The Amazing Olympus 840mm f/5.6 PRO Macro Lens!

Daylily stamens.  Full image. (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, Olympus 300mm f/4 PRO lens + Olympus TC-14 1.4x Tele-converter (~840mm field of view)
Very close to minimum focus distance (4.5 ft.); 1/60th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200

What Can You Do With A Super Long Telephoto Lens Other Than Wildlife And Birds?

A few months ago, I purchased the Olympus 300mm f/4 PRO lens to use with my M4/3 gear.  I already owned the Olympus MC-14 1.4x tele-converter.  When comparing fields of view with full frame (~35mm) optics, this lens gives me the same field of view as a 600mm f/4 lens, although the depth of field is equivalent to f/8 on a full frame camera.  With the 1.4x tele-converter attached, the specs become ~840mm @ f/5.6.  Quite a lot of magnification.

Let me first say this is an extraordinary lens.  This lens for its focal length is relatively small, certainly hand-holdable and extremely sharp from wide open at f/4 to f/11.  I believe the resolving power easily exceeds the 20mp sensors that are now state-of-the-art on micro 4/3 cameras.  The images it produces are contrasty with beautiful color gradations.  I cannot sing its praises enough.  Now, add the Olympus MC-14 1.4x Tele-converter and you lose virtually nothing.  The last two Olympus lenses I purchased were the Olympus 12-100mm f/4 PRO and this one and both are extraordinary.  I don't know how Olympus engineers do it.  But they continue to amaze!  Now, back to your regular programming...

Of course a lens and lens combination such as this has limited use.  I bought it mainly for wildlife and birding photography, which I practice on occasion.  My plan is to do more of it in the future.  This is a superb piece of glass, without and with the tele-converter.  I am impressed.  This lens and I get along famously and I'm glad I invested in bringing into my photographic arsenal.

But what else can I do with a lens that is so specialized?  I suspect lots of things.  One thing that I tried the other day, and I think rather successfully, was close-up flower photography.  I have posted a few examples from about 1/2 hour of "messing around" and experimenting with the lens/tele-converter setup.

It was an on and off rainy day, quite dreary.  No shadows.  Very soft light.  Perfect for outdoor flower photography.  I have these yellow daylilies growing around my mailbox and, for many years, I have enjoyed them blooming everyday during early summer.  But I had never photographed them.  I guess I just never got around to it.

Approximately a 100% crop of the above ~840mm image (click to enlarge)

I couldn't photograph the blossom on the plant in place as the plant is next to the street and I really didn't think it wise to set up a tripod in the street.  I cut a blossom and thought about how I would set it up to make some images.  I needed something very simple with things I had on hand and I wanted a background that was green (a natural color combination and complementary) and far enough away that the out of focus areas would be completely unrecognizable.  I ended up using painter's tape to tape the stem to the top, rounded handle of a step stool!  Of all things!  But it worked just fine.

Oh!  One other thing.  Ants kept crawling out of from under the pedal edges during my image making.  I had to continue to walk up to the flower and blow them off.  They just kept coming out.  Must have been 10 of them in there.  Funny.

Needless to say, depth of field was extremely shallow.  For many of the images, I had the camera focused approximately at minimum focusing distance, which had me standing about 4.5 ft. (1.4 m) from my subject.  According to the app Photopills (which I can highly recommend), the depth of field at this distance and the lens aperture wide open is 1/32nd of an inch, or 0.79mm.  Less than 1mm!  

From a bit farther back so I could capture just a bit more of my subject. (click to enlarge)
~840mm; 1/200th sec. @ f/4; ISO 200

I think it is amazing that I was able to get anything in sharp focus with this setup: outdoors, a slight wind, subject taped to a step ladder, etc.!  I think these images are a real testament to the extraordinary quality of Olympus' autofocus system and shutter mechanism with the Anti-Shock turned on. I did experiment stopping down a bit more to gain a bit extra DOF, but the shutter speeds were a bit too slow to stop the slight breeze from inducing some subject motion.  Most of the sharp images I made were made at f/4.  

From a bit even farther back to capture the entire blossom.  (click to enlarge)
1/160th sec. @ f/4; ISO 200

It was a very interesting exercise and I am now armed with additional information about the capabilities of my gear.  I plan on finding other and novel ways to utilize this lens and lens/converter combination.  They both are a marvel of modern design and engineering.

As for practicality?  Well, it is hard to very slightly move your camera/lens setup when on a tripod with a gimbal head 4.5 ft. away.  It is also difficult to adjust your subject, if you are making still life images.  Practically, I would be most comfortable with a lens in the ~150mm f/2.8 macro range.  That seems the best compromised between distance and convenience.  But this did work well!

Hope you enjoy the images.

P.S.  If had to do this over again, I would have put a polarizing filter on the lens to cut down some of the white-ish highlights toward the tops of the images.  Lessons learned.  Should have known!

UPDATE: I'm glad I decided to photograph these flowers when I did.  Evidently, the neighborhood white tailed deer have eaten all of the blossoms and buds.  Totally gone!

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Dennis A. Mook 

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