Lenses
April 8th, 2014
OK, I’ve talked about the Panasonic G5 camera, but it’s the lenses that make a system. And the lenses available for Micro 4/3 cameras are a major reason I decided to go this way for my travel system. There’s a ton of fun options out there from both Panasonic and Olympus. And a lot of them are very reasonably priced, not to mention tiny and light for what they offer. Perfect for the purpose I had in mind.
The kit lens is just fine. I’m happy with the files I get with it. I wish it were faster, but it does ok. I may end up getting something faster in the future…but only if I decide to do more serious work with this system…and that probably won’t happen until I get a body with a much better sensor sometime in the future…a sensor that hasn’t been designed yet. Who knows. Meanwhile this kit lens does the job for lots of my shooting. I showed a couple examples from it in the last post.
My wonderful wife is so understanding of my photo addiction that she added to my system by getting me the Panasonic 45-200 zoom lens for Christmas this year. This is the longest (in 35mm terms) lens I’ve ever owned (except for the 600mm Vivitar Series One Cat-mirror lens that my best friend gave me after he realized it was impossible to take a sharp photo with it. I’ve never gotten a sharp photo with it, but it still lives in the back of the equipment locker).
I love this little lens. Little and light and effectively 400mm. What’s not to like? Well, it’s a little slow in the aperture department…and it doesn’t focus fast enough for things like birds in flight, at least not very often. But, in my opinion it punches well above its size and weight. This with the kit lens is now my travel kit. It only weighs a little more and takes up slightly more space than lots of the super zoom cameras out there that don’t deliver anything near the image quality of this camera. And it’s only $269. Compare that to the Nikkor 80-400. Yep…the Nikkor is TEN TIMES the cost of the Panny lens that does the same thing. And the Nikkor weighs 3 1/2 pounds. The Panny is less than one pound. And the Panny is even slightly faster.
Here are some photos I’ve done with the Panny 45-200 on our trip to Florida in January:
Manatee:
Gators:
It does fine with birds as long as they hold still:
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