Amateur Photographer - UK (2020-08-22)

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Olympus

14-150mm
f/4.0-5.6II
£279

from

excellentcondition

IN ASSOCIATION WITH PARK CAMERAS

Olympus Lenses

We regularly sing the

praises of this  ne little

short-telephoto prime,

and with good reason.

Quite simply, it’s a

fantastic budget portrait

lens. Just like its 17mm

sibling it’s extremely

small and light, at 46mm

long and 116g, but it

focuses snappily and

delivers lovely-looking

images. Wide open it

combines just a little

 attering softness with

attractive background

blur; stop down to f/2.8

and it sharpens up very

nicely. Its main weakness

optically is when shooting

directly into the light,

where it’s very prone to

 are. However for the

next step up in optical

quality, but also size and

weight, you have to go to

the excellent Sigma

56mm F1.4 DC DN,

which will set you back at

least twice the price.

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital

45mm F1.8

● £139

In Olympus’s Micro Four

Thirds lens line-up,

there’s often no middle

ground between

inexpensive kit zooms

and the  rm’s high-end,

but large and expensive

Pro-series lenses. This is

very much the case with

telephoto zooms, where

there’s a yawning chasm

between the 40-150mm

f/2.8 and its f/4-5.6

sibling. Thankfully,

though, this lightweight

and inexpensive optic is

still a very decent

performer, thanks in part

to the use of an extra-low

dispersion (ED) glass

element to combat

chromatic aberration. It

weighs less than 200g, is

just 8.6cm long and

employs 58mm  lters,

and yet provides an

80-300mm equivalent

range. Autofocus is rapid

and practically silent, with

the minimum focus

distance being less than

a metre. Just be aware

that the lens isn’t

weather-sealed for use in

inclement conditions.

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED

40150mm F45.6 R

● £99

rear switch to engage manual focus. As

usual Olympus’s JPEG processing is

excellent, delivering attractive, punchy

colour, aided by near-perfect auto white

balance. Built-in Wi-Fi makes it easy to

transfer images to your phone for

sharing, using the well-designed OI

Share app.

One of the biggest attractions of Micro

Four Thirds is the large range of small,

high-quality lenses available. With its

diminutive size the E-M5 II is really most

at home wearing relatively small,

lightweight zooms, or Olympus’s tiny but

sharp f/1.8 primes. If you’d like to use it

with larger telephoto lenses, you may

nd it helpful to add either the HLD-8

two-part grip that also takes a second

battery, or the rare ECG-2 handgrip.

At a glance

● Sensor 16MP CMOS, 17.3x13mm

● Sensitivity ISO 200-25,600;

ISO 100-25,600 (extended)

● Autofocus 81-point contrast detect

● Continuous shooting 10fps with

S-AF; 5fps with C-AF

● Video Full HD up to 60p

● Rear display 3in, 1.04m-dot fully

articulated LCD

● Viewfinder 2.36m-dot electronic,

0.74x equivalent magnification

Like all Olympus cameras, the

E-M5 Mark II gives lovely colours

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II, 12-40mm f/2.8 at 15mm

1/800 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200

which provides speeds up to

1/8000sec, is extremely quiet and

discreet for stealthy shooting. When

buying second-hand, make sure you’ll

get the handy FL-LM3  ash; it slides

onto the hot shoe, is powered from the

camera, and sports an articulated head

for bounce  ash.

In terms of operation the E-M5 II

works pretty well out of the box, with two

large tactile dials under your fore nger

and thumb for changing exposure

settings. It’s also highly con gurable,

and we’d recommend remapping the

top-plate HDR button to change ISO and

white balance, and perhaps setting the