Olympus EZ-M7530 M.Zuiko Digital 75-300mm 1:4.8-6.7 Lens II
Olympus EZ-M7530 M.Zuiko Digital 75-300mm 1:4.8-6.7 Lens II, suitable for all MFT cameras (Olympus OM-D & PEN models, Panasonic G series), black
| Weight: | 0.42 Kilograms |
| Dimensions: | 11.6 x 6.9 x 6.9 centimetres |
| Brand: | Olympus |
| Model: | FBA_EZ-M7530-2 |
| Part: | FBA_EZ-M7530-2 |
| Colour: | Black |
| Dimensions: | 11.6 x 6.9 x 6.9 centimetres |
| Origin: | Japan |
Easy to use and has got easier as the lens wears in as the stiffness goes with use
Moon. Yes, you might think that 300mm is not that long, but it gives you enough distance to reach out to the moon!
Street photography. This lens allows you to literally go into stealth mode, because you don’t need to be even close to your target. Instead you can shoot from wherever you want and get pretty interesting views.
Portraits. Many say that you can’t get creamy bokeh on mft…Not until this lens. I managed to shoot some nice portraits with it and it kept person sharp while blurring the background. If you want image to be sharper, try it out on 280mm.
Wildlife. This lens is just a must if you like taking a shots of birds and animals. It’s light and small, yet gives you amazing distance.
Macro photography. Yes, you can even get some nice shots of flowers and insects, even if they are far away from you.
This lens does need a good light to get max potential out of it, but it’s really worth it. I can’t praise this lens enough.
I bought this for my daughter to go on her Lumix G7 .She is looking forward to some wildlife photography ..She tried it out and was loud in its praises. Just the results she was hoping for !
a car and through windows. I also use it a lot for pictures of boats and ships m the nearby Solent. Also don’t be afraid to shoot with fairly low shutter speeds as the IBiS in your Olympus camera is pretty awesome! It’s lightweight, portable and has made me pick my camera up and take it everywhere! Yes, I’m sure the IQ on higher end Olympus telephoto zooms is a compelling reason to buy them, but for less than 400 this is an amazing lens tor travel and happy snappers like me!
This has turned out to be an incredibly versatile lens. I have used it for wildlife photography and obtained very sharp results. I have also used it for landscape photography and again have been pleased with it. It is very light and yet sturdy and fantastic value (given how expensive lenses are).
THIS LENS IS WELL WORTH THE MONEY,PICTURE QUALITY FANTASTIC
It’s ok but hardly used it, wide angle lens would have been bette
Excellent picture quality. You have to learn how to use it because of the relatively low maximum f stop but produces very good results once you get the feel of it. Very light for a lens of such power and very useable hand held.
If you have an MFT camera and take sport and wildlife foties, buy this, not weather sealed so be careful on drizzly dayys.
Excellent low light shooting. Really fast shutter. Light to carry and smooth operation. Recommended
This lens is a relatively light and low cost way of achieving a 600mm film equivalent lens when paired with a micro 4/3 Olympus camera. For the weight and cost it is fine. The optical performance is not particularly great, used at the 300 mm (600 mm equiv.) length which is the purpose of having it (I have the much lighter 14-150 mm for everyday use), but it is an achioevable and carry-able way into the world of a longer telephoto.
I have no idea what the previous iteration of this lens was like, but this version II replaced that back in 2013 and has the company’s Extra-Low Reflection Optical (ZERO) coating to reduce ghosting and flare. It’s still f/4.8-6.7, so it’s not one for using in poor light as the autofocus will hunt a bit, but it is a lot of zoom in a small, light and cheap lens. It’s also very sharp up to 250mm at around f/8 and I found it’s still satisfactory even at the long end, though being only adequate might be a slight disappointment to a few people, as most will want to use this lens at its maximum range. Also, it doesn’t allow the depth of field that many might want but the slow aperture is put into perspective when you consider the other options for a telephoto lens of this length. The pro level 300mm f/4 is five times more expensive and three times the weight, whilst the slightly faster Panasonic equivalent is both bigger and heavier.
It’s only available in black, but that shouldn’t be an issue for those like me with silver camera bodies, and the only markings on the barrel are the focal lengths, which is dominated by the zoom ring with the focus ring at the front. It’s a smooth operation. The lens does extend to close to double the length and it rotates slightly but not enough to affect filter users. There’s no lens creep. If your interest is in wildlife, you need a lens such as this.
As a long reach zoom lens for the OMD series, it certainly doesn’t look out of place but for PEN users, it could be a bit top heavy when extended, so a tripod might be advisable, as you may have difficulty hand holding for shots at the maximum. The only negative about this lens is it doesn’t come with a hood, but no Olympus lenses seem to, so it’s not really a deal breaker.
*Other than pressing the shutter button, to see what it can do without any involvement, the photos were taken on an auto setting and are straight from the camera.
Superb lens ! Light for a 300mm lens so not hard to use hand held , fantastic image quality even at longest setting- a true quality Olympus product!
Sturdy and gives excellent results. There is always a stability problem with long lenses but provided you know what you are doing that can be overcome. The attached image was one of a burst of about a dozen shots. Really pleased with it.
You really can’t get much value for money in a lens than this
Would have been good to see weather sealing and a bundled lens hood.
Whilst not the easiest lens to use; remember it extends to a full-frame equivalent of 600 mm, with care, and a good camera body equipped with excellent in-body stabilisation (or at least a solid support) it can produce very sharp images throughout its range. I use this with an Olympus OMD EM-1 Mk II hand-held for wildlife and aerial photograph—in the air I am shooting moving subjects from an unstable platform at no faster than 1/320 so as to blur the propeller.
There are reviews that say the image becomes too soft beyond 200 mm but, in my experience, the fault is not in the quality of the optics.
The lens does not have the same feel as the Olympus ‘Pro’ lenses, nor is the zoom as smooth, but the compactness, lightweight and price are decent compensations.
If you buy a protection filter (a good idea), make sure that it is of very good quality. A poor filter can wreck the performance of a lens, particularly a long one
Well built, light and compact for the focal length. Excellent image quality up to 200mm, very good at 300mm, even wide open. Better at 300mm than a crop at 150mm from my excellent 40-150mm 4.0-5.6, which was my key metric. Very pleased with images of birds and other wildlife, and the moon, with contrasty rendering and pleasing colours. Focusing fast and quiet in low light.
Zoom smooth but a bit stiff, leading to jerky small adjustments. Slow aperture limits usage. Not as portable as the 40-150mm f4.0, which I will keep as a more flexible travel lens.
Very pleased, an essential addition to a set of premium Olympus lenses, especially at the 330 I paid after cashback promotion.
The lens feels fairly light and balances out pretty well on my EM-1. It doesn’t feel like I’m lugging around a huge lens as it’s pretty compact considering it’s reach. I have taken hand held shots at the full 300mm but unless you are incredibly steady, I would use a tripod or at least a monopod.
My wife has the Panasonic 100-300mm and so I am able to make some kind of comparison. In short I think the Panasonic is a tad sharper at the full end but it is marginal. They are both quite similar in their capabilities and results. My only gripe really is that unlike Panasonic, Olympus omit a hood and carry bag. So you do need to factor that in. If you are deciding between this and the Panasonic and the two varying stabilisation methods are not an issue. Hand on heart, I would go for the Panasonic but if the Oly is on offer and significantly cheaper then this is a good one to go for too.
This is a very good lens with a great focal length. The pictures are nice and sharp and get a surprisingly good depth of field. The photos I have uploaded were all taken at 300mm on a om-d em 5 II. Like all the Olympus gear it’s well built and smooth to use but I take one star off for not being weather sealed which I miss after using the 12-40mm pro lens. I highly recommend this lens if you need a long zoom as the only other option at 300mm is the pro lens which is a lot heavier and way more expensive.
I like the light weight of it and obviously the long reach. Not very fast though.
What I bought it for:
I bought this to use with a PEN-F – my other lenses are the 17mm and the 75mm Primes .. both f1.8 – These two.. especially the 75mm.. are great lenses .. but I like doing a bit of wildlife photography and it was so frustrating having to crop into pictures all the time and lose quality in the process
The 75-300:
I did have some concerns re the speed of this lens before I bought it. This lens is plastic and has a slightly cheaper feel to it than the 75mm .. but then it was less than half the price. I find the 75-300 works really well as long as there’s enough light .. I’m completely happy with the edge to edge image quality. Obviously you’ve got the usual parameters to play with .. aperture / shutter speed / ISO .. and light… I’m typically using it on clear / sunny days on manual for still or slow moving wildlife at shutter speeds sub 250 and getting good results (wish I could crank it up for birds in flight – only possible on very bright days..) Great light weight lens and small enough for a jacket pocket. Olympus in body image stabilisation is a huge bonus using this lens at 300mm hand held, I’m not sure Id recommend it for cameras without it unless you expect to always be using a tripod.
Verdict:
Overall once you understand the potential and the limitations it’s a lot of fun and I’ve produced a set of images I’ve been happy with – see a couple of cropped examples attached. It’s certainly allowed me to take shots I would have otherwise missed. Of course I’d love to be able to justify buying the 300m F4 Pro lens .. but that’s a whole new level in terms of performance and of cost, at over 4 times what I paid for the 75-300 – so for now I’m very happy with it.. and as always in photography.. there’s still something out there on my wish list!
Can be purchased new for around 250 – which makes it an amazing value long zoom lens.
At first I wasn’t sure, having also the even cheaper 45-150mm Olympus zoom, which, because it’s smaller and lighter, gives far more consistent results free of blur, but after realising that this lens needs more careful handling, it has become one of my favourites. I would love a pro lens, such as the pro 45-150mm Olympus, but that’s even bigger and heavier than this, and for my use – with lots of wild walking over rough terrain and sometimes long distances, I would much rather carry this or the cheaper 45-150 which is a relatively featherweight lens (and a fraction of the price). The 75-300 is bulkier and heavier – haven’t looked at the specs, but feels like it’s at least twice the bulk of the cheaper 45-150mm – but still amazingly compact and light for what it is, compared to anything else out there.
Anyway, in short, the results can be spectacular in the right conditions (not too dark) even with a small body like an Olympus E-PL7 (plus viewfinder) and no tripod (my hands are not even all that steady). I always develop images from RAW, and sometimes images from the longest zoom needs a bit of colour and contrast enhancement to bring vibrancy back to the image.
I was dubious what difference changing to the micro 4/3rds version of the same lens would make but, in desperation decided to give it a go. I’m so pleased I did. I still find the Mark 1 EM-1 isn’t the best tracking camera in the world, and I’m sure the Mark II is better, but finally I was at least able to get some birds in flight shots with this lens. Sharpness is much improved, even hand held, and of course using a dedicated micro 4/3rds lens with my EM-1 gives me many more focus points than using my old 4/3rds lens.
Most commentators say there is nothing new on this lens compared to the old 4/3rds lens and they may be right, but to me it’s miles better and I’ve really noticed the difference in my shots. A friend owns the Panasonic 100-300mm lens which I’d also read good things about, so I borrowed it to compare the two. The Oly was lighter and tracked moving objects much better. The Panasonic continually missed focus on birds in flight but was, IMHO, sharper on stationary subjects, so it was swings and roundabouts.
I am still waiting for Olympus to bring out a smilar sized telephoto lens with a wider aperture in this price range though, as mirrorless cameras already suffer from poor bokeh and struggle in low light, and F/6.7 at 300mm really is rubbish which is why I’ve taken a star off this review.
great value only marked down a star because I think lens hoot should be included . wasn’t delivered on time paid for next day came in 2 days
Tested out the proposition that the 6.7 maximum aperture at 300mm might not be enough.
Here is a picture taken at 300mm on a dull February afternoon with the lens mounted on an Olympus PEN F
Thanks to the in body IS the result is not half bad, it’s a Dunnock by the way.
A total amateur + Olympus Pen F + this lens = wonderful photos.
Good lens but I was hoping for more low light performance at this price but it is nice.
Great Lens and a real bargain. I was looking for a zoom for my Olympus OM–D EM5 Camera. Looked in Jessops an they wanted 479 for one. Amazon price was 346.
Vignetting is very noticeable below f/7.1 above 150mm, but I find a happy balance at f/9 for longer zoom shots, or you can remove the vignette in post quite easily anyway.
I’ve owned several long zooms including the Panny 45-175 and 100-300, and think this one offers a better combination of usability vs size. Always in my bag.
Have to say it performed so much better than I could have hoped for and so easy to use!
Very glad I invested in this lens, well done Olympus
The thing that surprised me most was perhaps the high F-Stop values. I owned the DSLR version of this lens, and had lower F-stop values throughout the range, but especially when fully extended. This is possibly important, because I suspect that sharpness for this lens starts to drop off after F/8. This said, this is much lighter, so you’ll get fewer glances of surprise when you use it in public.
My one grumble is it doesn’t come with a lens hood, which the DSLR lenses have as standard.
Given the F stop ratings, this lens tends to sit in my bag until I need the extra reach on the zoom. The 40-150 pro is usually attached because of the better performance in poor light, but that lens costs 4-5 times as much as the 75-300.
The zoom grip has a little too much friction so getting a precise frame can take a little tweak or two. The manual focus ring is very smooth to operate but a tiny movement can have a significant impact on focus. It could do with having the “gearing” (I know it’s not mechanical) slowing down when at 300 mm just to give you even more precise control.
It accepts a 58mm protector / filter if you need to fit one .
Remember that if you mount this to a Panasonic body the lens has NO inbuilt image stabilisation, but it performs very well using the Olympus in-body OIS. It’s possible to take good hand-held shots @ 300mm (and I have a tremor in one hand).
Overall, I’d recommend it to those interested in nature / bird photography who are looking for a lightweight zoom at a reasonable price.
I found I had to adjust the settings of my EM-5 to get the best out of this lens: reduced magnification when focusing helps, as 14x on 600mm effective focal length is simply too much! Auto-focussing is fast with this lens, but I find manual fine adjustment is often needed to focus on exactly the right thing (face priority doesn’t work well on animals – jaguars cause real problems: think spots…) I found keeping the lens/EM-5 combo really steady is not so easy. The HLD-6 power grip helps to give better balance and allows me to keep a really solid, steady hold. This setup is what I will be using it the bush. Oh, I use the JJC lens hood, which seem OK.
Here is my own take – it’s early days yet, but after a few 100 test shots, my conclusions are: lightweight and compact for a zoom of this size, as you would expect for a m 4/3 lens; might be a little unwieldy on a very small m 4/3 camera body when fully extended at 300mm (e.g. on an EPL5 or GM1) but on my EM5 it balances very well; feels quite solid in the hand and is ‘made in Japan’ – nice!; zoom action is just right – not too stiff, not too sloppy, no zoom creep experienced so far; AF not as snappy as a prime or smaller range zooms, but not overly sluggish either on my EM5 – about what I expected; AF-C not great at keeping up with moving targets, but that is more a limitation of the EM5 AF system and is not really the forte of micro four thirds – only the GH4 really starts to catch up with DSLRs when it comes to AF-C in my experience.
But what has really astonished me is the IQ – at 300mm my test shots show very good resolution and contrast – I was stunned to see that images from this lens and my EM5 match those from my Sony 70-400G lens (mounted on a Sony a57 or a77 SLT camera body) for contrast and sharpness – that Sony lens is a 1500 lens by the way ! Now I may have just been lucky and obtained a very good copy of the Olympus lens, and I do have a lot of years experience of handholding tele lenses to fall back on, but even so, this really surprised me. The quality of images from this lens far surpasses those from any other 70-300 or 75-300 I have ever come across on any system so far. If you have ever had, like I have, a Tamron 70-300 or one of those Tamron superzooms like a 28-300, the long end of this Olympus produces images far in excess of the quality of those produced by those other lenses.
Now of course you do need good technique when using a lens like this at the long end. On a m 4/3 system the 35mm equivalent focal length is X 2, so it it 150mm-600mm 35mm equivalent. Handholding a 600mm equivalent lens, even one quite small and light like this one, takes practice and patience to perfect. The IBIS on the EM5 is good of course, but you still need to treat a 300mm lens with respect. My test shots handheld at 1/500 shutter speed were very crisp at the 300mm end – I imagine on a tripod with IBIS turned off they would be even more impressive. I should also say I was very impressed by the low levels of purple fringing and chromatic aberration – again, much lower levels than I have seen on some much more expensive tele lenses on DSLR systems.
So, in conclusion, this lens was a real eye-opener for me – much, much sharper at the long end than I expected it to be. I have never owned the rival Panasonic 100-300 but I have owned the Panasonic 45-200 and this lens blows that one out of the water by quite some margin. And as I said above, it gives very expensive DSLR lenses like the Sony 70-400G a run for their money, even though on paper it shouldn’t. I should add I also have a Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 lens – a lens that costs about 900, and again, this little Oly is as sharp as that lens – really impressive especially for the price.
This is therefore a great lens for wildlife. Is it a great lens for sports, action, air shows etc? Well once micro four thirds camera bodies have good AF-C and tracking capabilities it will be – for now, only really the GH4 offers that. So action shots will always be a bit challenging, but there certainly are users out there who are using this lens on m 4/3 and getting good action shots, so it can be done.
I can’t recommend this lens highly enough in conclusion – it punches well above its weight. Shame on Olympus for not supplying a lens hood for free though – while many report the coatings on this lens make it very resistant to flare and ghosting, I would never use a long tele lens without a hood – I ended up buying a collapsible rubber hood sold on here and made by Hoya – you can, of course, buy other third party hoods or the over-priced official Olympus one. Looks like Oly have started supplying hoods with their more recent lens models..finally !
I have only given the lens 4 stars as like many others think that Olympus should supply a lens hood with the lens.
Over all when taking the price into account this is a very capable telephoto lens and would recommend it to friend.
I’ve tried it in a variety of lighting conditions, including the lesser-spotted bright sunlight situation. In decent light on an Olympus OMD EM5, it gives very good sharp and detailed pictures handheld. On a tripod, it might be even better, although there’s no lens collar, so the balance is going to be a bit off from the ideal. In poorer light, it can still be good, but you are obviously limited by the slower apertures on this lens.
It is very light (certainly compared with a Nikon 300mm f4) and really quite compact. Build quality seems fine to me unless you equate weight with quality, because it is definitely light. There is no zoom creep that I can detect, and the image quality is decent wide open throughout the range, although I think you’ll get better performance out of it if you stop down to f7.1 or f8 and stop short of fully extended (say about 252mm, which you will see in the top right of the viewfinder on an OMD).
Because it’s so small and light, I have found myself sometimes forgetting that I’m shooting at up to 600mm equivalent and have tried shutter speeds that are far too low. I think this may well account for some reports of disappointment with this sort of lens. The IBIS on the Olympus OMD can let you get away with this sort of thing quite a bit, but even that has its limits and I find the OMD IBIS a bit inconsistent at this sort of thing, possibly even being better at supporting my Nikon 300mm f4, 1.4 tc and adapter, but I fully accept that could just be operator variance or a preference for a bit of heft in such a setup.
The only lens I can really compare it with is the Nikon 300mm f4, which is supposed to be a particularly sharp lens. I would say this Olympus lens can come very close to that, maybe just lagging a bit on close inspection. The difference is that the Nikon lens is heavy and quite long, even if still reasonably portable as full frame lenses go, while the Olympus lens can go in a bag with the OMD and several other lenses taking me from 24mm to 600mm equivalent and I’ll barely feel the weight. I dithered greatly, choosing between this and the Panasonic 100-400, but as far as I could make out from reviews and samples, image quality was pretty much the same – better with the Olympus in some reports – and there is less price difference than with the previous version of this lens. For the difference that half a stop on the aperture is going to make, I decided to go with the smaller, lighter, newer Olympus lens. I don’t have the opportunity to try different lenses where I live. If you do, it would probably be a good idea to try both lenses or, if you’re using a Panasonic body, probably go for the Panasonic lens if image stabilisation matters to you (don’t need it with Olympus since it’s built into the camera body).