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Author Topic: Olympus OM-D w/ Four Thirds Tele lenses & Nikon V2 with G Telephoto Lenses  (Read 6092 times)

Brian Hirschfeld

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Simply put, how fast do these cameras focus with telephoto lenses attached?

I know that the OM-D / 150mm f/2.0 and 300mm f/2.8 combos autofocus, but I cannot find any reliable information on how fast or accurately they can autofocus.

I have seen some videos with the V2 and Nikon telephotos, specifically 200mm f/2.0 and 500mm f/4.0 lenses which seemed to autofocus decently quickly. How bad is the image quality from the V2? I know thats kindof a bad question going in, But I am considering a lighter weight camera / lens solution for health reasons and i'm trying to find the best balance. Thanks in advance.
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degrub

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In good  light  (iso < 800, f2.8 -  f4) and reasonably still subjects, i have not had an issue on my 150/OMD combo. I have plenty of misses if i am trying to shoot birds that are flitting around or are in strong shade.

Frank
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Brian Hirschfeld

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Still probably less misses then with a Mamiya 500mm f/4.5 APO on my PhaseOne IQ180....which is a manual focus lens.

Any differences with being reported with the EP-5 or the GH3 in terms of AF performance?
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degrub

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I am interestedly waiting on the Oly September announcement. There have been some discussions about new sensor that will support both phase and contrast autofocusing in the near future, but not clear when it will be out, 2014 ?

Yeah i know what you mean about mf long lenses.

Frank
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gerafotografija

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After switching from a fullframe (film) SLR to the OMD for wildlife photos, I am not sure I would be willing to go smaller. The m4/3 format seems to give a very good compromise between performance and size-weight. I have been using the 75-300 M Zuiko lens for hiking/nature and birding with nice results.

For me the trade offs seem to be the need to stay at or under ISO 800, which means good light is a must, plus needing to focus the shots with S-AF-MF mode rather than C-AF. Moving the AF point is easy with the EM5 (just use the arrow buttons) and then if it latches onto a branch or leaf instead of the bird, you can quickly fine tune with the MF ring. Probably 90% AF and 10% MF fine tuning for me in these situations.

Th sensor noise level is noticeable when pixel peeking, it is a basic limitation of the smaller format, but the colors from the OMD are so wonderful that I realy don't see a problem – especially if you plan to spend money for fast glass and can keep the ISO close to base level.

If size were no limitation, a FF DSLR would be a nobrainer, but I don't know too many people who really want to lug around the extra lens and camera weight anymore.

I don't know what Olympus will announce, but the high grade glass investment vs. the cost of trading up the EM5 body in a year or two does not seem like a reason to wait if it does the job now.
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I realized after posting this reply, that I had a pretty good example of the kind of shot you can get with the OMD and long telephoto lens.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=80472.0

This one is at the FF equivalent of 600mm in a compact and easy to carry size, and taken without a tripod. The DOF is possibly tight enough to make you assume it isn't from a smaller sensor camera.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2013, 12:02:20 am by gerafotografija »
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ned

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I sold my 150mm before I got the EM5 but still have the 300f2.8

To answer you're question, focusing specifically on the 300mm is unusable. In addition the lens would sometimes chatter so bad I thought it would self destruct. Performs as expected on the E5. I'm holding onto this beautiful lens until Olympus releases a camera that will focus this lens as promised.
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bcooter

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I sold my 150mm before I got the EM5 but still have the 300f2.8

To answer you're question, focusing specifically on the 300mm is unusable. In addition the lens would sometimes chatter so bad I thought it would self destruct. Performs as expected on the E5. I'm holding onto this beautiful lens until Olympus releases a camera that will focus this lens as promised.

I rented the 150 f2 and tried to use it on the omd.

It works semi ok, kinda of hunts and as said the body chatters trying to lock focus

If your subject is stationary it will work but moving, no, not really.

Let's Hope the next omd I will use it and all four thirds cameras.

IMO

BC

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Hmm1000

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My experience -- a couple of days at the Olympics using a 70-300 4.5-5.6 -- is that the V1 focuses as fast as my D300 (ie there may be differences, but they were not appreciable to me, in the type of shooting I was doing then).

The quality was standard cx quality -- ok to 8x10".

Thom Hogan has some useful reviewing of V1 in this respect for photos of birds in flight.

Picture attached which I liked (shot from the stands, at equivalent of 445mm)

(If you use the V1 adapter for lenses like the 55mm 1.4 G (and presumably the 85 1.8 G), the autofocus seems faster than the cx zoom lenses, I think because of the greater amount of light.)
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BJL

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If you were focusing on the arrow, I am impressed! Nice shot anyway.

Seriously, I look forward to something like on-sensor PDAF being added to micro Four Thirds, for the little action photography that I do, and for the sake of my Four Thirds SLR lenses which are for now MF only: on average, I can focus manually about as quickly as they can hunt for AF on the OM-D E-M5.
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