I recently acquired the Panasonic Lumix 100-300mm F4-5.6 lens for a specific job that required me to shoot from quite a distance. The lens performed well and I got some satisfactory shots which I have delivered to my client. I thought I'd take this opportunity to do a little more with the lens and share some thoughts I had about the budget super telephoto zoom lens from Panasonic. Obviously I cannot share the shots from my job, it would be unethical for me to do so, this is a situation where the client does appreciate some privacy. So I went to the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, as usual with any long lenses and grabbed some cute bird shots with the lens. I also did a video to share some quick thoughts, you can find the video here (click).
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| All images were taken with OM System OM-1 camera |
This is not a review of the lens since it is quite an old lens, I am just sharing my thoughts, having used it for my actual paid shoots, as well as for fun shooting some birds at the KL Bird Park. I thought the Panasonic 100-300mm is a great value for money lens, it offer a fantastic reach of 600mm (in 35mm format) in such a compact form factor, and the lens itself is quite light too, easily paired with any Micro Four Thirds bodies with substantial hand gripping area, handling should be no issue. The images come out really sharp, with adequate contrast and fine details, and the rendering looks very natural and pleasing to my eyes. The optics definitely are not at the same level at higher grade lenses like the Olympus 300mm F4 PRO, but for a budget lens with an asking price a fraction of what the PRO lens was going for, I'd say there should be nothing to complain about looking at what the lens can do.
Comparing to the Olympus 75-300mm II lens, the Panasonic offers two advantages. Firstly, it has brighter aperture opening from F4-5.6, versus Olympus' F4.8-6.7. While the brightness difference isn't night and day, you still can benefit from slightly better light gathering capabilities of the Panasonic lens, allowing lower ISO or faster shutter speeds. Not a deal-breaker, but you can see some difference in real life shooting, as more real light always helps with better output. Secondly the Panasonic lens has built in image stabilization, which greatly helps at the longer end, especially toward the 300mm. Not all Micro Four Thirds camera bodies have built in image stabilization as well, and the lens that is optically stabilized will definitely have a huge advantage with such camera bodies.
I have the first version of Panasonic 100-300mm lens, which is not weather-sealed, but the Mark II version is. My job did not require me to shoot in the rain, so I was fine, and I could not find a Mark II version in the used market anyways. I personally can highly recommend the Panasonic 100-300mm lens for anyone who are budget conscious, yet want to dabble a little bit in wildlife photography. As I have always mentioned, you don't have to break the bank to enjoy photography, there are always options and you don't need the latest and greatest!
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