I found the Zuiko Digital 70-300mm f/4-5.6

[srf4real]

Been waiting forever to get my hands on this lens, ok well it was only announced in August. but it seems like forever. Stalking all the web dealers and getting the same old 'new item not in stock' routine... so today it just seemed like a good idea to call Southern Photo, the local store of choice and ask if they were expecting any... voila! The girl told me they got one last night, and I snagged it up real quick! It's not very big or heavy for a 600mm zoom lens... sharp as heck. What I like the most is that the aperture graduates very slowly, rather than closing down as soon as I leave the 70mm mark. At 200mm, (400 equiv) it's still f/5 which does well under fluorescent lighting. Doesn't matter to me if it's a little slower than the $5500 300mm f/2.8, since it's always sunny in Florida and I shoot at the beach. I usually get 1/2000 sec shutter speeds at f/8 anyways. I paid $350 after a $50 Olympus mail in rebate.

I highly reccomend this lens to any 4/3 users looking for far reach and quality glass on a budget or just starting out like me!

 

[srf4real]

and the results are in!

Here is a link to a full sized jpeg - developed raw to jpeg with default setting, no p/p, sharpening, etc...

Kelly Slater is King.

 

[Martin C]

Nice work man. I nice zoom lens is really what you needed for your surf photography.

 

[srf4real]

Thanks! Yeah, now with a four degree field of view at the long end, I hope to get the details I've been missing - no more micro cropping and fuzzy images on close-ups of the surfers... I have to watch out for the shallow dof, tho. I got caught a few times where a/f locked on to the board instead of the rider and they came out soft. At least the bokeh is nice. Continuous a/f was reliable and snappy.

CJ Hobgood, Sean Slater Invitational 2007