February is Valentine’s Month! And we should remind ourselves that self-love is a wonderful thing. We’ve been through a lot in the past few years, and we all deserve a nice treat. Passionate photographers can dive deeper into their hunt for great photos with a new lens. Want to photograph birds or wildlife while you’re out in nature, taking a walk by yourself? Well, we’ve got a few fantastic lenses just for you.
Editor’s Note: during the month of February, all of these lenses can be bought with a free MC-20 2x teleconverter.
M. ZUIKO 300mm f4 IS PRO
This is the lens you want with you when you’re set up and waiting for birds or wildlife to come into the frame. What makes it so great is its combination of super small size, fast autofocus, and light-gathering capabilities.
If you’re using this lens with the OM SYSTEM OM-1, you’re probably going to enable animal or bird detection. Wide open at f4, it will render a depth of field of f8 in full-frame equivalence. So you’ve got less of a chance of missing the shot. For those of us who like long walks in the rain, you can set up to photograph and be rest assured that this lens will withstand the elements.
In the later part of the year, consider finding a place where hummingbirds like to feed. Then focus on some of the flowers and just wait for them to come into frame. Combine this with a feature like ProCapture mode and you’re bound to get them on camera.
In our review, we state:
The M. Zuiko 300mm f4 IS Pro lens is wonderful. It renders solid image quality, is built well, is lightweight, and honestly has a whole lot going for it. If youâre shooting wildlife, thereâs very little reason why youâd give this one up.
M.ZUIKO 40-150MM F2.8 PRO
This is one of OM SYSTEM’s most versatile lenses for a variety of reasons. First, it’s a fantastic lens that can easily handle photographing wildlife, candid moments while traveling, and landscapes. More importantly, it’s not all that large. What’s more, the lens hood is collapsible and a very innovative design.
Besides the weather resistance built-in, there’s another trick too! It can take the M. Zuiko teleconverters to give you more reach. Because it’s already such a fast aperture, it will be that much brighter with a teleconverter attached.
Walk into your backyard and photograph birds with this lens easily in the early hours of the morning. Alternatively, use it to find abstract things in the forest to photograph. Look into the trees, and sometimes you’ll see unique things like mushrooms up there. It’s a great focal length to use when photographing chipmunks and squirrels too!
In our review, we state:
The M.Zuiko 40-150mm f2.8 PRO is a lens that exhibits exceptional image quality that is sharp, contrasty, and detailed, enough to give any Micro Four Thirds user exactly what they want.
M.Zuiko 100-400mm f5-6.3 IS
If you really want to spoil yourself, the M.Zuiko 100-400mm f5-6.3 IS lens is one of the best ways to do it. Delivering a 200-800mm equivalence, it’s also got extremely good image stabilization built-in for when you’re feeling a tad shaky.
Bird and wildlife photographers will enjoy this lens for how lightweight it is while also being one of the company’s fastest-focusing zooms. Of course, you can pair it with a teleconverter too.
We love setting up nearby a lake and waiting for waterfowl and other types of birds and animals to come by. Maybe you’ll even find a frog or a turtle!
In our review, we said:
“Telephoto lenses, at the best of times, can be a challenge to use. Super telephoto zooms can be even harder to control, especially at the long end due to the very narrow viewing angle they produce and just how much vibration is amplified at such long focal lengths. However, I have to say, the image stabilization in the M.Zuiko 100-400mm f5-6.3 IS is excellent, and it does make this lens easy to handhold, even at 800mm equivalent lengths.”
