Introduction

Ease of Use

The OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm F2.8 IS PRO is a fully weather sealed zoom lens with a dedicated Micro Four Thirds mount that is made of metal with a rubber seal around the mount. Communication between lens and camera body is provided through eleven electrical contacts. 

The lens is both dust- and moisture-resistant to the IP53-certification standard, an excellent feature given that this lens will predominantly be used by wildlife and sports photographers in all kinds of conditions. Note however that in order to take full advantage of the weatherproofing, you will need to mount it on a similarly sealed body, like the flagship OM System OM-1 II camera that we tested it with.

Tipping the scales at 1075 g / 2.37lb without the Tripod Adapter fitted (1250 g / 2.76 lb with it) and measuring 225.8mm in length and 91.4mm in diameter, the 50-200mm F2.8 IS PRO is clearly a substantial lens, but given the 100-400mm effective focal length, that's perhaps no surprise. 

The OM System OM-1 Mark II camera that we used for this test is a great match for the lens, offering good balance, fast auto-focus, and full environmental seals, although we'd also fit the optional battery grip for extended hand-held use.

The OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm F2.8 IS lens itself is very well built, fully living up to the PRO designation that OM System have given it.

An inner zoom system is used, which means that the length of the lens barrel doesn't change when zooming in/out. In turn this minimizes center of gravity changes while zooming for more stable framing and greater comfort during long photography sessions.

In terms of features, the Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS Pro lens certainly has a lot to offer.

It is one of the few Olympus/OM System lenses lens to offer built-in image stabilisation, dubbed "5-Axis Sync IS mechanism", which actually works in conjunction with the 5-Axis IS system in the OM-1 Mark II camera to offer an impressive 7 EV steps of compensation.

If you use this lens with a Micro Four Thirds camera body that doesn't have the 5-Axis IS system, it still offers up to 5.5 EV steps of compensation.

There is a focus limiter switch with three different settings - 0.78-3m, FULL, and 3m-infinity.

Underneath that is an AF/MF switch for selecting the focusing method and an IS switch for turning the image stabilisation on or off.

The preset focus function and L-Fn button are used when selected with the L-Fn selector switch. The Preset focus function allows you to to save and instantly activate your favourite focal position. The new SET button underneath can be used to save the current focus position for later recall.

Around the base of the lens is a tripod mount that is compatible with Arca-Swiss type clamps and is designed for a comfortable grip when carried. The tripod mount can be attached and removed even when the lens is attached to the camera. It can also be rotated using the knurled locking ring to easily switch between horizontal and vertical shooting orientations.

This lens features a 77mm filter thread which does not rotate on focus, great news for anyone intending to use a polariser or ND grads on the lens.

When used with an optional teleconverter, the longest possible focal range is increased from 400mm up to 560mm with the M.Zuiko Digital 1.4x Teleconverter MC-14 and up to 800mm with the 2x Teleconverter MC-20.

In use, this lens offers virtually silent focusing and we found the AF system to be very quick and precise when pairing the lens with the OM-1 Mark II camera. With the focus mode on the camera set to AFC and subject detection on, the lens tracked moving subjects well.

Manual focusing is possible in a focus-by-wire fashion. This should not put you off using it as it feels pretty natural in use, and actually enables the camera to display a magnified view of the subject automatically, i.e. without you having to press a dedicated button or enter the menu. The focus ring is generously sized and more than adequate for the job.

This lens offers four unmarked, customisable L-Fn buttons located between the zoom and focus rings to which different functions can be assigned and operated while looking through the viewfinder in both vertical and horizontal orientations.

Usefully the lens comes with a large lens hood (LH-82C) that is equipped with a filter control window that lets you turn a circular polarizing filter.

Olympus also include a good quality lens case (LSC-1127) in the box plus front and rear lens caps.

Focal Range

The OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm F2.8 IS PRO's focal length of 50mm provides an angle of view of 24°.

 

 

The 200mm focal length provides an angle of view of 6.2°.

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as blue or purple fringes along contrasty edges, were not especially apparent in our test shots, only appearing in very high contrast areas.

Vignetting

With the lens set to its maximum aperture of f/2.8, there is a small amount of light fall-off in the corners, requiring you to stop down by at least 2 f-stops to completely prevent it.

 

 

Distortion

This lens doesn't exhibit very much pincushion distortion at either end of the zoom range, as you can see in the photos below.

50mm

 

200mm

 

Sunstars and Flare

The OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm F2.8 IS PRO is capable of creating some quite nice sunstars when stopped-down to f/22, as shown below, although flare is evident when shooting directly into the sun.

 

50mm

 

200mm

Macro

The OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm F2.8 IS PRO offers a very useful minimum focusing distance of 0.78m / 30.7in throughout the zoom range, with a maximum magnification of 0.5x and 1x magnification when using the 2x teleconverter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bokeh

Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc.

In the M.Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm F2.8 IS PRO lens, OM System have employed an iris diaphragm with 9 rounded blades, which has resulted in very nice bokeh in our view.

We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective, so we've included lots of examples below for your perusal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sharpness

In order to show you how sharp the OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm F2.8 IS PRO lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following pages.