(If you want to watch the video review go to The Slanted Lens on YouTube!)
Is OM’s new 50-200mm lens truly water resistant? Absolutely! 
This micro four thirds lens is IP53 certified. That’s amazing! This is the type of lens that nature photographers dream about. We all want a lens that’s going to give us great reach but a really fast aperture. This is an f/2.8 50-200mm which is a 100-400mm equivalent from OM systems. 
It’s the new M. Zuiko lens. It’s a one of a kind, an f/2.8 eight from 100-400 mm. That is absolutely unheard of. But it also gives you things like 50 frames of continuous autofocus shooting. 
It’s going to give you seven stops of five axis stabilization. It supports in camera focus stacking and it’s weather sealed. 
Not just kind of sealed, it’s weather sealed. So you can take it out, not have to worry and be able to shoot outdoors. 
This is meant to be a handheld platform. Take it out and shoot it. It does come with a collar for a tripod. You can take that off if you don’t use it, but it is a great platform. It is made to be handheld and taken out into the field.
So, we’re going out into Bolsa Chica today. We’re going to take some pictures of birds. We’re going to just start using this lens. 
I mean, I am absolutely thrilled about an f/2.8 100-400mm. That is incredible. Those types of lenses cost 10,000 plus. This is an incredible lens that gets us into that market. 
It gives us a lens to be able to do nature photography that’s not going to break the bank. So, let’s get out. Let’s shoot some images. Let’s see how this lens works. We’re very excited to be working with Samy’s camera here at The Slanted Lens because we can get access to the cameras that you want to hear about. So, thanks to Samy’s for providing our camera today.
So you can get very close with this as far as a macro capability. It’s not a 1:1. If you use a teleconverter on it, you can get a 1:1 at 200 millimeters. But without a teleconverter, you’re going to get about a 0.5, which is very close. And what’s nice about that is when you’re on 200mm, you’re back away. You’re not going to scare things away as much as when you’re pushing things, your lens right into the middle of, you know, an insect or whatever. So, it’s just easier to get macro type work.
Now, it’s really not a, it’s not a 1:1 without a teleconverter, but it does allow you to get within 30 inches or about .78 meter, and that gets you in pretty dang close. But that’s on the 200mm. When you go to 50mm, you’re back quite a ways. You see the cactus, you see most of the cactus. 
But when I go to 200mm, I really come in and I’m getting, starting to become a macro lens at that point. Which is really nice at f/2.8. So for a 100-400mm lens, that’s f/2.8 throughout. Get that kind of macro capabilities as well. It makes it a lens that does a lot of different things.
So, I’ve been shooting all morning with this lens handheld. And the reason I feel comfortable with that is because of the IS in the lens and the stabilization in the camera, the OM1. You’re getting seven stops of five axis stabilization. And I’m able to handhold this at 400mm, which is really, I mean that’s a test for anyone. But I feel comfortable with it. 
I’m looking at the images, they’re sharp. It’s just giving me that stabilization that makes this a handheld platform. It’s really what the Olympus platform is all about. 
And especially the OM1, it’s about taking it out and handholding with long lenses and being able to shoot on the go, move and shoot, and it really works out perfectly. And the IS helps make that happen. So here’s some of those images.
This lens just doesn’t talk about being weather-proofish. This lens is weatherproofed. It’s made to be outside. It’s IP53 certified. They certify that it is going to be able to get wet outside and not have any kind of problems. It’s also good for minus 10° as far as freezing. So, you can have this out in extreme cold weather. It’s made to be outside.
What makes this lens so useful is not just the f/2.8 which I absolutely love, but also the fact that it is so small and lightweight. I mean you’ve got 1,75 gram which is like 2.37 lbs. 
It’s very lightweight. It’s the same size as a 70-200 basically in full frame. So you got that small platform but it’s an f/2.8 100-400mm lens (equivalent). 
The zoom is entirely internal, which means it is not extending and coming back. This is a high-end pro lens, made to be able to shoot out in weather. It’s lightweight, so easy to travel. You can throw it in my SKB case and I can have plenty of room for other lenses. So, this platform makes this lightweight, easy to travel with. If I’m jumping on a bush plane going into Alaska, back fields of Alaska, that’s a super easy lens to take with me.
So, when it comes to protecting your photo and your video gear, investing in a solid case is just not a good idea. I think it’s pretty essential. That’s why I trust all my stuff to SKB. I put all my hard stuff in hard cases when I fly with it. I use a backpack whenever I’m out on the road moving around. They’re just, they’re like tanks. They are built and made to be taken anywhere. They’re waterproof. They’re dustproof. They’re crush proof. I’ve ran over them with a car. I’ve dropped them in the pool. I’ve done all those kinds of things. So whether you’re hiking with a backpack or you’re flying with all your stuff in hard cases, weather’s unpredictable. You just never know what you’re going to encounter. And they’re safe in an SKB case. The interior is completely customizable. You can change your camera bodies around your lenses. 
Everything fits in there nice and snug so it’s not going to bounce around. Whether you’re a professional or a hobbyist, you pay a lot of money for your gear. So it’s important to protect it. All it takes is one drop and then you’ve spent thousands of dollars on replacing gear. So with an SKB case, you’re not just carrying the gear around in it. You’re protecting your investment. So that peace of mind never looked so tough.
Just to be clear what an f/2.8 8 is on a micro four thirds f/2.8 is the equivalent of an f/4 on an APS-C sensor or f/5.6 on a full-frame sensor, but it’s an f/5.6 or an f/2.8 throughout the entire range of the zoom. 
And that’s what makes it so, so useful. If you get an f/1.4, they have an MC14 teleconverter that’ll give you a 1.4 conversion on this lens. So, from a 400mm to a 560mm. They also have an MC20 teleconverter which will take this from a 400mm to an 800mm. Now you do lose two stops with that. It goes to now an f/5.6 throughout rather than an f/2.8 throughout which is, all teleconverters do that. That’s just the property of that, the physics of that adapter. 
But most people who are shooting birds and that are going to get a teleconverter, because it’s going to give you that reach that you need to be able to really give, you get you in close when you’re shooting birds. So there’s some options for you. Just to understand that conversion as far as what an f/2.8 means in other formats and also using the teleconverters to get in closer.
So the lens is going to capture 50 frames a second in autofocus mode. So continuous autofocus. That’s an incredible amount of frames per second that gives you the ability to shoot birds, to shoot wildlife. It also has a pro capture mode which is like a pre-burst, which will allow you to be looking at something with the trigger half pushed and it’s waiting. 
It’ll allow you as soon as the bird takes off, you hit the trigger and it’s going to give you all the frames before that. You decide the number of frames you want before you hit the trigger and the number of frames you want after you hit the trigger.
Then that pro capture when you hit the trigger, it’s going to give you all the frames before and the ones after. So, it’s a really great thing. If something’s taking off, if there’s some kind of motion you want to capture, you’re not sure when it’s going to happen, you can see it in the viewfinder. 
When it takes off, you can hit the button and you capture those frames before it actually happened. So, it’s a great feature for shooting outside.
So, let me wrap this up. I have really enjoyed shooting with this lens and the reason being is just because it is very lightweight, lightweight, compact, internal zoom, f/2.8. So you see the shot of a heron, the background falls nicely out of focus.
I would definitely like to get the 2x teleconverter with this lens because that’s going to give me 800mm. I think that really makes this even more useful and it’s going to be a lot slower by two stops, but that’s what you get with teleconverters. So I think this lens really works for a lot of different applications. 
You got a 0.5 macro. With a teleconverter on it, you can get a 1:1 macro which is incredible. So you get a macro type lens. You have a landscape lens where you can compress the landscape. 
It’s great for sports. It’s great for any kind of birding and animals. It’s really a nature, outside in the environment type of lens. It’s made to take with you in lightweight form, get in your bag to be able to carry and you have the room for a lot of other lenses as well. So great introduction here from OM. 
Excellent lens. I think that f/2.8, these are the lenses that people dream about, you know, and say, “Oh, someday I’ll buy that lens.” Well, this becomes a price point that makes it far more achievable for most people. And that, I think, makes this lens really a winner across the board. Sharp images, ease of use with a lot of fun to shoot with. Here’s a few more images before we go. Keep those cameras rollin’ and keep on clickin’.
