I went to the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory today with the goal of capturing some M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 HHHR test images. These Handheld Hi Res (HHHR) butterfly images were captured during a two hour visit to the facility.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

Recently a couple of readers have asked about using the Olympus Handheld Hi Res mode (HHHR) with the M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 zoom lens. I hadn’t specifically gone out to test the lens with that particular Olympus feature… so I decided today was the day!

During my HHHR test I attempted 133 handheld hi res mode captures and was successful with 122 of them. This gave me a success rate of 91.7%.

I walked around the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory constantly looking for butterflies that would provide me with good background separation for my HHHR test images.

I then composed each image as to avoid the need to do any cropping in post. All of the photographs in this article are displayed as 100% captures.

I was quite impressed with how well the M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 zoom lens performed with the Handheld Hi Res mode. Even when fully extended I had no trouble getting good, clean HHHR test images.

As owners of the M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 zoom lens can attest, it is a very sharp lens that renders beautiful colours. As such it is a terrific lens to use for handheld hi res photographs of butterflies.

As you examine the photographs in this article you’ll notice that many of the images were captured at quite high ISO values. Some were at ISO-6400. This is the highest ISO value allowed when using the Handheld Hi Res mode.

I never hesitate to shoot at ISO-6400 when using Handheld Hi Res as it seems to suppress noise quite well.

I can appreciate that some owners of M4/3 cameras may find the price of the M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 zoom lens on the high end for this format of camera. In Canada this lens has a list price of $2,000.

On a personal basis, I am completely satisfied with the performance and flexibility of this PRO zoom. For the price I can’t think of another lens that does everything that this lens can do at its price point. Regardless of camera format.

The auto-focus performance is always top notch, even when shooting in dark conditions. I had no problem acquiring and holding focus when capturing my HHHR test images. The sharpness of this lens never fails to impress.

I would certainly give a two-thumbs up to the M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 zoom for use with the Olympus Handheld Hi Res mode. It is a rock solid performer.

Technical Note:
Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. All images were produced from RAW files using my standard process. All photographs in this article are displayed as 100% captures without any cropping.

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