m4/3 does William Shakespeare

Back in those dim distant days when I was still shooting m4/3 (about 2 weeks ago) I was in Stratford-upon-Avon. The centre for all things Shakespearean. Falstaff Kebab House, Cordelia Cabs, Puck Pizzas etc. Its actually quite a feat to take a picture without a connection to the bard. 

Panasonic G3 14-42mm

 

Panasonic G3 45-175mm X lens

 

Panasonic G3 14-42mm

 

Panasonic G3 14-42mm

 

Panasonic G3 45-175mm X lens

 

Panasonic G3 14-42mm

 

Panasonic G3 14-42mm

 

Posted to show that the 3 cameras and 5 lenses I still own and use from Olympus and Panasonic haven't been "retired" just yet.

"Real World" with the Panasonic 45-175mm X lens

After being part of threads on Dpreview attempting to unravel the problems of the Panasonic 45-175mm X lens and its image stabilisation "inconsistencies",

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1041&message=39579895

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1041&message=39565888

it was nice to go out and take some pictures with it. I had the OIS turned off, so wasn't encountering any problems and it performed really well.

All pictures - Panasonic G3 Lumix 45-175mm X lens

Some image stabilisation issues with the Panasonic 45-175mm lens

If you are considering one of these lenses you should be aware of this.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1041&message=39582407

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1041&message=39565888

Panasonic G3 Lumix 45-175mm X lens review - Part 3

These are a couple of comparisons between the 45-175mm on a Panasonic G3 with stabilisation on and off. Then the same thing with the lens on an Olympus E-P3. 

On the G3 the Mega OIS is engaged. I've used Type 1 which works best for me. 

On the E-P3 the mega OIS is disengaged (the camera doesn't know how to turn it on) and I used the in body IS. Again Type 1 which works best for me.

As ever there are larger versions available via flickr > Actions > View all sizes > Original.

I used the lens at around 175mm and 1/15th. sec. as my shutter speed.

Here is the G3 test.

Panasonic G3 Lumix 45-175mm X lens

This is the E-P3 test.

Olympus E-P3 Lumix 45-175mm X lens

The images you see are the only ones I shot. I didn't take a batch and select the best.

I'll let you make up your mind as to which is best, but they both look pretty impressive to me.

DISCLAIMER.

There's one thing that should be made clear however. "Tests" like this are subject to all kinds of variables. How I hold each camera and the design of the camera are important. I obviously tried to keep it as similar as I could and made sure that I braced myself, breathed in etc. in order to make all the shots as stable as I could. However that is no guarentee of consistency.

The problem with any test of Image stabilisation and that I guess is why you don't see too many, is the fact that its almost impossible to devise an "objective" way of doing it. Certainly I can't think of one since it involves hand-holding different cameras.

I think its impossible to say which is the "best" system as I think this depends on the individual photographer and how they work. Some of us may find it easier to work with lens based systems, some with body systems. The latter obviously gives more choices, since not many lenses have any form of IS built in.

Finally, its not something I do a lot of. I very rarely use these kinds of shutter speeds hand-held, so I'm no expert. I have a reasonably steady set of hands, and the majority of my images are hand-held, but I tend to use much faster shutter speeds for this.

Panasonic G3 Lumix 45-175mm X lens review - Part 2

OLYMPUS EP-3 Panasonic Lumix 45-175mm X lens

I tried the 45-175mm with my Olympus E-P3 and again was pleased with the results. The fact that the lens doesn't extend when zooming is a nice feature. My Olympus 14-150mm telescopes out quite dramatically and can look very odd. However the 45-175mm is WYSIWYG.

150mm f/5.5 ISO 400 1/200 sec.

175mm f/5.6 ISO 640 1/200 sec.

175mm f/5.6 ISO 200 1/200 sec.

175mm f/5.6 ISO 250 1/200 sec.

The lens is definitely softer wide open. Though this is a "smooth" softness. I think it has rather nice bokeh for a lens of this type, which helps. Wide open it would work very well as a "flattering" portrait lens. It is important to remember that this isn't a 45mm f/1.8, and that biting crisp definition just isn't here. But having said that, it gives a very pleasing look. Its even across the frame which is nice, and doesn't have that "busy" out of focus area look that many zooms of this type have.

175mm f/5.6 ISO 500 1/200 sec.

116mm f/5.3 ISO 800 1/200 sec.

144mm f/5.6 ISO 250 1/200 sec.

One of the things contributing to the look, is that it seems to be have quite low contrast. I'll discover whether this is true the more I use it.

68mm f/6.3 ISO 160 1/320 sec.

107mm f/6.3 ISO 160 1/500 sec.

175mm f/5.6 ISO 160 1/15 sec.

Two things that I always look for to assess the quality of a lens are, firstly, how quickly does it get to those "sweet" apertures. The answer with this lens is very quickly. f/6.3 is very nice and by f/8 its performing really well. Secondly, I always check to see how well a lens responds to sharpening. Poor lenses tend to produce worse images when sharpened up, but good lenses produce nice crisp images. Thats certainly the case here, and a bit of discreet smart sharpening in Photoshop produces very nice files.

So, a light lens with good handling and an interesting zooming feel, nice bokeh, decent results when stopped down a tad and a reasonable price. Whats not to like?

Incidentally, I loaded the new firmware for the G3 and it gives a display on the back showing you what focal length you are selecting. It also apparently gives control over the zoom speed and allows both manual selection of the zoom and the ability to retain where you were when the camera was switched off. I'm going to try these out when I give the lens a test for video, which it is obviously designed for.

So far I like it. Its nothing spectacular, just a good solid piece of kit that fills in a gap for me and allows me to shoot some telephoto material with decent image quality without breaking my back. I have no hesitation in recommending it.

Panasonic G3 Lumix 45-175mm X lens review - Part 1

Panasonic G3 Lumix 45-175mm X lens

I'm now an X-man!

My trip to the Hampshire coast reawakened my interest in telephoto zooms, though the weight of my Nikon 55-300mm on my D7000 was a bit off-putting. Yesterday I saw Amazon were selling the new Panasonic 45-175mm X zoom via an audio-visual company I'd never heard of. However it was a good price and it arrived this morning.

The first thing to mention is its very light. Not particularly small as you can see from the pictures, but its not heavy. Its 210g which is slightly heavier than the 14-42mm zoom which is 165g. 

There are some comments I've seen that say it doesn't manually zoom, well it does. Its a strange action though, it feels like its "floating". Thats the best way I can describe it. Its an unusual action but works well enough. The power zoom switch works well too, and I will see how it works for video in a later post. It is however something I'm not used to and I always use the lens barrel to zoom. I'll force myself to use the switch and report back on that. There is also a firmware update for these X lenses and I'll load that and see what it does.

144mm f/5.5 ISO 160 1/10 sec.

If you've noticed the settings for the above picture you'll realise that the mega OIS is very good indeed. 1/10th. sec. at a 35mm / full-frame equivalent of 288mm is pretty impressive. There is some slight movement, but that was the horse. Other images I took at these slow shutter speeds were equally successful, so well done to Panasonic with this.

175mm f/6.3 ISO 160 1/640 sec.

Image quality is pretty good. This isn't prime lens sharpness, but its way better than the 45-200mm I had a while ago and its encouraging to see that it doesn't become soft with vignetting fully extended, as many lenses of its type do.

122mm f/5.3 ISO 160 1/100 sec.

175mm f/5.6 ISO 160mm 1/800 sec.


107mm f/6.3 ISO 160mm 1/500 sec.


175mm f/5.6 ISO 2000 1/400 sec.


45mm f/7.1 ISO 160 1/640 sec.

From my initial impressions, it seems an excellent lens. Operationally its very good, and I'll get used to the somewhat different zooming action in time. The stabilisation is very good indeed and the image quality, sharpness etc. is good while not spectacular. However it is somewhat better than I was expecting. The lens certainly produces nicer looking files for me than my Nikon 55-300mm. It doesn't become unusable at its longest end and when its good, its very good. I've yet to find the "sweet" aperture, but I obviously need more time with it. 

I'll post again when I've worked with it some more.

175mm f/5.6 ISO 160 1/500 sec.

116mm f/5.3 ISO 200 1/250 sec.

175mm f/5.6 ISO 160 1/500 sec.

Panasonic G3 with 14-150mm lens.

All images - Panasonic G3 Olympus 14-150mm zoom lens

A very useful lens and one which at the wide end is very good indeed.

I do really need something for m4/3 which is decent as a telephoto and is relatively light. The 14-150mm is unfortunately not great at the 150mm end. 

I'm not that impressed with the Panasonic 14-140mm at its longest end either, and the other Panasonic and Olympus telephoto zooms seem somewhat bulky.

Hopefully the new 45-175mm x lens might work. Its certainly the right focal length, and the right size and weight. I'm hoping that Panasonics description of it as being optically superior are true. Time will tell.