OM System has just announced the new M.Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm f/2.8 IS PRO super-telephoto lens, a welcome addition to its ever-growing arsenal of micro four thirds offerings. In fact, OM System has been teasing us with the prospect of this launch for a while now.
Lightweight for its size, superbly weather-sealed and featuring a healthy 100-400mm-equivalent telephoto reach, this lens is built for shooting wildlife, sports and anything else the great outdoors has to offer.
In its marketing, OM boasts that this is “the world’s only fully weather-sealed, all-purpose 100–400mm equivalent super-telephoto zoom lens with a constant f/2.8 aperture.” And that’s a new benchmark that’ll be hard to beat.
The bright constant f/2.8 maximum aperture makes it easy to work in challenging lighting conditions, delivering an exceptionally shallow depth of field for excellent subject separation.
The inner-zoom system helps minimize the centre of gravity shifts while zooming, with high-speed, high-precision focusing providing up to 50 fps AF tracking sequential shooting. This comes in handy when framing such fast-moving subjects as birds and athletes.
View M.Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm f/2.8 IS PRO Pricing and Availability at Vistek
When paired with a compatible OM System camera body, the lens’s 5-axis Sync IS system delivers up to seven stops of shake reduction. On its own, the lens compensates for roughly 5.5 stops of camera shake. Either way, you’ve got plenty of room in which to manoeuvre for stable handheld shooting, especially with distant subjects in your sites.
With a close focusing distance of 0.78m across all zoom ranges and a maximum image magnification of 0.5 times, this lens also offers outstanding close-up shooting opportunities. When using the 2x teleconverter, magnification is boosted to 1:1 – perfect for nature macro subjects such as insects. And to help broaden your depth of field with such tricky shots, the lens is fully compatible with OM System’s proprietary focus-stacking feature.
Features
- Micro Four Thirds format
- f/2.8 to f/22 aperture range
- 100-400mm full-frame equivalent
- Up to 800mm with MC-20 x2 teleconverter
- Up to 1:1 maximum magnification at 0.78m
- 7-stop 5-axis sync IS
- 21 elements in 13 groups
- ED and HR elements and ZERO II coating
- Internal zoom and focus design
- Focus limit switch
- IP53 weather-sealed, fluorine coating