CP+ was supposed to take place last week, but it was cancelled due to the coronavirus concerns. Still, just like Adobe made its Summit conference online, Olympus has decided to do something similar. They took the presentation they’d prepared for CP+ 2020 and published it on YouTube, and a particularly interesting is the demonstration of the upcoming 150-400mm f/4.5 lens.
In the video, photographer Koichiro Saito and the head of Olympus Video Development Division, Setuya Kataoka, discuss a variety of topics. I can’t understand a thing since it’s in Japanese, but something can be concluded from the images, auto-generated translation, and the links in the video description. There’s more information on the recently announced OM-D E-M1 Mark III camera, and Olympus has also shared a lens roadmap. On this roadmap is the 150-400mm f/4.5, and Olympus showed off the lens’ capabilities in terms of zoom.
In the video (somewhere around 36:00) you can see a crazy zoom shot of the sun setting behind Mt. Fuji. It was taken from 67km (42 miles) away, at Olympus’ Ishikawa facility. To get this shot, Olympus paired the 150-400 lens with a 1.25x converter and a MC-20 2x converter. As a result, they got a 2000mm (35mm equivalent) focal length. Here’s a screenshot from the video to give you a better idea of the distance and the photographer’s position raletive to Mt. Fuji:
There’s also this handheld moon shot taken with the same setup. But I find that sunset photo more interesting because Olympus demonstrated the distance and what the view was for the photographer before using this zoom lens.
The Olympus 150-400mm f/4.5 is presented on the roadmap, but it’s not exactly clear when it will be released. The photos above were taken with a prototype, which was supposed to be exhibited at CP+ (if I understood correctly). But I guess we should just wait until Olympus decides to reveal more information on the release. [via DPReview]
