My Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark I, with Olympus OM F-Zuiko Auto-T 300mm f4.5

I have written about this little Japanese camera before in December 2020, but I wanted to put it – and this lens kit – in the spotlight one more time. There are many people – including a brother-in-law of mine – who are not really photographers, but still want to take pictures from far objects. That can be birds, larger animals, the moon …
The problem (according to my brother-in-law) is that those cameras are way too complicated – way too heavy – way too big and above all, way too expensive.
Well, to refute that, I write one more time about the great Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark I combined with an Olympus OM Zuiko Auto T 300mm f4.5, a mount adapter and optionally a 2x doubler.

Yes, in addition to Pentax DSLRs and Fujifilm mirrorless cameras, I also have an old digital Olympus camera.
Old is actually relative, as the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark I was released in 2014, so today it is 7 years old digital technology.
If you compare the camera at https://cameradecision.com/ side by side with its descendants, you will notice that the Mark I is actually still a competent camera, even compared to its youngest brother, the latest 20MP Mark IV.
This is mainly because the “improvements” like more auto focus points and other bells and whistles, don’t actually make the camera that much better.
Certainly not if like me, you only use the camera on “manual” with “vintage lenses”.

Ok, why is this camera better than my other cameras ?
Well, this tiny japanese has some advantages that I don’t find in the Fujis and Pentax cameras I own, or do but not in the same way, or not combined.

The camera has “in body stabilization”, and that for a camera of less than € 200 second-hand at time of writing.
The 4/3 sensor, perhaps not everyone’s favorite, but it does give me a crop factor of 2.
16MP is more than enough if you do not crop or not much.
The above combined with the vintage OM Zuiko Auto-T 300mm f4.5 gives me a “stabilized” 35mm equivalent of a 600mm lens !
and by means of a 2x doubler, a whopping 1200mm bazooka!
But not the length of a bazooka, no, the camera with adapter doubler and telephoto lens together are 295mm long – with a total weight of 1775gr.
And yes, although the lens has a tripod collar, thanks to the IBIS I use this combo straight “out of hand”.

The numbers in the photos show the “real” focal lengths – 300mm = 300mm, 300mm with doubler = 600mm, taking into account the crop factor you have to multiply everything by 2 again. The first three photos were taken total darkness of a far-lit signboard.
Iso was set to 1600 and shutter to 1/125 – yes 1/125! -> that’s where the IBIS lends a “hand”.
These photos are not cropped, not enhanced in any way – only resized for use on this website. The next three were taken the next day in the late afternoon, the sun was already setting.
Then the two photos of the chimney, they were not taken at the same time. The smallest magnification is just with the 300mm, @ iso400 1/100, taken end 2020 when I just had the lens. The other is taken with a 2x doubler recently @ iso1600 1/125.
Again, no improvements, just jpeg from camera and reduced for the website.

The last one below is from a thrush in the garden with only the 300mm, the distance was around 10m. Again straight out of camera jpeg – All pictures were taken “out of hand” – no tripod – and at a fairly low shutter speed !

Due to all that has happened in the last year, and the fact that the camera / lens combination is also relatively recent, I do not have an extensive portfolio of birds or other distant objects.
But I think the previous photos show enough what this camera and lens is capable of.
This camera lens combo has everything a would-be nature photographer needs.
In summary :
It’s a very powerful combination.
It is a relatively small and reasonably light combo – fits easily in a small backpack with enough space for a lunch pack, canteen and blanket.
Technical:
The IBIS is really fantastic + the camera has up to 15x image magnification and focus peaking.
The 300mm lens has a tripod mount for long observations.
An adjustable LCD screen and WiFi if you want to send pictures “in the field” to your phone.
And its cheap ! – how cheap :

• I bought the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark I with Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm pancake on a second-hand site for €250. The lens separately is worth around € 199 second-hand, so the camera was really a bargain. ! But you can find them body only for around €150/200.
• I found the Olympus OM Zuiko Auto-T 300mm f4.5 in near mint condition for €150 on eBay (prices vary between €150 and €300)
• A K&F Concept adapter OM-M4/3 can be found new for €30
• I bought the RMC Tokina Doubler for O/OM on eBay for €23

All in all, along with the 14-42mm pancake which is a nice addition, I spent about €450

Nowadays people are not easily satisfied anymore, it is all not so long ago that we worked with film, and had to do all the settings on the camera by hand.
And was that worse?
The kit is not waterproof, but a plastic bag can work wonders.
No auto focus if using the above combination – but neither do your binoculars – and the camera has IBIS.
My wife (who is better at English than I am) says there is a saying that says “you can’t have the cake and eat it”
Well, I disagree, I always eat the cake I said 🙂
Then she explained it, and it turned out that I had interpreted it differently.
Anyway, if you can make a compromise between “state of the art” and the “old fashioned” way at (at least) 1/10 of the price, what are we nagging about ?

I don’t know what you are going to do, but I’m going to eat a piece of cake with a cup of tea 🙂