This article shares some images captured with the M.Zuiko 150-600 and MC-14 teleconverter, and provides some personal observations about using this combination.

I spent a few days working with this combination, mainly experimenting with photographing birds in flight as I thought this would be the primary interest of readers.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

My initial test began out in Aylmer Ontario with the intent to photograph some migrating Tundra Swans in flight. That turned out to be a bust as there were very few swans in the area. The few that were at the conservation area were tightly grouped together, and none of them took flight.

The light was flat with very little contrast. Trying to photograph white swans on snow at a distance was not very productive. The M.Zuiko 150-600 struggled a little bit to find focus under these conditions… which is understandable.

So, I photographed what I could… which ended up being mainly Canada Geese. Even then the opportunities were not plentiful. I had one very good chance to photograph a pair of geese flying past me about 175 metres (~574 feet) away. This allowed me to photograph the geese handheld, with my lens/teleconverter fully extended to 840 mm (efov 1680 mm).

I was shooting from a raised hut that overlooked a frozen pond. A few geese came in to land on the ice, which gave me some additional photo opportunities. The light had not improved, but the subject matter did provide more contrast. I found that the M.Zuiko 150-600 performed well under these higher contrast conditions.

There weren’t many other birds around other than some gulls and a few sparrows in some trees. A blue jay did a couple of fly-bys at a distance, and I was able to capture the image above.

I really didn’t think that I’d even get the bird in focus at it was 68 metres (~223 feet) away, in dull light, with my lens/teleconverter fully extended to 840 mm (efov 1680 mm). The quality of the resulting image wasn’t great, but I still considered it a successful capture given the conditions, the small size of the subject bird, and the focal length used.

My best photographs during my visit to Aylmer were from a run of over 10 images of a Blue Morph of the Snow Goose (probably a Lesser Snow Goose) coming in to land. The M.Zuiko 150-600 with MC-14 did a solid job nailing focus for me. My thanks to one of our readers, Glen Fox, for his help with species identification.

My first field test day, under less than ideal light, wasn’t hugely productive using the M.Zuiko 150-600 with MC-14. However, I was sufficiently encouraged to spend a number of hours over the next couple of days working with this combination… under better light… at Forty Mile Creek.

At Forty Mile Creek the majority of the birds were gulls and Canada Geese, as well as some mallards and mergansers. I concentrated my efforts on the ducks/mergansers as they are more challenging subject matter given their relative flight speed.

Unlike my field testing with the M.Zuiko 150-600/MC-20 combination, I found that the MC-14 helped extend the usable reach of my 150-600 for birds-in-flight. I was able to capture a number of birds-in-flight with my lens/teleconverter combination fully extended to 840 mm (efov 1680 mm).  Panning with the birds was challenging but doable. These images were well beyond what I could accomplish with my M.Zuiko 100-400 zoom, or the 150-600 alone without the MC-14.

While I think that the native focal length range of the M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS will be sufficient for the majority of my bird-in-flight photography… I will be including the M.Zuiko MC-14 in my birding kit.

Using the MC-14 has little negative effect on auto-focus acquisition speed with my 150-600, or degrade image quality. It really does add a lot of value when out in the field with the M.Zuiko 150-600.

Photographing perched/swimming birds and being able to fill the frame with the subject bird, helps bring out more details. It also significantly expands my photographic potential.

It can be a bit awkward working with a minimum of 210 mm (efov 420 mm) on the wide end of the M.Zuiko 150-600 mm zoom. I did have a few situations where I had too much focal length to capture some specific photo opportunities.

These missed opportunities were far fewer than with the MC-20, and were outweighed by the additional birds-in-flight images that were made possible by the M.Zuiko MC-14.

I found the increased focal range using the MC-14 had a “Goldilocks’ quality to it. I could still react to fast breaking action that was fairly close in, while being able to capture birds-in-flight at greater distances than was possible for me in the past.

There’s an old saying that bird photographers always want more reach. And that’s true… as long as the image quality and handling meet expectations.

After using the M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS for a number of weeks, there is no question that it has become my ‘go to’ birding lens. I’m really chomping at the bit waiting for the spring birding season to begin in earnest.

Here are some additional images captured with the M.Zuiko 150-600 and MC-14 teleconverter over the past couple of days.

Over the past few days I’ve enjoyed putting my M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5.6 IS zoom through its paces with the MC-14 teleconverter. This combination works very well with birds-in-flight. It isn’t a combination that someone can just pick up, and expect to be proficient with it immediately.

The extended focal length range of the M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS/M.Zuiko MC-14 teleconverter combination can be challenging and may strain the eye/hand coordination of some folks. Some adaptation of existing shooting technique may also be required.

My hands-on review of the M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS is still a couple of weeks away. I hope this article has adequately illustrated some additional capability of this lens when used with the M.Zuiko MC-14 teleconverter.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld with the camera equipment noted in the EXIF data. All images were created from RAW files using my standard process. This is the 1,370 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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