I do a lot of outdoors and wildlife photography. This is a great lens for action and long shots. Combined with my 2x teleconverter and it is perfect.
First things first. I am not a professional photographer. What I do have is 35 years experience with SLRs ranging from a Minolta 303b in the 1970s, Olympus OM2n when it first came out and a Canon F1n with associated good amateur lenses so I have a serious amateur interest that has brought a lot of enjoyment over the years. Second, I'm not a pixel peeper and couldn't give a rat's furry little derriere about the arguing that goes on in forums by 'experts' who don't seem to take many pictures. If the result is good, the specs of the gear mean nothing is my rule. Though an older lens now, this remains a high quality lens with average to good speed for its focal length. It is a good trade off between speed and cost compared to Olympus 90-250 2.8. I chose it for these reasons following much research reading other users experiences. While it's not well matched with the em-5 because of focusing compatibility issues, it would suit the em 1 very well. I'm using the em-5 and I don't find this too much of a problem for my type of photography - birds, often in close proximity. I always use manual focusing anyway so compatibility doesn't matter to me so much as qualities like colour, contrast and chromatic aberration control. I started photography prior to the digital age so manual focusing comes naturally. However, the manual focusing is very highly geared and a lower gearing would be much better for manual focusing. It is easy to over focus manually an have to ease back and forth if you rush focusing. This means the em-5 50-200 is not a suitable setup for action photography. Don't even consider it as you will be hugely disappointed and frustrated. It is a little front heavy when used at 200ml. However, I use a good tripod anyway so again that's not so much an issue. If you are using a poor quality tripod/head combination the frontal weight could be a problem. Invest in a decent tripod and it will reward with razor sharp pictures with the qualities mentioned above. The tripod mount is ok but not outstanding. The rotation aspect feels a little agricultural, almost gritty at times. I know bokeh is a very subjective thing but it is, to my mind, a little inconsistent with this lens. At times it is stunning and at others, especially with sharply delineated background highlights, it can be harsh and distracting. Sometimes I have needed to take care to move to a slightly different angle to the subject to minimise any sharp background highlights. Because of the depth of field trade off with 4/3 format and a moderate f3.5 at 200mm I find I need to use this lens wide open nearly all the time to get the bokeh I want. Again this isn't TOO much of an issue but something you need to be aware of when using this lens. Generally speaking, if your photographic subjects allow you to take your time and not rush, you can get stunning results with the 50-200. I have experimented with heavy cropping of some of my best pictures and they are razor sharp, have very minimal chromatic aberration even at extreme cropping levels and have beautiful colour and contrast. You would think that some of my best pictures were taken with the Olympus 60mm macro when you compare the detail. That's not to say all my photographs are like this but it does indicate that the basics of the 50-200 are there and it is possible to get truly outstanding results if care and time are taken. Which suggests something about the uses for this lens, particularly on the em-5Read full review
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Lenses