I tried to work with an older, used lens to get both a long reach and adequate sharpness. It was the Panasonic Lumix 45-200mm lens. It was clearly designed for a time in the camera universe when 10 megapixels was hot shit and lens technology followed suit. I guess the designers couldn't imagine a time in which 20 megapixels would be baseline normal. The lens was okay at f8.0 but who wants a slow, single aperture lens?
I shot with the used lens at an outdoor concert on Wednesday and felt the need to return it to my local, bricks-and-mortar retailer this morning. They understood and cheerfully refunded my purchase. I think that was a good move on their part because I was in yesterday dropping $1500 on a much better lens. It's the lens I should have bought in the first place. It's the Panasonic/Leica 50-200mm f2.8-f4.0.
But before I got all cozy with the 50-200mm I needed to take it out for some exercise and make sure that it's really the improvement I imagined it would be. I put it on the front of a G9 camera body and headed out for a late afternoon walk through a sun-drenched city that was settling in to Friday afternoon with clear, bright skies and high temperatures around 70°.
My big use for the lens is for all those times when I have to be in a stationary position but need to cover a long range populated with moving actors and singers. My 70-200mm S-Pro lens is right on the cusp of being highly useful when used in an APS-C mode, which gives me an equivalent focal length (compared to full frame cameras) of 300mm. But I found myself consistently wanting the flexibility of that last 100mm of stretch.
Here's what B&H Photo has to say about the new, 50-200mm f2.8-4.0 lens (a quick and dirty way to cover the specs...):
"the Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 50-200mm f/2.8-4 ASPH. POWER O.I.S. Lens from Panasonic is a 100-400mm equivalent zoom designed in collaboration with Leica for Micro Four Thirds cameras. The long reach is complemented by a bright f/2.8-4 maximum aperture range, which benefits working in low-light conditions and also affords control over depth of field for isolating subjects. The optical design incorporates several low dispersion elements, two aspherical elements, and an ultra-high refractive index element to control both chromatic and spherical aberrations for improved clarity and sharpness. A Nano Surface Coating has also been applied to limit flare and ghosting for increased contrast and color fidelity when working in strong lighting conditions.
Benefitting both stills shooting and video recording, a 240 fps high-speed AF motor offers quick, quiet, and precise autofocus performance. Also, a POWER Optical Image Stabilizer will compensate for camera shake and works with Panasonic's Dual I.S. and Dual I.S. 2.0 in-camera stabilization functions to minimize the appearance of camera shake. Additionally, the physical design of the lens is dust- and moisture-resistant, as well as freeze-proof, for use in inclement shooting conditions.
With a 100-400mm equivalent focal length range on Micro Four Thirds cameras, this telephoto prime is well suited to working with distant subject matter.
Bright f/2.8-4 maximum aperture range excels when working in difficult lighting conditions and provides increased control over depth of field.
Two ultra extra-low dispersion elements and two extra-low dispersion elements minimize various aberrations in order to produce a high degree of clarity, sharpness, and color accuracy.
Two aspherical elements and one ultra high refractive index element help to reduce distortion and spherical aberrations for improved sharpness and accurate rendering throughout the zoom range.
Nano Surface Coating has been applied to individual elements to reduce flare and ghosting for improved contrast and color neutrality.
POWER Optical Image Stabilizer minimizes the appearance of camera shake for sharper handheld shooting, and also supports the Dual I.S. and Dual I.S. 2.0 functions for increased stabilization performance.
A 240 fps AF motor offers fast, precise, and near-silent focusing performance to benefit both stills shooting and video recording applications.
Splash, dust, and freezeproof design benefits working in inclement weather conditions down to -14°F."
I want it for two reasons. First, I want to use the lens when I do still photography of shows where I can't approach the stage so I can get tighter shots on individual performers. Secondly, I want the additional reach so I can pan with moving performers as they move from one stage that's 50 feet away to another stage that's 70 feet away. But...I want the images to be sharp and the image stabilization to work almost as well as a current gimbal.
On my walk today I concentrated on objects that I could shoot at the full 400mm extension of the lens while having the aperture set at f4.0. The images above and below are the result. I'm happy with the optical performance of the lens but I need to spend more time tomorrow practicing the manual focusing of the lens. That will be critical for my video use.
So far, I'm finding the lens to be very sharp; even wide open. At the long end it does not lose sharpness or contrast like so many lesser lenses. If it passes my manual focusing tests I will have found my new, favorite long lens. It will also be part of my traveling kit.
I learned when I was in Iceland in 2018 just how great the G9 and some of the m4:3 lenses really are. My "small camera" kit now includes the G9 along with the 12-60mm Panasonic/Leica lens and, hopefully, this lens as well. I bring along a GH5 as a back-up/companion body. Both cameras take the same battery and both, obviously, take the same lenses. It's all a match made in heaven.
Browse through the photos and let me know what you think. The adore-or-return test starts tomorrow at sundown on the plaza at Zach Theatre. I'll post more after that.
From all the way across the wide river.
You've heard about crop circles, how about crop squares?
A quick test shot at the theater. Just making sure it's the right combination for tomorrow's video.
13 comments:
photos look exceptional
Tempting lens, thanks for the info. Do you still have (or did you ever have) the Oly 40-150/f2.8? Quick comparison between the two or mabe you don't care because you need that longer reach? I guess it would be a pain to put on the 1.4x converter in the field when things are happning on stage in real time.
I’d love to hear how the manual focusing works on this lens. I find the Panasonic/Leica 12-60 manual focusing challenging. Coming from a video broadcasting background relearning to focus with focus by wire is quite annoying. If Panasonic could upgrade the firmware in the GH5 with linear focusing it would become a close to perfect camera for me.
Looks sharp enough! Nice color rendition too!
The PL 50-200 is one of my 2 favorite all-time lenses, along with the Oly 12-100 that you used to like a lot. I don't do video though, and rarely use MF, so hope those work for you in the theater.
I've been using the PL 50-200 for about two years now, and it's exceptionally good optically and a very useful range for a variety of subjects. I also shoot it under stage lighting for theater and dance performances. When I had the Oly 40-150 it would get very heavy by the end of the shoot, so the 50-200 being much lighter is less tiresome. Sharp everywhere, great AF, easy to carry, what's not to like? Well, MF is a challenge and I wish it had the same clutch as my 10-25 PL. Fortunately my video days are behind me, so I can just concentrate on making stills.
Hey Mike, as good as the clutch is on some of the Pro series lenses I'm finding that being able to switch the lenses from non-linear to linear is better. Especially for video when you are able to program in a much longer focus throw. I have the big Lumix cameras set to 240° focus throw. It's so much more discriminating and doesn't have the usual "fly by wire" glitchiness.
Just a follow up. We shot with a bunch of cameras last night but I used the GH5 and the Panasonic/Leica 50-200mm f4.0 as the main camera/follow camera. The lens was a breath of fresh air. Super sharp wide open at 200. Easy to manual focus with the help of the Atomos Ninja monitor and the lens was light enough to help me perfectly balance the fluid head. The battery in the GH5 last through the show and had two bars left on the battery indicator. I could not have been happier.
I should have bought that lens the minute we started talking about filming these shows.
Hi Kirk. Interesting post as most of the discussion I've seen on forums has been about the relative merits of the Panasonic 45 - xxx zooms, rather than this lens.
Do you think it woukd be "front-heavy" on say a GX8 or GX9, particularly when fully extended?
Nigel
Ps some of the photos look lovely, especially the "blue rower" and the punter in silhouette.
Hi Nigel, I have only used the 50-200mm on the GH5 but it's not nearly as big or heavy as it appears to be in photographs. I had no problem with it on that camera as a "walk-around" lens and it balanced beautifully on the video tripod I used Saturday. Much less weight than my 50mm Lumix lens. And very satisfying when used wide open.
Obviously a lovely lens, but at $1500 and 655g with a max aperture of 50mm, I have to compare it to the full frame Tamron 70-300 FE at $550 and 475g with a max aperture of 48mm. Put it on a high-res FF body and shoot in APS-C mode when you want 450mm of reach and still have 20 MP files, and when reach not needed the option exists to shoot FF mode with an equivalent lens to a m43 35-150mm f/2.2-3.2, and 45 MP.
That would be a tough choice for me — at least for shooting still images.
Cheers
Thought about it but the rig gets heavier and heavier and I want to keep the apertures as wide as I can. I've got all the lenses I need for full frame. It's nice to take advantage of the smaller sensor. And the video performance between a GH5S and the S1H is smaller than one might think.
The smaller package is easier to handle on top of a tripod. At full extension, even with the smaller lens, every time you touch the lens there is visible shake and jitter. Also, nice to have greater depth of field at the same f-stops.
Post a Comment