• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

MFT lens 100-400mm, Leica DG, announced (1 Viewer)

Only just started testing my copy of the 100-400 with an older Oly E-M5.

I set the zoom to 300-350mm as the default position and then zoom in further only if needed.

Compared to my copy of the Panny 100-300 Ver 1, this lens gives consistently sharper images, but likely more due to better AF than anything else.

For bird photography, I doubt there is much difference with Panny 100-300 Ver 2 given the improvements to AF.

For general photography at 100mm - 200mm the Panny 100-400 is quite a lens so that could be a factor to consider also.

Would like to see more pics from the Panny 100-400 mated with the Oly EM1 Mark2 compared with G80 and G5.
 
...It seems like there are several factors to the poor performance in the geese picture earlier. I think it was part shutter shock, part heat haze, part poor handling from me and the biggest part a lens that really is not that good at distant subjects.

This puts me in a tight spot. What are my options in m43 if I return the 100-400? Will I be happy with the G80 or GH5 instead of the GX8? I just dont know. I don't want to go back to DSLR's since I think mirrorless is the future with awesome evf's and features.

The Oly 300 is alot more money and my friend has had similar issues with his 300 where it would be very soft at distances.

For the price of these optics I would expect great performance at all distances. Maybe not at all focus lengths but surely all distances.
A few thoughts

- Does your GX8 have an anti-shock setting like the Olympus cameras? Some of those mechanical shutter shots seem less clear than the e-shutter.
- Perhaps test your lens/camera combo for front/back focus (I like to use the 5 AA battery method).
- My experience with BIF on this lens (a rental unit) was mixed, but I was using an EM5MII, and I didn't have extensive time to learn.
- Stationary birds were quite good (a big improvement over my Oly 75-300), but low light performance at 400 was a problem, for areas I bird, so my purchase went to the 300/F4.
 
The results for distance shots in this thread are not typical for the 100-400,the shot below are a lot further than 20/30mt and i think the crop stands up well,taken @ 400mm.
 

Attachments

  • P10401021.jpg
    P10401021.jpg
    100.5 KB · Views: 175
  • P104010212.jpg
    P104010212.jpg
    132.6 KB · Views: 180
MFT cameras come with advantages and a distinct disadvantage, imho, which is above iso800 noise becomes a big problem. By iso 1600 it seriously interferes with image qualty.

As for that... I find that the image quality from Olympus E-M1 Mk2 degrades quite gently at high ISO. I attach two photos of my cat taken in the evening at home, without flash at ISO 6400. Both photos were developed from RAW in Olympus Viewer with exposure & contrast adjustments, noise filtering set to LOW and some sharpening. First photo is downsized from original size to 1600x1200, another one is 1:1 crop of the forehead. While the noise is of course there (in particular in the 1:1 crop), I think the quality is pretty decent for such high ISO which allowed to make this "portrait" without blinding my cat with flash. Add to this silent electronic shutter, and I can take photos of cats without bothering them or inspiring their curiosity to approach the camera - they just go about their business while I take photos. The same applies to skittish birds or other animals...
 

Attachments

  • P3020644_downsized.jpg
    P3020644_downsized.jpg
    943 KB · Views: 177
  • P3020644_crop.jpg
    P3020644_crop.jpg
    866.4 KB · Views: 175
Last edited:
So here is an update on my current situation.

I sent back the gx8 and pl100-400. I couldn't trust it and I am certain something was weird with my copy. It's easy to explain my poor performance with technique etc, but the fact is I have no issues with my new setup.

I decided to go with Fuji x-t2 and fuji 100-400. I am having no issues with shutter shock, sharpness is really good even at 400mm and at long distances.
Focus is fast and atleast as good as mft.

I am not saying other people aren't getting good results with the gx8 and pl100-400 but for me it wasn't good enough.

So that is that, thanks everyone for trying to help me out!
 
So here is an update on my current situation.

I sent back the gx8 and pl100-400. I couldn't trust it and I am certain something was weird with my copy. It's easy to explain my poor performance with technique etc, but the fact is I have no issues with my new setup.

I decided to go with Fuji x-t2 and fuji 100-400. I am having no issues with shutter shock, sharpness is really good even at 400mm and at long distances.
Focus is fast and atleast as good as mft.

I am not saying other people aren't getting good results with the gx8 and pl100-400 but for me it wasn't good enough.

So that is that, thanks everyone for trying to help me out!

Well, I for one am sorry to hear that. I am happy you have something that you feel works for you, but I am planning very soon to purchase the same lens with a G85. I would be very sorry if it does not work out well.

Niels
 
Well, I for one am sorry to hear that. I am happy you have something that you feel works for you, but I am planning very soon to purchase the same lens with a G85. I would be very sorry if it does not work out well.

Niels

Ime sure you will be very happy,here is an example of a cock up from me,no time to zoom struggled a bit to find the bird as i only had a short window of opportunity,but still salvaged this, full shot and crop.
 

Attachments

  • 1.jpg
    1.jpg
    101.5 KB · Views: 166
  • P1050353.jpg
    P1050353.jpg
    151.2 KB · Views: 219
As for that... I find that the image quality from Olympus E-M1 Mk2 degrades quite gently at high ISO. I attach two photos of my cat taken in the evening at home, without flash at ISO 6400. Both photos were developed from RAW in Olympus Viewer with exposure & contrast adjustments, noise filtering set to LOW and some sharpening. First photo is downsized from original size to 1600x1200, another one is 1:1 crop of the forehead. While the noise is of course there (in particular in the 1:1 crop), I think the quality is pretty decent for such high ISO which allowed to make this "portrait" without blinding my cat with flash. Add to this silent electronic shutter, and I can take photos of cats without bothering them or inspiring their curiosity to approach the camera - they just go about their business while I take photos. The same applies to skittish birds or other animals...

I admit those are very decent examples. Perhaps the new processing engine and the removal of the AA filter from the sensor have improved dynamic range and shadow area noise by one-stop. If so, then iso1600 which in the changeable UK climate is sometimes necessary may not be a stretch for this newer generation of m43rds bodies.

Thanks for sharing the samples.

LouisB
 
Warning! This thread is more than 7 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top