Fun with Panasonic 100-300

[Cindy Flood]

Glenn, Wow!
Louis, really like your backyard bird shots.

This photo was taken hand-held from a rocking boat as we pulled away from Raspberry Island on Lake Superior (Apostle Islands). G3

[biglouis]

Originally Posted by Knorp

Though both shots are lovely, that female blackbird (?) holding a berry is a real cracker, well done Louis

Kind regards.

Thanks, I should have added the female blackbird shot (could actually be a juvenile blackbird, I find it hard to tell the difference) is an iso3200 shot.

Lots of amazing pictures in this thread.

LouisB

[Annna T]

HI,
After seeing so many people happy with this 100-300mm lens, I have decided to order one. I've never had such a reach and will probably never have it with a full dslr system, but with the compact size and light weight of mft, it is a unique occasion to try it.

I'm not a birding person and I got it mainly for landscape photography (granted the lens may not be so sharp, but I've decided to live with it and adapt the choice of subject in consequence).

I've hesitated for a few weeks before taking the plunge, because I don't trust my rather shaky hands. Plus at the bottom of the valley, where I live, there is always a little haze. My best results were using a tripod, or resting my tow elbows on a table or on the windowsills.

Here are some results :

Valère : about 1.7 kilometer away



La Maya : 2916 m (9567 ft), as seen from the bottom of the valley (500m) and on a rainy day :




Chrysanthèmes (looking down to the terrace, one floor below)



I'm quite happy with this lens and thanks both Terry and Big Louis, without reading their numerous comments concerning that lens, I won't have dared to take the plunge, but I'm happy I did, even if the lens isn't so easy to maste.

If you want to know more about the settings which were used you can see them in my gallery at Dpreview : http://www.dpreview.com/members/9037920827/galleries and if you have suggestions concerning how these pictures can be improved, you are welcome (I'm never sure about the choice of tones in the B&W conversions, they often look "muddy" IMO).


Have a nice week-end all and take great pictures !

[biglouis]

Anna

Great to see your work with this lens. I bought it for birding (I'm no expert I just like trying to photograph them), in fact my main area of work is built environment and landscape. Like you, I was very pleasantly surprised to see the results of using the lens for landscape work. I think you will find it is plenty sharp enough at about f8 which appears to be its sweet spot.

Those are great captures and I hope to see more of the beautiful area in which you live.

Louis

[Annna T]

Originally Posted by biglouis

Anna

Great to see your work with this lens. I bought it for birding (I'm no expert I just like trying to photograph them), in fact my main area of work is built environment and landscape. Like you, I was very pleasantly surprised to see the results of using the lens for landscape work. I think you will find it is plenty sharp enough at about f8 which appears to be its sweet spot.

Those are great captures and I hope to see more of the beautiful area in which you live.

Louis

Louis,

Thanks for the kind comments; I've seen the pictures you took on your way to work or at lunch time some months ago and I liked them a lot. It was rather unexpected to see you photographing birds after that :-)

All the pictures were taken from my window. This is a view of the same mountain shot with a Canon 5D and the 70-200mm F4 zoom at its long end (just to give an idea of the long reach of the 300=600mm) :



and here is a view of the two castles, also shot with the 5D using a focal length of approximately 100-120mm :



The lens is not easy to master, which I expected and I think that I'll need a tripod most of the time. If not, I have to go up to 800 ISO or even higher and I don't like the results. On a tripod, the enemy (apart of the weight) is the atmospheric haze and the wind in the foliage.

[RonSmith]

Great work, Anna!


Here are some shots I did this morning with the 100-300 on my GH2.


20110917 a189 by Ronald S. Smith, on Flickr


20110917 a205 by Ronald S. Smith, on Flickr


20110917 a015 by Ronald S. Smith, on Flickr


20110917 a104 by Ronald S. Smith, on Flickr


20110917 a199 by Ronald S. Smith, on Flickr


20110917 a006 by Ronald S. Smith, on Flickr

[biglouis]

Ron, the 'in-flight' picture is fantastic.

Anna, interesting to see the compartive view and performance of the 100-300 versus the Canon 70-200, thanks.

LouisB

[RonSmith]

Originally Posted by biglouis

Ron, the 'in-flight' picture is fantastic.

Thanks Louis! I finally got lucky.

[Annna T]

Originally Posted by RonSmith

Great work, Anna!


Here are some shots I did this morning with the 100-300 on my GH2.

Hi nice pictures here too; I'm particularly appreciating the first one with the bird in flight and the two last one; of the one before the last, I like the attitude of the bird, it has something particular which the other don't have. Of the last, I find that the reflection makes for a very interesting picture. Great catches..

[djonesii]

These are hand held with a camera that I can lug about all day with ease.

For comparison:

Nikon D300 Sigma 120-300 2x TC, Gitzo, Gimbal head.

[Knorp]

@Ron: you can't beat those herons ! Love the one in flight

@djonesii: I guess this is a hummingbird: what a gorgeous little creature !

Kind regards.

[Knorp]

First outing with G3 and 100-300 at the zoo: gannet cleaning its feathers

[Annna T]

Wow.. fantastic pictures there. I love the second one best for its composition and the fact it looks a little mysterious if you don't see the other nearby. The third however I don't like much. As for the first and last, well, they are great.

Congratulations

[Annna T]

I've read at Dpreview that there was a firmware update to 1.1 for the 100-300mm. Did anyone makes this update here ? I've been following the links offered at Dpreview (starting from the press release), but I always end on a page where the latest firmwares updates are missing. Yet there are frequent mentions of these updates on the global website of Panasonic, but whatever link I follow, I'm always landing on the same outdated page, which doesn't present any new firmwares. Here in succession one series of links among those which I followed :

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1109/11...anasonicfw.asp
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/c...fts/index.html On this last page, by clicking on the I accept button I land here :
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/c...ts/index2.html , where the most recent updates ascend to december 2010, nothing for the 100-300mm, neither for the 14-42mm which I should also update.

On the preceeding page, there was a link concerning an mft movie camera and if you follow the link you'll find several updated firmwares for other lenses, but not for the 100-300mm and anyway the instructions say that one shouldn't try to install these firmwares with other cameras than the said mft movie recorder..

I have tried following different Panasonic webpages.. but all land on the same outdated page.

Does anyone have a better link for these new firmware updates ? did anyone install this firmware update ?

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences if any.

Anna_T

[RonSmith]

Bart, that last shot of the gannet is GREAT!

[Knorp]

Hi there Anna,

I did update my lens to v1.1.
And that fourth link works perfectly alright
Look for the H-FS100300 and behind it at the end of the line you'll find "Click to the download page".
Click on it and it takes you to the actual download.
At the bottom you'll find versions for both Windows and Macintosh.

Kind regards.

[Annna T]

Originally Posted by Knorp

Hi there Anna,

I did update my lens to v1.1.
And that fourth link works perfectly alright
Look for the H-FS100300 and behind it at the end of the line you'll find "Click to the download page".
Click on it and it takes you to the actual download.
At the bottom you'll find versions for both Windows and Macintosh.

Kind regards.

Hi Knorp,

Thank you for your input, but on that fourth link the newer updates were missing for me. May be that I had an older page cached. I'll try another time. I've been able to get to the newer page with the iPad, so it should work with the desktop too now.

[Annna T]

Last Sunday I made a trip to a little lake, well we name it a lake in the region, but it is more like a pond than a lake. I tried my new 100-300mm and was able to handhold it, at least at its shortest end. Here are some of the pictures I got :

Exploiting the bokeh :



Trying my hands at B&W :



Looking for more abstract patterns :



Even more abstract :



And on a more heavy side :



Thanks for looking !

[woodmancy]

I love the "heavy" one, Anna

Keith

[kweide]

Keith, we share same music style and now the same b&w style YES is like the "heavy" one most as well.

Come on Annna T, give us more !!!

[Annna T]

Originally Posted by kweide

Keith, we share same music style and now the same b&w style YES is like the "heavy" one most as well.

Come on Annna T, give us more !!!

Keith and KWeide : thanks for the encouraging words. It is always interesting to hear what others prefer.

[kohan]

Originally Posted by Glenn

Hi Louis

ETC only works on jpg. In the Q Menu, select jpg, then go to Menu Set and in the REC sub menu, go to page 4 and select ETC on, then go back to Q Menu, go to the aspect ratio selection and scroll down, there you will see some extra selections prefixed EX and at the bottom of the screen there is a description of the aspect ratio and the megapixel count.

What is a benefit of ETC comparing it to dropping a full size raw file? I understand ETC with video recording but still photo...

[Knorp]

Originally Posted by kohan

What is a benefit of ETC comparing it to dropping a full size raw file? I understand ETC with video recording but still photo...

Better control of point of focus and a better view of your subject.
Especially for birding, ETC is a helpful feature.

Kind regards.

[Knorp]

One of my favorite little birds: burrowing owl.

[Rich M]

Bart.....awesome owl shot.......and I love this one too.

R

Originally Posted by Knorp

[kohan]

Originally Posted by Knorp

Better control of point of focus and a better view of your subject.
Especially for birding, ETC is a helpful feature.

Kind regards.

That is definitely true and will be enough for web size of photos. But prints will stay quite small.

[biglouis]

Bart, that Owl shot is amazing. Possibly one of the best exemplars of the lens thus far.

Thanks for sharing.

[Glenn]

Peacock Butterfly

[ErikTande]

Originally Posted by RonSmith

Great work, Anna!


Here are some shots I did this morning with the 100-300 on my GH2.


20110917 a189 by Ronald S. Smith, on Flickr

This shot is fantastic, nice work!

[Knorp]

Amsterdam 25th canal race (~24km).

[Annna T]

Wow Knorp, I love that series, particularly the fourth picture of the women wearing pink teashirts : they have incredibly expressive faces.. Hope they won something, with such efforts they deserved it !!

Originally Posted by Knorp

Amsterdam 25th canal race (~24km).

[Jorgen Udvang]

Stunning photos, Bart

[f6cvalkyrie]

That's a lovely series, Bart.
And I agree with Annna, #4 (de zeeuwse deernen) is absolutely superb !
But #2 is also very symbolic : the man is in control !!!

Congrats,
Rafael

[Rich M]

Bart......I agree with everyone else's comments about the fourth photo. Excellent!!

It would be an interesting exercise to convert it to B&W, strip out the distracting colors, and focus in on the exertion/agony on their faces.

Just a thought.......wonderful captures.

R

[Knorp]

Thank you all for your enthusiastic comments ...
They ended overall 112 and in the ladies competition 15.
And for Rich here's my b/w conversion ...

[Rich M]

Originally Posted by Knorp

Thank you all for your enthusiastic comments ...
They ended overall 112 and in the ladies competition 15.
And for Rich here's my b/w conversion ...

Bart.....which do you prefer??.....I kinda like the B&W.

R

[Knorp]

Originally Posted by Rich M

Bart.....which do you prefer??.....I kinda like the B&W.

R

Thanks Rich, but let's call it a draw ...

[Ario Arioldi]

Excellent shots Bart.

[RonSmith]

20111022 a066 by Ronald S. Smith, on Flickr


20111022 a086 by Ronald S. Smith, on Flickr


20111022 a082 by Ronald S. Smith, on Flickr


20111022 a093 by Ronald S. Smith, on Flickr

[biglouis]

Excellent series, Ron.

[Knorp]

A truly superb series, Ron. You definitely know how to handle this "puppy".
But for me the killer image is that first one with its lovely rendered background colours.
A feast for the eyes ...

All the very best.

[DHart]

Ron... you are rockin' that lens, man. Nice work.

[DHart]

Knorp... wonderful. I like the B&W rendition the most. Great tonality, expressions, composition.

I should add... the burrowing owl image is stunning.

[biglouis]

[RonSmith]

Louis, that's just excellent.

[biglouis]

Originally Posted by RonSmith

Louis, that's just excellent.

Thanks, Ron. Lucky shot - he basically posed for me about 5 feet from the camera. I had to step back to get him in focus!

LouisB

[Knorp]

You take this game to a whole new level, Louis !
Crikey - 177mm at 1/40sec, surely this was not hand-held, right ?
But it's a lovely shot, well done.

All the very best.

[RonSmith]

20111030 141a by Ronald S. Smith, on Flickr

[Glenn]

Terrific bird Ron

Here's another grab shot

[biglouis]

Ron and Glenn, fantastic captures of two very different birds.

LouisB