M.Zuiko 75-300mm F/4.8-6.7 ED MSC - Olympus Micro Four-Thirds Lens Roundup

The M.Zuiko 75-300mm F/4.8-6.7 ED MSC is among the biggest and heaviest lenses for Micro Four-Thirds. This super-telephoto provides a 150 to 600mm equivalent range. Still, at 430g this M.Zuiko weighs less than half of the lightest lens that would give the same reach on an DSLR with an APS-C sensor. The range provided by this lens is ideal for wildlife and bird photography. Given a short minimum focus distance of 90cm at 75mm, this lens is also fantastic for detail shots and abstract photography.

This lens is feels sturdy and very well put together.As expected, it has a metal mount. Both zoom and focus rings turns smoothly. Just like a super-telephoto lens mounted on a DSLR, this one makes any Micro Four-Thirds camera front heavy yet it is light enough to be supported by the camera and not need a tripod collar.

Sharpness at 75mm is excellent in the center at all apertures. Corners are very soft though at F/5.6 and only improve very gradually. By F/9.5 the softness may not be apparent in small prints but the only apertures where corners are sharp are F/13 and F/16. However, F/16 is beyond the diffraction limit so center sharpness drops a little. At 300mm F/6.7, things look very different, everything is moderately soft and corners are just a little softer than the center. By F/9.5, center softness only shows in large prints but it takes F/13 to make things perfectly sharp. Image corners follow the same progression, always remaining a little softer than the center.

Zuiko 75-300mm F/4.8-6.7

Olympus OM-5 Mark II

Olympus OM-3

Panasonic DC-G97

What is shown below are 5 crops taken from a photograph, repeatedly captured for each combination of focal-length and aperture. The smaller pieces are cropped from the extreme corners of the image, while the middle wide crop comes from the center of the image. Select an aperture in a row for a desired focal-length to see the crops from the corresponding image. When judging quality, keep in mind that these crops come from a 12 MP image which is normally used to print an image up to 16x12". On a computer display, these may appear much larger which magnifies image defects.

M.Zuiko 75-300mm F/4.8-6.7 ED MSC Sharpness

Upper Left

Upper Right

Center

Lower Left

Lower Right