Sample photo gallery: How good are the images on the OM System 50-200mm f/2.8 world-first lens?

I took 2,622 images in my first 3 hours with the OM System M.Zuiko 50-200mm f/2.8 IS Pro lens. And I feel pretty conflicted about that.

I'm old school (and also just plain old) and come from the days of film. So I feel inherently guilty shooting thousands of frames, because my brain is still trained to think that every shot costs money. Heck, when I started using digital cameras, I bought the smallest memory cards possible to discourage me from overshooting.

I still think it's a healthy way to take photos. It's much more pleasurable (and much more responsible for your workflow) to be mindful and considered, rather than spraying and praying. But while putting together my OM System M.Zuiko 50-200mm f/2.8 IS Pro review, I still managed to come home with far too many files on my card.

It's part and parcel of the review process. This is, after all, primarily a lens for bird photography and wildlife – a genre that fundamentally requires volume shooting. Factor in the torture testing and "take a photo at every variable, with every mode" aspects of evaluating camera gear, and you're doomed to this kind of ridiculous hard drive humping.

All of which is a longwinded way of saying that I took a boatload of images with this lens, the world's first 100-400mm f/2.8 lens in equivalent terms. And of those thousands of shots, only seven were out of focus – because I didn't know Pro Capture was turned on and I was focused on the wrong thing.

Otherwise, everything I shot on the 50-200mm with the OM System OM-1 Mark II – even at stupid-fast 50fps bursts and while relying on the subject detection algorithm when I was too lazy to focus properly – was in focus.

Which I think is pretty dang impressive – if not entirely surprising, given the seven stops of stabilization in this setup, along with the impossibly low weight you can achieve thanks to the advantages of Micro Four Thirds cameras and lenses.

Anyway, here's a selection of images I shot while testing this lens. Check out my review for my thoughts on how it performs.