I LOVE TO PHOTOGRAPH INSECTS and using a long telephoto lens enables me to capture their behaviour in a less invasive manner than using a macro lens. Instead of creeping up to within 1ft of the insect and risk scaring it away; I can, for example, use the Olympus 100–400mm and be about 4 feet away and still be able to achieve subject filling frames. This is an incredible achievement bearing in mind the minute size of insects. Take the Bull Stag beetle which has a length of 45mm. If you’re lucky and find a specimen, it can just about squeeze onto the sensor at the MFD (minimum focus distance) at 400mm.

As can be clearly seen the Olympus telephoto on 4/3rds sensor has a larger magnification than the Canon on APSC sensor

If a photographer does a lot of close up work, considering the minimum focusing distance is important. It can also be an important factor when using long telephoto lenses for nature photography. Whenever I buy a new lens, I always take some time to do some hands on tests pertaining to focusing distance. I shot all the photographs handheld (my preferred shooting style) to help determine how each lens compares when fully extended at minimum focus distance. I must stress that this is not a test to determine which lens is the sharpest (for that I would have used a tripod and have taken more care over focusing). The test is simply to determine which lens has the largest magnification, which is a very important consideration for my near macro needs such as when photographing beetles, dragonflies or butterflies.

Adding an MC-14 teleconverter increases the magnification to 0.6X
The Olympus 40-150mm with MC14 is my favourite set-up for butterflies and dragonflies

The winner is the Olympus 100-400mm with MC-1.4 teleconverter, giving a whopping 0.81x. In second place is the Olympus 40-150mm with MC-1.4 teleconverter at 0.6x. A gnat’s willy under at 0.57x comes from the Olympus 100-400mm without teleconverter. Then very close together comes the Canon 100-400mm and Olympus 40-150mm. All these lenses give impressive magnifications at minimum focus distances and with a little cropping can get you to near macro territory. They all produce excellent results and I wouldn’t think twice about using any of these lenses for close-up work. 

Adding an MC14 teleconverter to the Olympus 100-400mm increases magnification to a whopping 0X8

What surprised me was how little the MC.1.4 teleconverter affected image quality. Sure enough, if you pixel peep, then you will find a slight softening of images at the maximum focal length with any of these lenses. However, this is far more negligible at close distances than when photographing subjects at a distance. 

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A line-up of Olympus and Canon telephoto lenses all set to maximum magnification and minimum focus distance

To find out how the Olympus 100-400mm with MC14 teleconverter performs when photographing butterflies, CLICK HERE