This article shares some 1200mm EFOV test images that were captured handheld at Bird Kingdom in Niagara Falls Canada. In an earlier article, Jigsaws or Drills, we discussed that prime lenses and zoom lenses are different types of tools.
Neither type is ‘better’ than the other, but simply more suited to specific photographic approaches. My preference has always been to own and use predominantly zoom lenses as they better suit my shooting style.
NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

For this particular visit to Bird Kingdom I decided to use my M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS zoom lens fully extended most of the time. In a way this replicated me shooting with a crazy-long telephoto prime lens of 1200 mm efov.

I’ve been a member of Bird Kingdom for many years and know the facility quite well… so I knew what to expect in terms layout and lighting. The objective of this test was simply to find out what photographs I could successfully capture handheld during this 1200mm efov test.

As you review the EXIF data for each image you’ll discover that I shot the 150-600 mm IS wide open most of the time, using an aperture of f/6.3.

Over the years, I’ve found that my M.Zuiko lenses have performed well optically and I’ve never had the need to stop down any of them to improve image sharpness. I have no hesitation whatsoever using my M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS wide open.

One of the challenges when using an aperture of f/6.3 with a long telephoto lens fully extended to 600 mm (efov 1200 mm) is shallow depth-of-field. This can be especially noticeable when subjects are close in… as you can see in the image above. On the positive side, this long focal length helps to soften photographic backgrounds and create good subject separation.

Most of the time I was able to keep my handheld shutter speed to 1/125 which was fast enough to avoid handheld image blur. The challenge was to time my shutter release to coincide with moments when subject birds were perfectly still. The ‘still time’ duration varied considerably by species and individual birds.

There were some occasions when I needed to use a slower shutter speed in order to keep my ISO values no higher than ISO-6400. As a result, some 1200 mm efov test images were captured with shutter speeds as slow as 1/25. The Sync-IS in my M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS performed flawlessly.

As could be expected when shooting in a reasonably tight, indoor environment, the vast majority of my 1200mm efov test images were portrait… or head and shoulders style captures.

Lighting is always an important consideration, and I looked for some high contrast opportunities whenever possible.

Doing some modest burning in post to the background can increase the contrast to add some drama.

Many of my 1200mm efov test images were full frame captures.

Some patience was required to wait for individual birds to give me decent head and body angles for these image captures.

I tried using Bird AI Subject Tracking for a short time. It was an dull, overcast day and Bird AI tended to hunt in the dark conditions at Bird Kingdom that day. So, I used a single, small AF point for the images in this article.

I hadn’t used my M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS for a few of months surrounding our trip to New Zealand in the late fall of 2024.

I found that my eye/hand coordination desperately needed a tune-up, especially when using the lens at its longest focal length.

Overall, my visit to Bird Kingdom was very enjoyable and instructive. I got in some much needed practice time with my M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS zoom, shooting with it fully extended to 600 mm (efov 1200 mm).

It also reconfirmed that I’m definitely not a long telephoto prime lens kind of photographer. I would have missed a multitude of images during my visit had I not been using a zoom lens. More about those shorter focal length images later.

Technical Note
Photographs were captured handheld using camera equipment noted in the EXIF data. All images were created from RAW files using my standard process in post. This is the 1,434 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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Hi Thomas,
Thank you for an interesting article. I also read your “Jigsaw or Drill” article. I have an OM-1 that I use mainly for macro but have started getting into bird photography as well so I purchased a second hand 75-300 II as a starting point. This lens is surprising good in bright light but struggles in early morning & late afternoon light particularly with our native birds that tend to be in amongst the bushes. I find that the to maintain the shutter speed needed I have to use high ISO values which introduces noise. I use Topaz to reduce this but find the noise reduction tends to muddy the feather detail. I sent a photo to Topaz & they reworked it with different settings & whilst it was better the detail was still poor. Full points to Topaz support because the responded very quickly.
I notice your photos in previous articles using this lens are pretty clean & have good detail.
I have been contemplating my next purchase, 100-400mm, 300mm Pro or the 150-600mm? I value the range of a zoom lens but both lenses would potentially suffer the same problem in low light unless the quality of the lens contributes. The 300mm has an advantage there but lacks flexibility. I note that most of the photos I have taken with the 75-300mm are at the long end with a high percentage at or close to 300mm.
Do you use Topaz for noise reduction & have you found a particular combination of settings provide the best results?
Kind regards,
Ron
Hi Ron,
My approach in post processing would likely be considered a bit unorthodox since I use a combination of software (i.e. up to 5 different programs). I should also state upfront that I hate working in post so my intent is always to get my images to where I want them visually in the least amount of time and effort possible. The vast majority of my images take a maximum of 3-4 minutes each. This includes computer processing time. If a specific images needs more time than this I usually just forget about that photograph and move on to another one. My basic belief is that if an image requires more than 3-4 minutes in post, I have done a poor job with my initial capture.
I begin with DxO PhotoLab7 and run all of my images through this program for basic RAW processing. PhotoLab has automatic camera/lens corrections which begin as soon as a RAW file is opened. I find these to be very useful and I incorporate them into custom pre-sets that I create in PhotoLab. My pre-sets are camera and lens specific. I also create pre-sets that may be specific to subject matter, and perhaps lighting. For example I have a pre-set for ‘Nikon 1 V3 white bird’. Since all of my Nikon 1 bird images were captured with the 1 Nikkor 70-300 so I don’t need to specify the lens with those types of pre-sets.
PhotoLab has quite a good noise reduction function. I use DeepPRIME set to 15 for all of my images, regardless of the ISO at which they were captured. I never use a setting higher than 15 as I find it tends to soften detail too much. With bird photographs I also typically use the Microcontrast function in PhotoLab.
After very basic processing in DxO PhotoLab I export a DNG file into a very old copy of PhotoShop (CS6). I do some additional tweaking with some basic slider adjustments. I occasionally use the Clarity function if needed… but only to a modest amount. Depending on what a particular file may need I go into Topaz DeNoise AI or Topaz Sharpen AI. Both of these programs provide additional noise reduction. I find using a ‘double barrelled’ approach to noise reduction (i.e DxO DeepPrime plus one of the Topaz AI programs) works much better than only using one program to clean up noise. If required, I may finish my bird image file with the Nik Collection. The most common adjustment I use in this software suite is Pro Contrast.
The only software program that I have that is current is DxO PhotoLab7. The only reason I updated from PhotoLab 4 was to get the auto lens corrections for my M.Zuiko 90 mm macro and 150-600 mm lenses. All of my other software programs are older, and out-of-date. I feel no compulsion to update any of them as I only use a small number of very specific functions from each of them.
I think it is important to consider noise reduction and edge acuity concurrently when working in post. Functions like noise reduction, sharpening and contrast are all important factors to balance when processing an image. I’m really not the best person to ask about post processing as my knowledge only scratches the surface with the programs that I use. I don’t have a dedicated step-by-step approach as I tend to move quickly from one software program to another depending on what I perceive an image requires. As noted earlier, I hate working in post and try to get my files to where I want them as quickly as possible.
Ron, I’m not sure if this has been helpful or not. 🙂
Tom
Hi Thomas,
Sorry for the late reply, yes it was very helpful & has made me think about how I approach bird photography & processing. I too don’t like to spend a great deal of time processing so you input has been appreciated.
Ron
Thanks for the feedback Ron.
Tom
Hi Ron,
You may want to hold off on any lens purchase for a couple of weeks, until after an OMDS announcement on February 6th. An updated 100-400 with Sync-IS is hitting the rumour mill.
Tom
Great shots, Tom! Envy your use of the 200-600. I guess I will have to be satisfied with “only” being able to go to 800mm. 🙂
Thanks Jon… glad you enjoyed the images.
I’ve really been enjoying using the M.Zuiko 150-600 since I bought it last year. The additional reach, comparatively short minimum focusing distance at the wide end, and the ‘push/pull’ focal length adjustment makes this lens incredibly flexible in the field.
Tom
Stunning photos, I’ve not used anything remotely close to this focal length, so am blown away by what you achieved. Even shooting around 6-800mm eq is a challenge. Well done sir.
Hi Sam,
I’m glad you enjoyed the images… and thank you for your supportive comment.
Tom
As always very nice detailed work and conversation about the crazy reach of that lens. When my son hired this lens last year he was trying it out on fast moving cars in motorsports photography.
One thing he noticed very quickly was atmospheric softness due to weather, smoke, haze etc.
Obviously your usage inside (I presume) obviously didn’t suffer from atmospheric haze ?
I tried it very briefly and of course struggled with it’s bulk, I did however capture two excellent bird images with it. Starlings having a meeting in a far off tree in a next door neighbours garden and a wren shouting at me in another garden too.
Both images were very sharp and contrasty
Best wishes
Mark
Hi Mark,
Thanks for sharing your son’s experience with the M.Zuiko 150-600 with fast moving cars, and your success with some bird images.
I was in very close to the subject birds so there was no issue with haze etc. I am working on an article or two that feature recently captured photographs of birds-in-flight using this lens. I’m still in the primary stages of selecting images and processing them. I haven’t noticed any issues with haze etc. thus far. This is not surprising as I don’t typically try to photograph birds that are more than about 60-75 metres or so away.
Tom