Jan.Wedekind
LMF-Patron
I've been meaning to share my experience with that lens for a while now.
For context: last year I bought an OM-1 specifically for birds/wildlife with a Panaleica 100-400mm lens (200-800 FF equivalent focal range). It's a great camera and perfect for that: great AF, great IBIS, quite compact and light, fast shooting, pro-capture, top weather sealing, no rolling e-shutter... The trade-offs are of course coming too with sensor size: higher ISO is tough, less dynamic range, less resolution.
Problem: my wife started liking it so much that it has gradually become "her" camera
. So I wanted to second kit so we could go out together, which is really nice.
Here are the options I considered:
The downsides for Options 1 are obvious: it's a MUCH heavier combo (3.1 kg!), much worse CAF, much slower drive speed. But slightly better resolution, MUCH better dynamic range and ISO performance. When the S5ii got released around the same time, I decided to go for this option. I thought that now with time, AF won't be a problem in future L-Mount bodies anymore and the value of lenses lasts forever.
I've been playing with that lens for 2m, several outings in natural parks and hides, zoo etc.
The good:
The ugly:
I am sharing a few snapshots below. You can . By no means do I want to say these are all great photos! I wanted to share a larger range instead. Some are edited (for better or worse), some were passed through DXO PureRaw 2. Some are untouched. Some use TC even if it's not in the meta data. I hope it's a range that'll give you a good idea overall.
So what's my conclusion?
We went on a trip to the Ebro Delta over Easter – and I bought a second OM-1 body+lens kit for the trip. I really thought the AF would kill it for me or the lack of drive seed, pro-capture etc.
But in the end, the simple brutal truth was that the weight of the whole system just takes a LOT of fun out of the experience for me. Even just carrying the whole kit to a hide is pain. Walking around, hand-holding spontaneous shots? Prepare for pain... it's just no fun.
I am still torn if I will sell it again or not. I probably will keep it for a while until I see whether I might get an S1ii. Please, Panasonic, make it as light as possible!
So if you don't mind the weight: great great lens. For me, it taught me again why M43 still has a place in my life!
I probably forgot a ton of stuff, so shoot with questions. I am not a pro, so apologies for a very subjective view.
For context: last year I bought an OM-1 specifically for birds/wildlife with a Panaleica 100-400mm lens (200-800 FF equivalent focal range). It's a great camera and perfect for that: great AF, great IBIS, quite compact and light, fast shooting, pro-capture, top weather sealing, no rolling e-shutter... The trade-offs are of course coming too with sensor size: higher ISO is tough, less dynamic range, less resolution.
Problem: my wife started liking it so much that it has gradually become "her" camera
. So I wanted to second kit so we could go out together, which is really nice. Here are the options I considered:
- Sigma 150-600 for my S1
- A second OM-1 body and 100-400 lens
- Canon R7 or Fuji XH2s
The downsides for Options 1 are obvious: it's a MUCH heavier combo (3.1 kg!), much worse CAF, much slower drive speed. But slightly better resolution, MUCH better dynamic range and ISO performance. When the S5ii got released around the same time, I decided to go for this option. I thought that now with time, AF won't be a problem in future L-Mount bodies anymore and the value of lenses lasts forever.
I've been playing with that lens for 2m, several outings in natural parks and hides, zoo etc.
The good:
- The lens is very well made, feels great in the hand.
- It's very sharp across the range from what I can tell. For me "typical" Sigma look that I know from several DG DN lenses
- It works with my Panasonic 2x TC! 1200mm focal range!
- Fall off and bokeh are really pleasing to my eye
- AF and CAF isn't actually as terrible as I feared
- Manual Focus is smooth and peaking works great
- Overall IQ is just very nice.
- Vignetting is very strong - but I find it's a non-issue, just LR lens correction basically takes it out with one click
The ugly:
- Dear God help me it's heavy
- The Panasonic TC works w/o problems – but the EXIF data is not written. So I cannot say anymore which photos were taken with or w/o TC..
I am sharing a few snapshots below. You can . By no means do I want to say these are all great photos! I wanted to share a larger range instead. Some are edited (for better or worse), some were passed through DXO PureRaw 2. Some are untouched. Some use TC even if it's not in the meta data. I hope it's a range that'll give you a good idea overall.
So what's my conclusion?
We went on a trip to the Ebro Delta over Easter – and I bought a second OM-1 body+lens kit for the trip. I really thought the AF would kill it for me or the lack of drive seed, pro-capture etc.
But in the end, the simple brutal truth was that the weight of the whole system just takes a LOT of fun out of the experience for me. Even just carrying the whole kit to a hide is pain. Walking around, hand-holding spontaneous shots? Prepare for pain... it's just no fun.
I am still torn if I will sell it again or not. I probably will keep it for a while until I see whether I might get an S1ii. Please, Panasonic, make it as light as possible!
So if you don't mind the weight: great great lens. For me, it taught me again why M43 still has a place in my life!
I probably forgot a ton of stuff, so shoot with questions. I am not a pro, so apologies for a very subjective view.
