Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 100-400mm f/5-6.3 IS
In case anyone has missed the news, Olympus’s imaging division faces an uncertain future, as it’s being carved out from the parent business and sold to a venture capital company. But this hasn’t stopped the release of its latest lens, the M.Zuiko Digital ED 100-400mm f/5-6.3 IS. It’s an optically stabilised ultra-telephoto zoom that joins the firm’s mid-range line-up, rather than its premium Pro series.
There’s already a highly regarded telezoom of this type in the Micro Four Thirds system, in the shape of the Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmar 100-400mm F4-6.3 Asph OIS. You’d probably think that Olympus has made a more portable alternative, given the lens’s slower maximum aperture. But instead the new optic is significantly larger and heavier. Its £1,100 launch price is a little lower than its counterpart, but only by £100. So why would you buy it?
It turns out that the new lens’s trump card might be its compatibility with Olympus teleconverters. Fit the MC-14 (£249) and it becomes a 140-560mm f/7.1-9, and with the MC-20 attached (£379), it’s a 200-800mm f/10-13.
