Review of the Olympus 150-400 F/4.5 TC1.25X Pro: The Pinnacle of Micro Four-Thirds Wildlife Telephoto Lenses

Grizzly bear in Yellowstone NP. F/4.5 @ 400mm 1/250th ISO

Intro

The Olympus 150-400 F/4.5 with built-in 1.25X TC lens is easily the most expensive and most exotic lens design ever released for micro-four thirds system cameras. As a wildlife photographer, I’ve always had a soft spot for serious telephoto lenses, regardless of brand, and it is a great pleasure to finally see this particular lens in the flesh and be able to put it through its paces. I am fortunate to have used the lens in my local area and also the fantastic Yellowstone National Park over the past month. This will be an image-heavy post which I hope will serve to demonstrate the optical qualities of the lens.

Super-tele lenses, in my opinion, are at the pinnacle of lens design and innovation, and one clearly has to pay the high price for the privilege of using one. But in return, you get an uncompromising lens that is hard to fault. If you’re wondering whether the lens can produce sharp photos, look no further, it does. However, if you are looking for some real-world impressions and samples, please read on.

This lens is a highly complex, 28-element optical formula with a built-in TC design similar to what was originally introduced the Canon 200-400 F/4 and later the Nikon 180-400 F/4. In my opinion, these lens designs offer huge versatility for the serious wildlife enthusiast or pro. I’m truly humbled to be able to use a lens like this.

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Purchase the Olympus M.Zuiko 150-400mm lens here

Anna’s hummingbird. 500mm, F/5.6, 1/250th, ISO 400

Great horned owl. @700mm (w/ MC-14 1.4 TC) F/10, 1/40th, ISO 160

Build Quality

The build quality brought forth with the Olympus 150-400 F/4.5 lens is, in my opinion, of the highest standard we’ve yet seen in a micro-four thirds lens, and probably better than most lenses currently on the market. Olympus really did a great job with this one. The beauty is in the details with this lens - everything about it demonstrates to me that Olympus put a lot of attention to design aspects:

The lens is completely weather sealed from the elements
The tripod collar, when loosened, has click stops at each of the 45 degree angle points. This is a great feature for work on a tripod, for example, where one wishes to quickly flip to portrait orientation by feel alone.
The hood is a lightweight carbon fiber design, has solid engagement on the camera, and screws off an on without fuss
Both the loosening screws, including on the hood and tripod collar, have clever stops that prevent them from being completely removed and lost in the field.
The tripod foot has an arca-swiss mount, meaning there is no need to add unnecessary weight or failure points of an tripod arca-swiss plate
All the control/contact points are durable, grippy rubber.
The entire lens is constructed primarily of high-density polycarbonate and metal, and covered with a durable powder coated finish. Some lenses (even some expensive super-telephotos) that I have used have a simple and easily scratched painted finish - that is not the case here.
The tripod foot design with its soft grippy rubber surface is a great touch and makes it super easy to carry this lens all day.

The F/4.5 maximum aperture was brilliant move. Olympus was able to strike a perfect balance of creating a lens that’s highly capable of excellent light gathering ability, but also appreciably light enough for all-day carry. I use a full-frame mirrorless camera with a 70-200 F/2.8 lens side-by-side with this setup, and I don’t notice a dramatically different handling between the two - that’s got to be saying something.

Showing off the great macro ability and bracketing function (Handheld!) with a variable checkerspot butterfly. 445mm, F/5.6, 1/1000th, ISO 500

Black-tailed jack rabbit. 500mm, F/5.6, 1/500th, ISO 160

Handling and Action

The lens is a dream to operate. Olympus clearly paid a great deal of attention to how this lens would be used when designing it. The following are a list of highlights:

The zoom ring is buttery smooth and grippy, and requires only a quarter turn of the ring to go through the full zoom range. This is awesome for capturing the wildlife target is in a wider frame and then zooming in on the details.
All of the switches are easy to access and have a good tactile feel.
The lens function buttons are ideally positioned around the lens ergonomic and accessible.
The TC lever and lock are perfectly placed so that they can be actuated with the simple flick of a finger.
I love the placement of the manual focus ring. If you’re holding the zoom ring in your left hand, all you’ve got to do is extend your fingers and you can nudge the focus ring for those fine-focus moments (or if you use AF/MF like I do).

Use Cases

This lens is really targeted towards professionals, enthusiasts, and those that simply want the top-of-the-line. I found myself utilizing the entire zoom range of this lens and also flipping the teleconverter switch and appreciating the versatility it offers each time. I found that when I had this much range at my fingertips, I spent more time focusing on photographing and less on the gear - especially during times when changing lenses means missed opportunities.

When put into challenging situations where you can’t physically move closer or the subject comes very close, for example, this lens has got you covered. In the following photo, this American avocet was stationary and then started flying rapidly towards me. Simultaneously zooming and focusing while bird approached was very smooth.

Marbeled godwit. 400mm, F/4.5, 1/3200th, ISO 320 with Bird AF tracking

This is really an ideal lens for a car or boat-based safari where you may be unable to predict or control where the subjects are going to be relation to your position. This is the exact type of photography I experienced while in Yellowstone (images to follow), coupled with some short jaunts on trails. I appreciated the light weight of the lens when I did get out and walk. Although everyone is different in their abilities and tolerances, I found no problems carrying the lens around for hours.

I also appreciate that I can throw the lens with a E-M1X in a bag small enough to fit under the seat on an airline (I know this to be true because, although I haven’t flown with it yet, the bag that I have been using to transport the body and grip around is the same bag that I’ve stuffed to the brim and flown with at my feet). Nobody is going to give you any trouble about the size of this lens on the airline.

It’s also a killer birding lens, given that you can utilize additional teleconverters for reach when needed, and zooms are always easier to handle when capturing skittish animals of any kind and birds in flight that change position constantly, and the bright maximum aperture means you can leverage the high shutter speeds needed.

The lens’s close-focus ability is truly outstanding and unusual for lens of this type. If you’re someone like me that likes to go for a hike whilst appreciating both the large and small critters you might come across, this lens is a great companion to cover (almost) all bases.

At the end of the day, it’s really hard to imagine a use case that this lens wouldn’t excel at - and I think that’s what Olympus had in mind when they set out to make this lens. Olympus designed a super-tele lens without any real compromises, and something that would really excel in the demanding sports and wildlife niches.

Grizzlies. 500mm, F/5.6, ISO 320, 1/250th

Grizzlies. 400mm, ISO 320, F/4.5, 1/320th

Grizzly mom and her cubs. 210mm, ISO 320, F/5.6, 1/160th

Stabilization

Optical stabilization with the E-M1X and the 150-400 lens is pure magic. We’re talking about the ability to shoot with a lens at an 1000mm equivalent focal length hand-held and get acceptably sharp shots at glacial (i.e., 1/20th of a second) shutter speeds. Of course, when shooting this slow, it’s best to shoot in burst to be able to capture the best shot given all the variables at play with camera shake and subject movement.

At the time of writing, I think one would be hard-pressed to find a combination that provides more powerful stabilization at the given zoom range. This is really nice if you’re someone who just hates using tripods. Leaving the tripod at home means saving at least five pounds of extra luggage on airlines or weight to carry in the field.

Pronghorn. 500mm, ISO 200, F/5.6, 1/1250th

Image quality

All of these build quality and handling features wouldn’t be that impressive if the image quality of the lens didn’t hold up to expectations. Fortunately, this lens delivers optically. I don’t do test charts, and side-by-side tests are outside the scope of this review, so folks will ultimately have to look at the imagery in this post and make judgments for themselves. Having used the 300 F/4 extensively, I’d say the two are evenly matched at that focal length - but the 150-400 simply offers a vast focal-length range leg up over the 300.

Conclusions

To some this lens might seem too expensive or too large for the micro-four thirds lineup. To those folks I would ask, what lens with a combination of fixed aperture, zoom lens with incredible close focus ability and zoom range exists on any other format? The answer is a simple “none”. It’s amazing to me that this lens shares a lot of the design elements of the Nikkor 180-400 TC but is almost half the price. Of course, that lens only really shares a similar optical design, but the field of view will be different and the 0.5 aperture gain and improved noise performance of the 35mm sensor format is arguably significant in the telephoto world. It would be fun to compare those lenses some day.

That being said, this lens does not need to compete with those full-frame lenses. It’s perfectly capable of standing on it’s own as a world-class optic that brings impressive portability and outstanding image quality in one package that fits in a small carry on bag.

Many will ask whether the price is justified. For what it is, the lens is probably as close to perfect as one is going to get, and there is nothing really like it at the price point. That being said, someone may logically compare it to the much cheaper Nikon 200-500 and Sony 200-600, for example. These lenses are, in my opinion, in a different category altogether. I don’t have those lenses to compare against this one, but having used both in the past, the experience is definitely quite different with the Olympus. For one, the Olympus is noticeably lighter, and the added TC and reach that allows one to fill the frame with the subject is a real bonus. The build quality is also a notch above. In addition, I found the Nikon 200-500 to suffer when shooting against bright backlit situations delivering less-than-ideal results. Both the Sony and Nikon are still an outstanding value for the money.

At the end of the day, it’s going to boil down to preferences and current investment in the system of choice, and a realization that one is debating gear that are each high-caliber and impressive in their own ways - at which point the twelve inches behind the viewfinder may well be the most important part of the equation. One thing is certain for me - with that built in TC and incredible close-focus range, the Olympus set up is probably the most fun to use out of any of them.

Black bear. 350mm, F/5.6, 1/320th ISO 200

I sat for a long time trying to think about faults with this lens, and while I usually can pick out a few, I seriously can’t think of any right now. If I had anything negative to say, it would be that I wish the lens had come sooner - i.e., along with the E-M1X release. If we add the body into the equation, I admit I would enjoy a new micro-four thirds sensor with improved ISO performance. This is because one is really capped at about ISO 1600 before image quality and noise starts to degrade things with this sensor - which is a factor if the target is larger print sizes. I can usually compensate for this using Olympus’ amazing stabilization, but better ISO performance is always appreciated for wildlife photography. I don’t use the combination the same way as my full-frame kit, for example, but that’s kind of what it’s all about in my opinion- learning the equipment, pushing it to the limits, and maximizing its strengths, knowing the weaknesses.

At the end of the day, I can highly recommend the lens if you want the best of the best within the MFT system, or even if one is a full-frame shooter who wants excellent imaging performance out of compact but versatile setup. I use both 35mm and micro-four thirds and it’s a great pairing.

The beauty of this lens is in its ability to get out of the way and let one enjoy the art of photography. The placement of the buttons, focus ring, zoom ring, and TC lever are intuitively placed and become almost instantly familiar to muscle memory. There is virtually no waiting involved for it to acquire focus, focus and image quality are only marginally affected by the use of optional teleconverters, and this is all rolled up into an easily hand-holdable package that can fit in a small carry-on bag. All of these attributes add up to a lens that is about as faultless as it comes in this modern age. The F/4.5 maximum aperture was also a brilliant choice to keep this lens comfortable for all-day handheld use. Not only that, it truly shines a light on the impressive advantage of crop-sensor camera format to offer exceptional image quality in a relatively tiny, hand-holdable package. It is truly an impressive achievement for Olympus (now OMD-S).