Can the Olympus 70-300 be hand held?

[Robert Watcher]

A lot of talk on the web how difficult it can be to handhold this long focal length lens and get useful shots. I can be difficult, but is possible.

This is a good thread to show the 70-300mm in the hands of a young 7 year old ( 8 next month) fellow - my grandson. My wife and I were baby sitting our grand kids yesterday, and Mason as usual wanted to have my E-510 for the day to shoot some pictures - he said that it is so much more fun to shoot with my cameras than with his (a point and shoot).

I just give him the camera and let him figure things out - he plays with the buttons and gets everything working just as he would a video game controller. While I was doing some printing Mason and his sister were outside feeding out pet (wild) squirrel and Mason with the E-510 and 70-300 around his neck, squatted down and took these shots hand held (I think he is much steadier than I am from having a young heart LOL).

There is absolutely nothing done to these files except resized for web with appropriate web sharpening - full frame out of camera jpegs.

Olympus E-510 : 70-300 Zuiko @ 141mm (282mm equiv) : 1/125'th @ f4.4 : 400 ISO




Olympus E-510 : 70-300 Zuiko @ 263mm (536mm equiv) : 1/80'th @ f5.6 : 400 ISO

[Robert Watcher]

Mason was taking a few model shots of his sister on the porch. For most the lighting contrast was too extreme and so I showed him an area of shade to take them. Even though he missed focusing on the eyes in this shot, he was handholding with the lens at the full 300mm. He was disappointed because he cut Reegan's head off - but I told him that was Ok and made for a nice shot:

Olympus E-510 : 70-300 Zuiko @ 300mm (300mm equiv) : 1/200'th @ f5.6 : 400 ISO



I came out to talk to a customer on the phone and didn't realize he was sneaking in some shots of me

Olympus E-510 : 70-300 Zuiko @ 70mm (140mm equiv) : 1/200'th @ f5.6 : 400 ISO



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This is a shot that I took of Mason on the surfing apparatus at the playground on the beach:

Olympus E-510 : 70-300 Zuiko @ 239mm (478mm equiv) : 1/400'th @ f7.1 : 100 ISO

[cman78]

Boy what I wouldn't do to be one of your grandkids. Looks like you might have someone to bring into the business in a few years. I think it's great that you share your passion with your grandkids, legacy is the most important thing we leave behind.

[cannockwolf]

talented lad, looks like a born natural togger!

[Paul Shields]

Robert, they are super shots of the squirrel. This is where 4:3rds really shines - very long range in a reasonably compact package. I'm tempted by the 70-300mm myself. It's a real bargain at the moment.

[spystyle]

Sweet! The little guy totally looks like you

As for the Evolt 510 - as far as I've read, it has "image stabilization" built in. I don't think the shots would have come out so well with an Evolt 500 / 330 / 300. Correct me if I'm wrong.

If I'm right it's worth noting this. That way some fella with a model 300 doesn't expect the same results with that lens.

Otherwise, nice shooting! What could be more inspiring than a youngster that takes great shots? Also it's a testament to the "IS" feature - I'll have to try that some day.

Cheers,
Craig

[Mr. Pickles]

Yes, the E-510 does have IS. So does the E-520 and E-3....

[Paul Shields]

Well I tried out my newly acquired 70-300mm at the weekend when on a 'lads and dads' camping trip. I just used that one while I was there, which meant that candid portrait shots were taken at pretty large distances camera to subject - up to 300mm (600mm in 35mm 'FF' terms).

Overall I quite liked it. It's not a challenge to Olympus's f/2 lenses, but you could buy 5 of these lenses for the same price as the f/2 megalenses . The light was poor so I used shutter priority of around 1/150 sec and IS turned on, and the very useful auto ISO, though I'd forgotten that I'd locked my max ISO to 800 - doh! Could have done with 1600 or more really.

For such a cheap lens it's a lot of fun, but it is certainly built to a price and doesn't quite fall in line with the majority of Olympus lenses (you can tell it's a rebadge job). Looking forward to trying it out in better light and on a tripod.

One of the 'lads dads':

Camera Make: OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Camera Model: E-3
Image Date: 2008:08:30 17:04:02
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 215.0mm
Exposure Time: 0.0040 s (1/250)
Aperture: f/5.1
ISO equiv: 500
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: shutter priority (semi-auto)





and another one:

Camera Make: OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.
Camera Model: E-3
Image Date: 2008:08:30 18:44:57
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 300.0mm
Exposure Time: 0.0040 s (1/250)
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv: 800
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: shutter priority (semi-auto)