Olympus EZ-M7530 M.Zuiko Digital 75-300mm 1:4.8-6.7 Lens II, suitable for all MFT cameras (Olympus OM-D & PEN models, Panasonic G series), black

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Distortion is well controlled and consistent throughout the zoom range with Imatest detecting between 0.35% and 0.46% pincushion distortion. This low level shouldn't pose many issues, but if absolutely straight lines are paramount what little distortion there is should be relatively straightforward to correct as it is uniform across the frame. Here is my review of Olympus 75-300mm F/4.8-6.7 II, a lens for Micro 4/3 mount.(Full name: Olympus M. Zuiko 75-300mm F/4.8-6.7 II)

Travel photography is a bit of everything, street, landscape, portraits, documentary. Basically anything, that can bring an atmosphere of a remote location. When it comes to stabilization, you'll definitely get the most out of this lens when used on bodies with more robust IBIS, like the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, along with an electronic viewfinder so that you can steady the camera against your face. I owned both the Panasonic and the Olympus. Sold the Olympus. Picture quality is equivalent, although I like the character of the Panasonic somewhat more. But they are quite close.The most obvious use is the wildlife. But in travel photography, things are often just far away and you cannot get any further. I wonder, too. These lenses do need plenty of light and stability. FWIW, I remember the Olympus lens being more susceptible to shake and vibrations. It was very sharp in most of the range, but struggled in comparison with my other lenses. I could get reasonably sharp images at 300mm, but not easily with the cameras I was using at the time (E-M10, E-M5 II, GX85). And the best images weren't nearly as sharp as what the Panasonic lens gives me hand-held at 300mm with little effort. I tried several copies of the Olympus lens: there was significant copy variation but not affecting sharpness. So I think it's a combination of technique, stabilization, and lens characteristics. I don't use a hood, but have tested with tripods, bean bags, etc.

What about travel? It may take a bit of both (sport/wildlife), but I believe these aren’t the main focus of a travel photographer (unless you do wildlife safari or something, or specialize in outdoors). A professional super-telephoto lens for a full-frame is thousands of Euros in price and, on average, it is more than 2.5 kg in weight. Too heavy and too expensive for a piece of gear that is used occasionally. I've taken images stopped down to f/11 at 300mm for depth of field and the image quality is still very good. The distortion over the entire zoom range is pincushion-shaped. This type of distortion is less easily identified by the naked eye than barrel-shaped distortion. The degree of distortion is low at 75 mm, and is acceptable at the other focal lengths. In architecture, the images’ pincushion distortion might just become visible. If necessary, this degree of distortion can be corrected easily using photo editing software such as Lightroom or PTlens. I understand that you keep the Zuiko 12-50mm! It’s a very nice (and underrated) lens. I have also used it all the time with my E-M5 especially as it also has macro capabilities.

Focusing was carefully done on the same area of the dollhouse and images were captured at 100mm, 200mm and 300mm focal lengths at f/6.7, f/8 and f/11 for Olympus 75-300 lens, and f/5.6, f/8 and f/11 for Panasonic 100-300 lens respectively.