the extra weight and size would affect the usability of a system known to be more compact than this. After carrying it around every day for my daily work for two weeks, I can say that in the end that the weight and size don’t make a huge difference, as the lens still fits nicely inside my primary camera bag, the Lowerpro Event Messenger 150. Yes, the lens is big but still compact enough for the zoom range it covers. The 40-150mm has a new dual linear motor that makes it extremely silent. When I used it during a contemporary dance show that often had moments without music, I could only hear a little noise if I leaned my ear toward the lens. So, yes, it is silent. E-M1, 1/100, f/ 2.8, ISO 2000 Inside the 40-150mm f2.8 Pro there are 16 elements in 10 groups including ED, Super ED, EDA and HD elements. Essentially these technologies are designed to reduce internal light dispersion (ED stands for Extra-low dispersion, EDA is Extra-low Dispersion Aspheric and HD is High refractive index & Dispersion) and improve image quality and contrast. While you're not going to get pro lens levels of detail, the 40-150mm R delivers good sharpness across almost the entire zoom range. As you'd expect, things get a bit soft at the long and wide ends, with peak performance reached in the mid-range –though there's some weakness in the corners throughout.

Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or blue fringes along contrasty edges, are not too much of a problem with the OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm F4.0 Pro lens, except in areas of very high contrast. There isn’t much else to say in conclusion except that which I said at the start: the 40-150mm is a wonderful lens. Along with having great optical performance and a versatile zoom range, it is also an important step forward for a system that is becoming more and more mature and complete with solutions that can suit amateurs, enthusiasts and professional photographers. E-M1, 1/100, f/ 2.8, ISO 3200 Whether this is a sensible trade-off depends on your photography. If you shoot moving subjects in poor light, the twice-as-bright F2.8 will give you more light at faster shutter speeds, ideal for avoiding motion blur and noisy high ISOs. And because it passes more light, autofocus tends to work better. Like the Tamron, the Olympus 40-150mm Zoom ring is located toward the front of the lens. But unlike the Tamron, the Olympus’s zoom ring is much too tight to roll with my outstretched index finger.But if you’re photographing portraits or landscapes, speed hardly matters. Therefore, you might as well save some money and carry a lighter more compact lens.

Finally, the Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 Pro is one of the few lenses compatible with the OM-1’s 50 FPS mode. A pair of Oystercatchers Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 Pro image quality I'm in the market for one at the moment and the prices are wild, really a wide range for both new and used.

Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 Pro focusing

This lens isn't a ''constant'' lens, in that as you increase the focal length, the maximum aperture size decreases. The following table reflects the change as you zoom: Focal length Many other manufacturers try to fob us off making big noises about small token gestures they make as a company. For me, that is worse than doing nothing at all as it is selling their brand on a lie. If any of this sounds important to you, the Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 Pro is one of my all-time favorite lenses and an easy recommendation. Read Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 Pro Review for more information. Weighing in at a mere 190 grams, the Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital 40-150mm f/4-5.6 ED is extremely lightweight for a telezoom lens. It's very small too, practically fitting in the palm of your hand. Nevertheless, the Olympus 40-150mm F/4 Pro is the better lens. The samples and MTF charts show that the F4 lens delivers vastly superior image quality. Furthermore, the Olympus 40 150 F4 Pro benefits from flare and dust-resistant lens coatings while the cheaper lens does not. Source: Olympus

The 75-300mm was announced with the original PEN (E-P1), and while we haven't yet tested it, it definitely makes an interesting alternative if you're looking for a telephoto option for your micro-four-thirds body. Following an initial day of testing at the Cheltenham horse races with Ken McMahon, Gordon sourced a second sample of the lens and tested it for a month in a wide variety of portrait, landscape and action environments. He also retested the lens with the Olympus ODM EM1 updated to firmware 2.2 which claims to deliver superior AF precision with the 40-150mm. Read on to find out if this is the telephoto zoom Micro Four Thirds owners have been waiting for. Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 Pro design and build quality

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When shooting birds, the less magnification you bring to the game, the more you will crop. The image below is the 40-150 f2.8 with 1.4x at full power. In the original shot the picture is 5184x3888, the crop is less than 1600x1200, just a small piece of the original frame (1/3200 of a second at f5.6 ISO 800 March 10). The distortion is small, with 1.5% barrel-shaped at 40mm in RAW as maximum. Around 65mm, the lens is almost neutral, and then the distortion becomes very slightly pincushion-shaped. In jpeg, the values are even lower, and thus better, due to the built-in profiles. Chromatic aberrations are corrected directly in the camera and are absent in both RAW and jpeg files. Vignetting is also very low, which contributes to the perception of image quality. OM Systems have paid close attention to this aspect of lens use, employing a 7-segment diaphragm with rounded blades for some pleasing bokeh.