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zoom lens for m4/3

does anyone use the olympus 75-300mm or panasonic 100-300mm lens on here? I am thinking of getting the panasonic 100-300mm. I went out with some other photographers the other day and one of them also had an olympus camera, he was using it with 100-400mm panasonic lens. He let me have a try of it on my camera, wish that lens was within my budget!! it was very nice...and got sooo close to the bird in frame!

22 comments

Ian Prince Hi Grace. I have the 75-300 II since May last year. Like Pawel - "WOŚP#25", lol - I don't always have it with me as it's quite big. It's a decent lens with an impressive reach and has allowed me to take some decent photos....when I take it with me. More importantly, what I've discovered is that I'm not really into telephoto photography, so am selling mine. More my fault than the lens's though.

Grace Ah hehe, if I lived in the same country I could buy yours haha. I want to use it to photograph birds, and probably the moon.. So I probably wouldn't carry it everywhere, though possibly it would be like Pawel and wish I had it with me when I did leave it behind! I loved using the Panasonic 100-400 here "kārearea" but aside from being too expensive it's probably too heavy too haha

Ian Prince Haha, you can come for a trip so you can try it out. I've heard great things about the Panasonic 100-400, but what you really want is the M.Zuiko 300/f4 ;)

Grace With the fixed lens with birds it's a bit hard when they come closer and you can't step back any further, so would prefer a zoom I think!

Kazzi Grace, skip the Panasonic 100-300 and the old Olympus 75-300, they're not worth it (in my opinion!). About 100-300 there is an (quite reasonable from what I saw) opinion, that extending it further than 200-220mm makes no sense.
I'd wait for the new version of it (announced with GH5 during CES over a week ago, they said it'll be available around March) or go for Olympus 75-300 II (maybe borrowing it from @Ian is not such a bad idea?)

...In this sentence I wanted to adress PanaLeica 100-400, but I've read Your conversation with Ian and don't have to any more. ;)
it's not as good as it could've been if made brighter.
With that long tele lenses and with that small, such pixel-densed sensors, every stepping it down makes diffraction limit the overall sharpness of the lens. Shame. [rings the bell] Shame.

Grace Thanks for that, very helpful! I didn't know about that with the long end of the zoom. Will you be getting a chance to test that new version?

tania You can ask @Kateli, she very often uses her 75-300

Kazzi hopefully. I may not be a skilled tester, but I'll try comparing those two. If You don't wanna wait, 75-300 II is always a good idea.

Grace It's ok, I can wait, I still can use my current zoom, just doesn't get as close as I would like hehe.

Kazzi modern lenses are rarely disappointing, especially current micro four-thirds line-up.

Kateli I really like it ! Getting in close is great. Obviously the newer one will be better but you can already get great shots with it. I bought mine second hand. I do tend to carry loads of things around with me when I go on a "serious" photography session (@tania knows about that !) but I don't find it that heavy ! I recently got the new 12-100 which is much heavier. I did this shot with the 75-300 +Butterfly farm. I'm open for any other questions... All the best.

tigg is that the 12-100 pro I assume? and how are you doing with that? i wonder if it is much better tan the 40-150 lens I use, which has a variable f of course

Kateli I'm talking about the 74-300 I...

Markus Jansson I got the Pana 100-300 at a good price recently but I haven't had much of a chance to really try it out yet, so unfortunately I can't give you an opinion of my own just yet.

I bought it because I wanted something longer for birds and wildlife for my upcoming trip to Costa Rica but I didn't want to spend a fortune (the trip is expensive enough...).

I'm sure it's not a perfect lens (that would cost a hell of a lot more), but I'm hoping it will do a good enough job as long as I pay attention to my technique.

I've read both positive and negative reviews and forum posts about it, but the article that finally convinced me to give it a try was this one, I felt it was pretty honest and nuanced:

stevehuffphoto.com/2016/06/15/...

Kazzi hey Markus :) I see You're using GX8 - check for firmware updates for Your camera (av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/s...) and lens (av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/s...). I'm afraid even though it's the first body to support DUAL I.S., the old version of 100-300 isn't fully compatible with it - but the lens I.S. should be better than the in-body.

Ian Prince I'm curious @Kazzi .... as I'm thinking of maybe getting a second MFT body.... how do rate the Panasonics bodies compared with their similarly priced Olympus equivalents?

Markus Jansson Hey Kazziz!
Thanks, I check the firmware updates quite frequently as I'm also waiting for the update for the 45-175 that they said would be coming out like a year ago. Unfortunately they haven't gotten around to it yet...

The 100-300 does a good job by the way. It took me a while to learn how to use it properly, but I got plenty of images that I'm happy with.

Kazzi so glad to hear that, @Markus :) m43 is a really well built systems in terms of what You can get for a certain amount of money, and even cheap supertele like this can give You lots of fun. compare it to 150-600 or even 70-300mm equivalents from APS-C cameras in terms of size and weight :D

Kazzi @Ian , it's a really long talk we can have (for example during some workshops, with a bottle of whisky or a good beer :D), but it all depends on which price tag do we look at. You have E-M5, as far as I remember.
I haven't compared Panasonic G80/GX80 IS to OM-D's, but they look really similar to E-M5/10 Mark II respectably.
For me personally, the biggest difference would be:
in terms of video Panasonic wins, but Olympus seems to take advantage during long exposures, especially Live Bulb/Time/Comp are only in OM-D bodies...

Ian Prince Video? What's video?? ;) Looking forward to those beers @Kazzi :)

Grace Hey @Kazzi did you get a chance to test the new lense yet? I haven't bought a lens yet, and not quite sure when I will be able to afford to now...(I recently broke my macbook screen :'( so I have to get that fixed, editing photos has been a challenge with only half the screen working and a big crack on the other half!!) but still interested for when I can!

Kazzi Not yet, still waiting for them to be available. Maybe on a scholarship next month, if I go for it.