{"id":601,"date":"2008-12-09T17:49:38","date_gmt":"2008-12-09T07:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/?p=601"},"modified":"2008-12-25T03:00:54","modified_gmt":"2008-12-24T17:00:54","slug":"the-walk-around-telephoto-zoom-kit-comparisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/?p=601","title":{"rendered":"The walk-around telephoto zoom kit &#8211; comparisons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My requirements here are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>focal length range ~100 to 400mm in 35mm equivalent terms<\/li>\n<li>high image quality<\/li>\n<li>reasonably light and compact &#8211; < 2kg for the camera and lens and preferably < 24cm long mounted so it fits in a medium size shoulder bag<\/li>\n<li>image stabilised<\/li>\n<li>aperture at least f\/4.5 to allow reasonable background blurring<\/li>\n<li>circular aperture blades for nice bokeh<\/li>\n<li>preferably sharp enough and with minimal aberrations to allow reasonable use of teleconverters<\/li>\n<li>close focus<\/li>\n<li>ultrasonic motor or equivalent for fast AF<\/li>\n<li>preferably weatherproofed so you don&#8217;t need to panic if it starts to rain<\/li>\n<li>medium priced <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NOTE: ONLY the Olympus ZD 50-200mm kits satisfy ALL the above options.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Nikon D700 full frame with Nikkor 80-400mm f\/4.5-5.6 VR:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>unfortunately the aperture is a bit slow negating use of teleconverters, etc and it is an expensive lens and is 1.36kg for the lens alone, while close focus is a poor 2.3m<\/li>\n<li>a pro would probably go for the Nikkor 200-400mm f\/4 VR but that is much more expensive and tips the scales at almost 3.3kg! <\/li>\n<li>verdict &#8211; great high ISO and action performance but not for walkabout<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Nikon D300 cropped sensor with Nikkor 70-300mm f\/4.5-5.6 VR:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>gives 105-450mm range but at a slow f\/5.6<\/li>\n<li>a nicer option would be the much more expensive and heavier Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 VR which gives 105-300mm and could be used with a TC<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Canon 5DMII with EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6 L IS:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>again a rather slow aperture and I suspect its resolution will not be adequate for the 21mp sensor, and I&#8217;m not a big fan of the push-pull zoom mechanism while at 1.36kg its still a touch heavy and close focus of 1.8m is still nothing to write home about.<\/li>\n<li>I suspect it&#8217;s time for Canon to update this lens<\/li>\n<li>an alternative is the more expensive but much lighter 70-300mm f\/4-5.6 DO IS lens<\/li>\n<li>verdict: not a great option for this focal range as a walkaround<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Canon 50D with Tamron  AF18-270mm F\/3.5-6.3 VC lens:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>an incredible 15x zoom range giving 28-419mm range but lots of compromises on image quality and AF speed<\/li>\n<li>verdict: may be an option if image quality is not highest priority and don&#8217;t need it for action photography<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Canon 50D with EF 70-300mm f\/4.5-5.6 IS:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>112-480mm range but again, slow aperture and resolution will not match the 15mp sensor<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Olympus E520\/E510 with ZD 50-200mm f\/2.8-3.5 SWD:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the lightest (<1.8kg for camera and lens), and almost the cheapest option, and provides some great features which beat all the other options:<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>lens is weatherproofed (camera can be too if you buy the E-3)<\/li>\n<li>nice wide aperture with circular diaphragm for nice blurred backgrounds<\/li>\n<li>close focus to 1.2m giving 0.42x macro<\/li>\n<li>ability to use with either 1.4x or 2x TC with AF functioning and good image quality, allowing an incredible 800mm f\/7 capability which can be hand held at 1\/250th sec<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li>now if Olympus could make it a touch smaller and lighter, and work for Micro Four Thirds in contrast AF mode, it would be perfect<\/li>\n<li>verdict: <strong>MY favourite telephoto zoom lens<\/strong> &#8211; if you need action use, then consider the E-30 or E-3 cameras which will give faster AF, more AF sensor points for continuous AF and 5fps burst rates<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Olympus E510\/520 with ZD 70-300mm f\/4-5.6:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a cheaper, lighter alternative but at cost of image quality, slower AF and teleconverter use not recommended<\/li>\n<li>gives an incredible 140-600mm range image stabilised and not as obtrusive as the other options<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>If you really want super compact but high quality and no need for fast AF for action, then consider:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/gary\/photo\/photo_43rdMicro.htm\">Micro Four Thirds <\/a>camera with forthcoming 45~200mm f\/4-5.6 OIS lens which gives 90-400mm range in a very compact outfit, and I&#8217;m guessing there will be some continuous AF video-enabled camera bodies coming soon<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>It&#8217;s not just the camera to consider when buying a new camera but what lenses are available for it and how you want to use it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/gary\/photo\/photo_STele.htm\">comparison table of lens features here<\/a>, some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/gary\/JAlbumAll\/ByLens\/OlympusdSLR\/ZD50-200mm\/index.htm\">example photos I have taken with this lens<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/gary\/JAlbumAll\/ByLens\/OlympusdSLR\/ZD50-200mmTC2x\/index.htm\">example photos taken with this lens with Olympus 2x teleconverter (EC-20)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bobatkins.com\/photography\/digital\/budget_dslrs.html\">Bob Atkins has a comparison of entry level dSLRs here<\/a> &#8211; although he does not go into length on the relative benefits of the lenses available to each.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/brandoneu.blogspot.com\/2008_11_01_archive.html\">Brandon Eu<\/a> has a nice blog demonstrating how useful this lens is.<\/p>\n<p>In my opinion, for the amateur who can afford it, the Olympus ZD 50-200mm SWD, the excellent Olympus teleconverters and general high optical quality of their lenses are some of the main reasons to choose the Olympus system, the cameras are rather secondary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My requirements here are: focal length range ~100 to 400mm in 35mm equivalent terms high image quality reasonably light and compact &#8211; < 2kg for the camera and lens and preferably < 24cm long mounted so it fits in a medium size shoulder bag image stabilised aperture at least f\/4.5 to allow reasonable background blurring [&hellip;]\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,3],"tags":[44,18,48,14,37],"class_list":["post-601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lenses","category-photography","tag-canon","tag-four-thirds-micro","tag-nikon","tag-olympus","tag-zd-50-200mm"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}