Well, I have heard from Gary, and I now officially take back
anything bad I said about the 600/6.5 that, in my ignorance, I
failed to bid enough on. So much stuff, so little money! Enjoy,
Paul. Dammit!
With Gary's permission, I post to the group his message to me.
Pay attention.
Hi Walt:
I gave up on subscribing to the OM List due to high signal to
noise ratio. But I still provide comments directly to subscribers
when I can help. As always, you are welcome to repost this to the
List in its entirety.
<< I bid on that one early on, but then backed off after looking
at
Gary's tests, which make this lens look like a real dog -- the
only A coming at f/32. Most all of the "usable" apertures scored
D's and C's. I take most lens tests with a grain of salt,
including Gary's, but it was enough to put me off, >>
As the focal length increases, the lens test methodology
degenerates. I suspect 500mm is the limit to useful tests results.
I use a 600mm f/6.3 on a regular basis - the one tested on the
lens test page, in fact. The trick is to avoid long shutter
speeds and to have your hands on the lens to dampen lateral
vibrations from the shutter. The lens will let you down
performance-wise if you *don't* hold it while on a tripod at
speeds like 1/8th (my f/16 test results), 1/15th (f/11), 1/30th
(f/8), 1/60th (f/6.3), 1/125th and probably 1/250th. Olympus knew
what they were talking about when they recommended this in lieu of
using a shutter release. Vocal detractors who don't heed this
advise might eventually learn the hard way, but challenging ones
own "knowledge"/conventional "wisdom"/logic is a hard thing to do
(as per Ctein in the latest Photo Techniques).
FWIW, the images even at f/6.3 are wonderful, as evidenced by the
detail in the manes of wild horses. Every bit as sharp as the
manes of domestic horses in some 350mm f/2.8 shots I have.
Atmospheric heat waves become the limiting factor before raw lens
performance.
Gary Reese
Las Vegas, NV
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