Yesterday, Mike Byrne (Clock Tower Images) and I decided to meet this morning at the Somenos Marsh Conservation Area in Duncan, to test drive the new Olympus Pro 300 mm f/4 lens.
The downloadable .pdf from the WWW sounded very encouraging for an opportunity to see heaps of photo worthy critters. Unfortunately, such did not turn out to be the case! Today was as Mike Allard would say: A "Target Poor Environment".
Towards the end of our stay Mike suggested shooting grasshoppers due to the paucity of birds. A couple of birdwatchers walking by, stopped and looked at us as if we were crazy; meanwhile, we continued to crawl around on the ground taking portraits of grasshoppers.
The weather was also less than favourable. It started with heavy overcast, becoming drizzle. In the end when the precipitation got heavy enough to call rain, we decided to "pull the plug" and head to a location that is a Canadian Icon "Timmy Ho's", where we had lunch. ;-)
All frames today were shot wide open:
300mm f/4 with many ISO's in the 1600-2000 range.
Mike was pushing his Nikon even harder up to 5,000 plus in ISO's.
REPORT CARD:
Olympus 300mm f/4 Pro = Easy Pass!
Look out Mike!!
Given the reach of this lens you are about to have a lot more competition. ;-)