This article shares a few links for reviews and information about the recently announced M.Zuiko 50-200 mm f/2.8 IS PRO zoom lens.
This lens may be of interest to many readers who are looking for a high quality, flexible zoom lens that offers a bright f/2.8 constant aperture.
I don’t have any access to this lens as our website is not dedicated to gear reviews, so I won’t be doing any kind of in-field review of it. No doubt the M.Zuiko 50-200 mm f/2.8 IS PRO will be a top drawer piece of kit.
This is not a lens that I will be adding to my kit as I don’t do that much low light nature photography that requires an f/2.8 constant aperture. The work that I do pursue is handled capably by the M.Zuiko 40-150 mm f/2.8 PRO.
Here are some links that may be of interest:
Petr Bambousek. Petr is one of the most accomplished and recognized nature photographers in the world today. I’ve followed his work for a number of years. If you are interested in the M.Zuiko 50-200 mm f/2.8 IS PRO I would recommend reading his review.
Below are a few other links that may be helpful. In most cases I have avoided providing links to the typical camera review sites as I do not follow them with any kind of regularity.
I hope you find these links beneficial.
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Dear Mr Thomas Stirr. A bit of the topic here. But I’ll ask for your help anyway. Some time ago, you wrote a couple of posts here about sensor technology, stabilization, and how that impacts more than the sensor size in the final picture. I’ve been searching and haven’t found it yet. My current setup (Lumix G80) covers 85% of my needs. However, in the last couple of years, my youngest son and nieces have taken up indoor sports. So table tennis and volleyball… My problem is that sometimes I can only get f/1.7 – 1/500 at ISO 8000. My question: What is the “best bang for the buck” sensor/camera (G9 II, E-M1 III, OM1), or where can I learn about it? Thank you very much for your time.
Hi Antonio,
IBIS performance is really designed to help a photographer avoid image blur when doing handheld photography at slow shutter speeds. For example, I’ve had some success shooting handheld landscape images at up to 4 seconds because of the excellent IBIS in my E-M1X body. Using very slow shutter speeds has allowed me to use ISO-200 with landscape images even in very low light conditions. Having said that, IBIS performance will not have any impact when photographing action like indoor sports in low light conditions.
It appears that you may be concerned about noise in your images when shooting at ISO-8000. It is usually worse (in terms of image noise) to underexpose an image at a particular ISO, rather than getting a balanced exposure at a higher ISO… and in some situations it can be better to expose to the right and use an even higher ISO value. The website has some examples of images captured at ISO-16000 with a shutter speed of 1/2500 and noise is at an acceptable level for my purposes.
Noise is most noticeable in shadow areas so exposing to the right can help limit noise even at higher ISO values. You can then darken the image in post. I’d suggest experimenting with your camera and shoot at even higher ISO values… but ensure that your images are not underexposed. Then work on them with noise reduction in post to gauge your results. You may find that having slightly overexposed images at higher ISO values result in somewhat better quality images. When shooting with M4/3 gear it can be helpful to use software in post that can help deal effectively with noise. Robin Wong has some videos demonstrating photographing people at quite high ISO values like ISO-12800.
The ‘best bang for the buck’ camera really depends on the needs of a specific photographer and is something that I can’t answer for you. There are so many factors to consider that it would be impossible to answer your question in this reply. In general, photographers who predominantly shoot action-oriented images like sports, or birds-in-flight, in very low light would opt for larger sensor cameras. There are trade-offs of course like size, weight and cost.
Hope this has helped.
Tom
Thank you!
While reading your answer, it immediately came to my mind that you wrote about it some time ago. So tonight, during practice, I’ll give it a try. About the cameras. I’m very acquainted with the Panasonic menus G9 (for 500€) looks a no-brainer, but E-M1 III (800€) felt really good in the hand, plus the phase detect AF.
Hi Tom
I think that it looks a lovely bright compact (relatively) lens.
It’s not for me though I am happy with my recent purchase of a Olympus 100-400 that’s old but gold!
It’s as you say a niche position in the market. The 40- 150 2.8 is a lovely lens that still offers everyone that similar field of view.
I think this lens may become cheaper in the used market
Best wishes
Mark
Hi Mark,
I agree. The M.Zuiko 50-200 f/2.8 PRO, combined with the 150-400 f/4.5 PRO and OM-1 Mark II, may entice more professional nature and bird photographers to switch to the OM brand. Time will tell. After I switched to Olympus in mid 2019 I very seldom saw anyone else using the brand. Since then I’ve seen 5 other local bird photographers sell their full frame gear and move to OM.
Tom
Like you, I don’t plan on getting this lens even though I’m a confirmed MFT photographer. The lens is too big and to expensive for me; if I’m going to carry a lens this large it will be my 100-400mm ii. To me this lens is best suited to those who photograph indoor sports or sports beneath the lights.
Hi Woody… we are of like minds.
There’s no doubt that the 50-200 f/2.8 PRO will be a great lens… but targeted at a niche market. I agree that it would be well suited to a photographer who does a lot of indoor sports or other events where the f/2.8 aperture is needed.
I thought it was interesting that Petr Bambousek commented that the 50-200 f/2.8 PRO is best used natively. His view was that the image quality would be better with the 100-400 II rather than using the MC-20 on the 50-200.
Tom