Tele Macro

I've all but ceased using my macro lens for the likes of Butterflies due to the need for stalking them, only for most to fly off before I can take a shot. (But it's still best for stationary subjects like flowers, fungi, most bugs, etc.)

Instead I'm using 'tele macro' with short min focus distance telephoto lenses, together with teleconverter(s) [1] to increase their reach without increasing the minimum distance from lens to subject.

This is what I now carry for nature/wildlife photography:

1) Olympus OMD EM1 Mk2
2) Olympus OMD EM5 Mk2 (spare/2nd body)
3) Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 telephoto zoom lens (530mm? from end of lens)
4) Olympus 300mm f4 telephoto prime lens (min focus distance 1.15m from end of lens)
5) Olympus 1.4x teleconverter
6) Olympus 60mm f2.8 macro lens (in camera focus stacking with above bodies).
7) [1] Today I have ordered the new 2.0x teleconverter



The whole lot, together with spare batteries, tripod, hide clamp and my 10x40 binoculars fit in a 15L camera backpack.

Being a micro 4/3 system with a small ('crop') sensor its strengths are double the full frame equivalent focal length for the lenses, increased depth of field both of which are good for the stuff I do, plus great image stabilisation for hand holding long telephoto lenses. Downside is more noise in low light situations, affecting say Barn Owls/Otters at dawn for example.

To give those min distances more meaning, this is an uncropped image taken with 300mm + 1.4x TC (with the new 2x TC it'll be even tighter). That Large Tortoiseshell was about 1.8m high amongst brambles in a tall hedge - no way of using a macro lens there without a stepladder.

 

That’s a very good image. I still have an old 2x somewhere, that I used for air shows. The shots were just about acceptable, but having to use fast film with fast shutter speeds, very grainy.