Paul Tavares
Well-known member
Hi everyone.
After some hemming and hawing and waiting for a newer lens that never showed up I finally bought this lens a couple of weeks ago. I've only been able to use it a couple of times so far as there are not many macro subjects around here in the winter.
Not a birding lens by any means but may be of interest to those with a wider interest in nature photography.
First hurdle in deciding what macro lens to buy was understanding magnification ratios. My own advice is don't get stuck on the ratio. It's really a correlated measure of the focal length divided by the closest focusing distance. Higher focal length allows you to stand further away from the subject but reduces the depth of field. A zoom with close focusing capability would be ideal.
First impressions with the lens so far.
1. It's fairly small and light compared to the 14-140. Makes it easy to hold the camera at arms length.
2. It's not a zoom. My two other lenses are zooms and I keep trying to adjust the non-existant zoom. I'm almost used to the no zoom now.
3. Auto focus works fine and pretty fast. Only complaint is that sometimes it fails to find a focus point. The same happens with my 100-300 so it may be a GH1 problem and not a lens problem. On the 100-300 I quickly focus on something else to bring the lens focus distance close to the subject distance and then it picks it up. With the macro I focus on my hand.
4. The lens firmware is on the camera and not on the lens. Probably reflects the technlogy of the time (2009)
5. The tilt LCD panel on the GH1 is great for photographing low subjects or subjects you don't want to put your face up close to (i.e. snakes)
6. I'm still experimenting with the aperture settings to see the effect on depth of field.
Insects will need to wait for warmer weather but in the meantime I've started posting some full size examples taken with the lens. If you're interested the samples are at http://rustyblades.smugmug.com/Nature-Flora-Fauna/Macro/22322029_R6SNHZ#!i=1762481904&k=zQ9vtKc
I'll be adding more over the coming weeks.
Paul
After some hemming and hawing and waiting for a newer lens that never showed up I finally bought this lens a couple of weeks ago. I've only been able to use it a couple of times so far as there are not many macro subjects around here in the winter.
Not a birding lens by any means but may be of interest to those with a wider interest in nature photography.
First hurdle in deciding what macro lens to buy was understanding magnification ratios. My own advice is don't get stuck on the ratio. It's really a correlated measure of the focal length divided by the closest focusing distance. Higher focal length allows you to stand further away from the subject but reduces the depth of field. A zoom with close focusing capability would be ideal.
First impressions with the lens so far.
1. It's fairly small and light compared to the 14-140. Makes it easy to hold the camera at arms length.
2. It's not a zoom. My two other lenses are zooms and I keep trying to adjust the non-existant zoom. I'm almost used to the no zoom now.
3. Auto focus works fine and pretty fast. Only complaint is that sometimes it fails to find a focus point. The same happens with my 100-300 so it may be a GH1 problem and not a lens problem. On the 100-300 I quickly focus on something else to bring the lens focus distance close to the subject distance and then it picks it up. With the macro I focus on my hand.
4. The lens firmware is on the camera and not on the lens. Probably reflects the technlogy of the time (2009)
5. The tilt LCD panel on the GH1 is great for photographing low subjects or subjects you don't want to put your face up close to (i.e. snakes)
6. I'm still experimenting with the aperture settings to see the effect on depth of field.
Insects will need to wait for warmer weather but in the meantime I've started posting some full size examples taken with the lens. If you're interested the samples are at http://rustyblades.smugmug.com/Nature-Flora-Fauna/Macro/22322029_R6SNHZ#!i=1762481904&k=zQ9vtKc
I'll be adding more over the coming weeks.
Paul
