John from gpwmi Loc: Michigan

The Olympus 300mm f/4, Full-Frame equivalent 600mm (view-angle 4 degrees) f/4.
Since I have many shots of Cardinals in bushes, it was a good place to test this lens. The birds are 30-35 feet away. All shots are Jpeg, super-fine compression (1/2.7), SOOC with only tweaking exposure and saturation. All are hand-held, taking advantage of 6.5 stop image stabilization.
Photos 1 - 5: Lens alone (F.F. equivalent 600mm f/4). Photos are cropped.
Photos 6 & 7: Lens with 1.4x teleconverter (F.F. equivalent 840mm f/5.6) No cropping.
Photos 8 & 9: Lens with 2.0x teleconverter (F.F. equivalent 1200mm f/8) No cropping.
Downloads are recommended.
Thanks for viewing - John

#1 - #5 Lens alone 600mm and cropped.

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#2

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#3

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#4

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#5

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#6 & #7 Lens with 1.4x teleconverter. Not cropped.

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#7

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#8 & #9 Lens with 2.0x teleconverter. Not cropped.

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#9

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Ourspolair

From these results, I don't see you taking that lens back any time soon! Gorgeous captures and rendering. Thanks for sharing.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Nice, nice, nice! I am a sucker for shots of cardinals.

See_the_shot Loc: Bluffton, SC

Thanks. I’ve been thinking about this lens. Need to take the plunge. Your images are great.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

How great it is that the focus stayed on the birds instead of always on the surrounding twigs! Lovely.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

John, superb presentation and birds! Your presentation allows one to open and arrange the two birds as tabs in separate browser windows for all the male and separately all the female images. Looking just at the 1:1 details around the eyes and head feathers, it's hard (if even possible) to say there's a difference between the 300mm and the 600mm images that is 'different' due to the lens configuration rather than slightly different views and lighting.

For the male, I think the 600mm is the best of the three, with just the slight increase in ISO grain.

I know it won't happen, but I would be happy to see these examples put an end to the rampant UHH urban myth of the limitations of using extenders, especially the 2x variety. To my eyes the 1.4x was the slight difference, but only for the male, where his example was slightly less brightly lit, maybe impacting the AF performance rather than the extender.

Bultaco Loc: Aiken, SC

Excellent set, great detail.

jederick Loc: Northern Utah

What a winner that lens is John...terrific examples of what it is capable of!!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Nice set.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

John, it looks like you've got a winner.
--Bob

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Very nicely done.

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

That is some serious glass, John! I usually do not get that crisp result from my 2x tc.

Craigdca Loc: California

Thanks for sharing, John. I appreciate knowing the distance to the birds, too. 😎

John from gpwmi Loc: Michigan

Thanks very much, Ourspolair. I didn't even have to do an A/B comparison with previous shots.

John from gpwmi Loc: Michigan

Thank you very much, John.