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Telephoto lens for Micro 4/3 mount

foxwelljsly

foxwelljsly

Me too, I ate one sour too.
Hi all,

I have a Lumix G2 I'm quite happy with, but would like a telephoto lens for wildlife photography.

Any suggestions?

cheers
 
I have the Panasonic 100-300 and use it with my G80 which gives me the option of Dual IS. Haven't done much wildlife so can't comment directly.
 
Choices in native m4/3 mount are not legion. The budget options are the Olympus 75-300mm (two versions but the same optical scheme) and the Panasonic 100-300mm. Better would be the Panasonic Leica 100-400mm, but a lot more expensive. Your G2 is getting a bit long in the tooth. Have you checked out used prices of something like the Oly OMD EM1 mk1? A lot of camera for very little money.
 
I upgraded to a GX9 with the Leica 12-60 lens curtesy of a friend who worked at Panasonic as part of his redundancy fire sale which was nice and it is significantly better than my older G3 with the lenses I had for that camera. The 45-200 standard lens gives much better results on the GX.

Like you I have looked at additional lenses but until I can justify the Leica version I'm going to hold off.

The only downside of the GX is the instruction book is very thick!! And a year into ownership I'm still finding functions and features....
 
I started my M43 journey with a G3, this took me back into photography. I soon found that the G3 was just too small for my large hands (depending on the brand I wear L, XL or even XXL gloves). I upgraded to the G6 which I still have as a second body and now have the G80.

The saying always used be you wouldn't go wrong spending money on glass. But longer term I think you find a camera upgrade a benefit. A G6 can be picked up for around £130 on eBay.
 
cctaylor said:
I started my M43 journey with a G3, this took me back into photography. I soon found that the G3 was just too small for my large hands (depending on the brand I wear L, XL or even XXL gloves). I upgraded to the G6 which I still have as a second body and now have the G80.

The saying always used be you wouldn't go wrong spending money on glass. But longer term I think you find a camera upgrade a benefit. A G6 can be picked up for around £130 on eBay.
Click to expand...

I must admit, I had noticed how cheap the G6 was and found myself tempted. A 300mm lens would get a lot of use out here in the sticks with our abundant wildlife.

I suspect I'll get one of the budget options mentioned upthread and upgrade the body later. I also have a Minolta MD adapter, so might try an old MF zoom for fun - I have a bunch of old MF MD glass I've been having fun with - the 50mm 1.7 becomes a reasonable long portrait lens for absolute buttons, even if it's bit soft.
 
Mark_R said:
Choices in native m4/3 mount are not legion. The budget options are the Olympus 75-300mm (two versions but the same optical scheme) and the Panasonic 100-300mm. Better would be the Panasonic Leica 100-400mm, but a lot more expensive. Your G2 is getting a bit long in the tooth. Have you checked out used prices of something like the Oly OMD EM1 mk1? A lot of camera for very little money.
Click to expand...

I hadn't but I am now and thanks for the lens recs - something to think about. Although I'm thinking a G6 as it's lighter, cheaper and wireless. Cheers.
 
I have had the Leica 100-400, for the past 2 years. Used mostly with an Oly E-M5 II. I use it almost exclusively for butterfly photography. It's pretty good, but can have AF issues with some subjects ('fly nestled down in amongst blades of grass, or wings flat against leaf - DOF is a few mm.!). In fairness, I'm using it almost exclusively at full zoom, on subjects that can be at the close limit (~ 2m.) - quite a tough assignment. 300mm prime & the like are beyond my budget (and just too heavy for a little M43 body, IMHO).
 
Olympus make the nicest tele zoom optics IME.
If you don't need to go beyond a 'real' (35mm eq) 300 mm, then their ED 40-150 f4 is the best compromise around.
Panny's 35-150 s.8 is not quite as sharp, but cheaper. Go longer and lose quality.
Ultimate pro weatherproof and fast is Olys 40-150 2.8 pro. Costly tho.
 
Best is probably to determine the subject size and distance to see how much magnification you need.

Some animals keep a closer distance, while others will move or fly away as soon as they spot something, even the location does affect that.

To be honest, reach can hardly be too much, so I wouldn't go lower than a 100-300.
 
I hope I'm not teaching you how to suck eggs but lenses like the 75-300 are way slower to focus than the more expensive options (especially in less than perfect light) and the Olympus 40-150 with TC is one of the best M4/3rds I know of and gives a lot of flexibility, especially useful for other subjects like young children I found. I had both, always struggled with the 75-300, loved the 40-150.
Should you upgrade your body, Mark_R suggests looking at the Olympus OMD EM1 which I agree with - a little complex menu system until you get your head around it but superb value for money.
 
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