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Fun with Panasonic 100-300

DHart

New member
Louis... it's great to see that you are now getting from the lens what was seemingly elusive at first... your images with it are super crisp and beautiful... congrats on that. I don't have the 100-300 as yet because I haven't yet found the need, but someday I think I will wind up with one. Good thread!
 

biglouis

Well-known member
Louis... it's great to see that you are now getting from the lens what was seemingly elusive at first... your images with it are super crisp and beautiful... congrats on that. I don't have the 100-300 as yet because I haven't yet found the need, but someday I think I will wind up with one. Good thread!
Don, thanks for the comment. In fact there are a lot of outstanding examples here from many contributors. The one thing I will say with this lens is that you do need to practise with it. It is not going to yield immediate results but as your technique improves then it will result in great images.

LouisB
 
3

330toSRT8

Guest
National Museum of Natural History.

200 ISO, 300mm, F9.0, 1/250 s


1600 ISO, 183mm, F5.0, 1/250s
 
3

330toSRT8

Guest
are those in the orkin zoo??
Are you asking about the two butterflies in the most recent post? If so, those are in the Butterfly Pavilion on the 2nd floor of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. Usually the Smithsonian Museums are free, but this butterfly exhibit was $6 per person.
http://www.butterflies.si.edu/
 
S

sagarmatha

Guest
What camera did you use for the butterfly shots? I'm thinking of a GH2 + 100-300 as a macro lens. Have you tried to add close-up lenses?
 
3

330toSRT8

Guest
What camera did you use for the butterfly shots? I'm thinking of a GH2 + 100-300 as a macro lens. Have you tried to add close-up lenses?
I used the E-PL1, body IS off, 100-300mm lens Mega O.I.S. on. The minimum focus distance is 4.9 ft. I did find myself having to back up several times in order to get the lens to lock focus. I'm not sure what you mean by "add close-up lenses." Other lenses I own include 14-42 Oly kit, 7-14mm Panasonic, and 20mm Panasonic.
 
S

sagarmatha

Guest
Well I mean e.g an Olympus MCON40 with a diopter of +2.5
Or Raynox 150/250 with diopters +4.8/8.0
A Raynox 250 at 300 mm will give you a print magnification of 2*300/125=4.8
Not bad!
On my current FZ50 I get 5*88/125=3.5 in print magnification.
I wonder if a GH2 will lock focus quicker and better?
 
A

Apperloo

Guest
Fist half decent day in a long time, (been drab)and got a couple of shots off.
Was getting concerned with the 100-300, but there may be hope.
Needs a lot of light, at least for me.
This is hand held, subject 130' -(40+ meters) away.
 

Matix

Member
Fun with Panasonic 100-300 - In India

Well there are certainly some great shots in this thread... Mark you astound me with the quality you can get on those little twitchy birds.

I purchased the 100-300mm three weeks before heading to India for 3 weeks on the 27th of December. We had a tour arranged, some of the normal tourist sites, but I particularly wanted to see if I could shoot a Bengal Tiger in the wild. For this reason mainly, I purchased the 100-300mm Lumix as soon as I could find one on line, paid premium for it, but I needed the reach... it was worth it I think.

One of the locations we were travelling to on the tour was Nagarhole National Park in the SW of India, and I hoped we would at least have a chance. I decided that the D300 and heavy glass was not what I wanted to lug around, so the two Lumix bodies, GH1 and GH2, 100-300mm, 7-14mm, 20mm and the 14-140mm were in the bag.

We were lucky, late in the afternoon close to sunset we cruised slowly close to shore of the lake around the national park, there were elephants, wild boar, spotted deer and wow... a tiger, beautiful male.

The light was fading, he was well back from the shore in scrub, but I did my best and the GH2 and 100-300 Lumix did their best. No, they were not as good as the best fast lenses would have been on the D300, but I got the shots of a lifetime... IMHO.. they pleased me, but will not ever grace a coffee table book! regardless... here are some for comment. Exif on the image page.

Remember, they were shot Hand Held, from a 8 person small boat, in poor to just before sunset light. At least these are as good as I could see, and the best that I saw from all the group, including one E3 Oly with a 70-200mm 2.8 Zuiko.

Phil

Indian Elephant


Juvenile Elephant


Spotted Deer


Bengal Tigers






 

djonesii

Workshop Member
Just a comment re a Coffee Table Book ....... if you print one your self so that you have a personal book of your trip of a lifetime, it can indeed grace your coffee table. Just takes a little time and TLC, I do it once a year for my studio shoots, and exercise in vanity, but I do it anyway! www.blub.com

Dave
 
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Apperloo

Guest
Just a comment re a Coffee Table Book ....... if you print one your self so that you have a personal book of your trip of a lifetime, it can indeed grace your coffee table. Just takes a little time and TLC, I do it once a year for my studio shoots, and exercise in vanity, but I do it anyway! www.blub.com

Dave
Kodak also does a wonderful job of these....as an option
 

Rich M

Member
Re: Fun with Panasonic 100-300 - In India

Remember, they were shot Hand Held, from a 8 person small boat, in poor to just before sunset light. At least these are as good as I could see, and the best that I saw from all the group, including one E3 Oly with a 70-200mm 2.8 Zuiko.

Phil
Phil.......very, very nice. I'll be going to SA in a few months. It's a constant internal debate raging in my head.....Canon APS + 400mm or this combo.

You're helping to resolve it.

R
 

Matix

Member
Re: Fun with Panasonic 100-300 - In India

Phil.......very, very nice. I'll be going to SA in a few months. It's a constant internal debate raging in my head.....Canon APS + 400mm or this combo.

You're helping to resolve it.

R
Thank you very much Rich. I would recommend the lens, but with reservations... in all honesty it struggles to get focus in lower light, not unexpected of course, but I found that keepers were about 10% of all shots taken. The GH2 would beep and lock focus, but it was not focussed even with the smallest zone set, firmware fix?

The ones in good sunlight, such as the Spotted Deer shot were good, but the less light, the less the quality and sharpness.

Sorry the Exif did not show up, here it is in order top image to bottom.

GH2, f/7.1 @ 127 mm, 1/1000, ISO 800
GH2, f/7.1 @ 201 mm, 1/1600, ISO 800
GH2, f/7.1 @ 264 mm, 1/500, ISO 800
GH2, f/7.1 @ 188 mm, 1/125, ISO 3200
GH2, f/7.1 @ 228 mm, 1/100, ISO 3200

Phil




Recommended for daylight with the light behind you, but be prepared to work at it. For the price, I am very happy.. it is a very inexpensive lens when compared to the Canon, Nikon pro lenses, and it is what it is.
 

mark1000

New member
Great set Phil, personally i love the end of day light, the elephant shots are beautiful mate, thanks for sharing them.


mark.
 

Matix

Member
Great set Phil, personally i love the end of day light, the elephant shots are beautiful mate, thanks for sharing them.
mark.
Thanks Mark, my pleasure.... I have uploaded many from the trip, all taken with the GH1, GH2.... and Lumix lenses.

India was very challenging, hazy skies and dull sun for the north, and the bus we spent much of our time in did not have opening windows and the seats had white covers. I used the circular polarizer a lot, but missed many shots. I shot RAW and Jpg, most uploaded images are RAW converted with LR 3.3 and then Capture One Pro 6.1 when support for the GH2 was added.

I fought continuously with the GH2 and the touch screen changing my focus point at the wrong time, that is an issue that needs adressing. When shooting fast changing street scenes from a moving vehicle, no time to check the settings on the focus point when a snap image is needed.

While the Lumix 14-140mm is a perfect range travel lens, it is just too slow for dull lighting and fast shooting.... but, it did the job. Most used lenses were the 14-140mm and 7-14mm, I had the 20mm and 100-300mm as well, but they were very specialized.


http://photos.photo-matix.com.au/f1003535074

Phil
 

Matix

Member
Just a comment re a Coffee Table Book ....... if you print one your self so that you have a personal book of your trip of a lifetime, it can indeed grace your coffee table. Just takes a little time and TLC, I do it once a year for my studio shoots, and exercise in vanity, but I do it anyway! www.blub.com

Dave
Thanks Dave, I have downloaded the book creator software.. will take a look at that, may make a great gift idea..

Phil
 
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