Gear considerations - portable, light, good reach

Tobers

Tobers

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Andy
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I’m considering getting into wildlife photography, and have a gear question. I’ve had really good experience with the micro-four-thirds system, and have (amongst some other kit) an Olympus EM1 mk1.

I have been looking at lens options with significant reach, and the Panasonic 150-400 seems to get very good reviews, and is relatively light and compact. There’s also the Olympus 300 F4 which could be interesting with a teleconverter as well. A key consideration for me is portability. I’ve done the whole full frame thing (Canon 1DX with 400 2.8, 70-200 2.8 etc) which I’ve use for sport photography (football and rugby up to world cup level for UK newspapers) so I know I don’t want to go down that cumbersome route again.

Subject matter - I’m moving to the Isle of Skye. I mainly photograph landscapes these days and will keep doing so, therefore I need flexibility,. But...I am fortunate enough to have a bay in front of the house that otters frequent, and is visited by many seabirds, as well as a whole bunch of songbirds in the marshland and crofts along the shore, plus deer, owls here and there, the odd sparrowhawk, buzzards, bla bla. And there’s plenty of other stunning places around and about that I’ll be walking to, often overnighting in a tent, or mountain biking to. It seems a shame not to take full advantage of the opportunity - a hide down by the water would be sweet too. Unlikely I’ll be doing birds in flight (seems too hard!).

So...I’m keen on opinions from this experienced body of nature photographers. Would I be missing a lot going down the micro-four-thirds route? Can a 150-400 compete with a big beast like a Canon 600 f/4? Anyone else done the same thing? Thanks.
 
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Kaolin said:
Nikon D500 and 500mm f5.6 pf is a very light combination with a good sensor and excellent af. The lens 500 pf is the same weight as the Olympus 300 f4 and the whole combination is only 300 gr heavier than the Olympus.
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.... That Nikon combo sounds worth considering. However, the Olympus 300mm F/4 Pro is equivalent to 600mm and with its tiny 1.4x MC-14 it offers you 840mm equivalent and is easily handheld < In my case mounted on an Olympus E-M1X body which is the biggest and heaviest in the m4/3 sensor format. The E-M1X is within 2mm the same overall size as a Canon EOS-R + Canon Battery Grip and is only slightly heavier.

Something I really like about the Olympus Pro system is its extreme weatherproofing - You really can stay out all day come rain or shine with peace-of-mind, UK weather eh?.

Some of my Olympus images are in an album on Flickr : https://www.flickr.com/photos/114775606@N07/albums/72157711552661781

I came from a Canon 1DX-2 and EF 500mm F/4L II plus Extenders and whereas it is full-frame, image quality was top notch and I was limited how many lenses I could carry in the field for wildlife to cover all the potential opportunities. The Olympus E-M1X + Pro lenses solves that problem by being approximately 60% of the Canon's weight and size.

I have no experience at all of anything other than the Olympus Pro lenses and so can't offer opinions on Panasonic lenses etc but others can in the Olympus OM thread :
https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/t...-2-owners-thread.395080/page-443#post-8580075

I hope this helps but there is no such thing as the perfect camera but just the one you personally feel more fluid with. I am very fond of saying it's Horses-for-Courses.
 
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Tobers said:
Thanks - really useful! I'll dig into the research on the 300 f/4.
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.... Am always glad to help. Others help me and what goes around comes around.

I have yet to find any bad criticism of this lens and there are portfolio examples online by independent photographers, not Olympus publicity images, which are truly stunning and show this lens's potential - Images to aspire to! Check out this photographer's work!! :

https://500px.com/sulasulacom/galleries/olympus

IF you decide to buy, I have bought gear from HDEW for many years and also experienced their excellent aftersales service and so I can wholeheartedly recommend them. I normally order by phone but that's just my preference whenever I buy anything.

https://www.hdewcameras.co.uk/olympus-mzuiko-digital-ed-300mm-f4-is-pro-4214-p.asp

There was one for sale fairly recently here on TP Classifieds/Other but such a lens usually gets snapped up quickly.

To extend reach on this lens I can also recommend the 1.4x MC-14. It's tiny and you don't know it's mounted as image quality does not suffer and it's also weatherproofed to the Olympus Pro standard.
 
RedRobin said:
.... That Nikon combo sounds worth considering. However, the Olympus 300mm F/4 Pro is equivalent to 600mm and with its tiny 1.4x MC-14 it offers you 840mm equivalent and is easily handheld < In my case mounted on an Olympus E-M1X body which is the biggest and heaviest in the m4/3 sensor format. The E-M1X is within 2mm the same overall size as a Canon EOS-R + Canon Battery Grip and is only slightly heavier.

Something I really like about the Olympus Pro system is its extreme weatherproofing - You really can stay out all day come rain or shine with peace-of-mind, UK weather eh?.

Some of my Olympus images are in an album on Flickr : https://www.flickr.com/photos/114775606@N07/albums/72157711552661781

I came from a Canon 1DX-2 and EF 500mm F/4L II plus Extenders and whereas it is full-frame, image quality was top notch and I was limited how many lenses I could carry in the field for wildlife to cover all the potential opportunities. The Olympus E-M1X + Pro lenses solves that problem by being approximately 60% of the Canon's weight and size.

I have no experience at all of anything other than the Olympus Pro lenses and so can't offer opinions on Panasonic lenses etc but others can in the Olympus OM thread :
https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/t...-2-owners-thread.395080/page-443#post-8580075

I hope this helps but there is no such thing as the perfect camera but just the one you personally feel more fluid with. I am very fond of saying it's Horses-for-Courses.
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Have you sold all your Canon top of the range gear and moved to Olympus?
 
Brentor said:
Have you sold all your Canon top of the range gear and moved to Olympus?
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.... Some sold and some soon to be offered for sale here on TP Classified but all Canon gear going and being replaced with Olympus E-M1X Pro range.
 
RedRobin said:
.... Some sold and some soon to be offered for sale here on TP Classified but all Canon gear going and being replaced with Olympus E-M1X Pro range.
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Wow, I use mid-range Canon gear and get some very good results with wildlife and birds, but assumed the only way to get better hit rates and quality was to go top of the range which is difficult to justify from a cost perspective. Do you miss anything from your Canon days? ( apologies if I am hijacking)
 
Brentor said:
Wow, I use mid-range Canon gear and get some very good results with wildlife and birds, but assumed the only way to get better hit rates and quality was to go top of the range which is difficult to justify from a cost perspective. Do you miss anything from your Canon days? ( apologies if I am hijacking)
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.... I really enjoyed my Canon days and especially the 1DX-2 + EF 500mm F/4L II + Converters but I don't miss the bulk and weight when walking - I an 72yo. Image quality is superb. But when I look back through my Flickr pages I see that I took some great pictures when I had a 70D. So Ansel Adams' words in my signature below are still true! Upgrading doesn't guarantee better photos, it can sometimes just be more enabling ... sometimes not always.

The big bonus of the 1DX-2 is the 14fps burst rate which can capture a greater choice. Also it is very durable and reliable but being Canon's flagship it ought to be!

Targeting wildlife is challenging whichever camera you shoot with.
 
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