GH2 Is 300mm the limit for Micro 4/3?

R

ragnar

Active member
I love shooting birds. I shot tons with my Panasonic IS 300mm and it works great. I use the GH2 Ex.Tele. to reach in even further for video. Anyway, is there a technical reason why Oly and Pana don't make a 400mm IS lens for the Micro 4/3 system? I do have a manual 400mm FD Vivitar lens. I guess that if most or all of the coming GH cams start to have IBIS then I could use any 400, 500 or 600mm legacy class with the cam's IBIS to get that extra reach.2012 Bald Eagle Pair HH-09.jpg2012 Red-Winged Blackbird HH-1.jpg2013 GH2 Northern Flicker Park07.jpg
 
In m43, yes.

Sigma made their 50-500 in 4/3 mount for a while. I have one in Nikon mount... at 500, the lack of OS can be disappointing, but overall it's a nice flexible big lens
 
So, if I'm correct, there is no automatic lens with IS beyond the current 300mm for Micro 4/3. I wonder if it is an issue of demand, ie., lack of, or a technical issue, or both.
 
Jim Simon said:
I'd love to see Olympus abandon their use of it and implement OIS into all their lenses.
Click to expand...

I don't think that will ever happen. Olympus is mainly focused on the Still Photo market, and their 5-axis IBIS is the leader of the pack right now.

I also have doubts that Panasonic will ever go with IBIS for video. ( I think the GX-7 IBIS is 2-axis and it only works for still photos )
 
TheDingo said:
BTW, there is a guy in Germany that makes a custom tripod-mount for the Panasonic 100-300mm zoom lens.

Get Sharp Shots with the Panasonic LUMIX 100-300mm

Custom 100-300mm Tripod-Mount
Click to expand...

Anyone gotten one of these stabilizing mounts? With the GH2's CMOS sensor, the "jello spikes" are sooooooooooo bad on windy days when using a long lens. A mere puff of a breeze and several frames go wacky. It is easily one of the biggest issues I have with using long lenses on the GH2. I'd love to get something like this.
 
TheDingo said:
BTW, there is a guy in Germany that makes a custom tripod-mount for the Panasonic 100-300mm zoom lens.
Click to expand...

TheDingo,

Thanks for the information. I ordered the collar & will report back when it arrives.

For anyone interested the process was smooth & the manufacturer is responsive to emails.

Best,
Bern
 
I cnc'd one myself and it is an incredible improvement with my G6. The G6 isn't very stiff and when mounting the cam on a tripod that lens would shake all over.

I'd highly recommend getting one of them. Yeah, it's $100 shipped, but believe me I should have just baught one with all the time it took me to make my own :)

This is the type of thing I've been able to get with my G6, 100-300 tripod mount in 1080-60p. Most of it was shot at 300mm with ETC for an equivalent of 1500mm. https://vimeo.com/72504298

Cheers,
Pete
 
c3hammer, Nice looking footage. Surprised at the quality of the ETC footage. Did you use any ND filters?
 
Just a circular polarizer. The G6 has proven to be an exceptional camera when filming at 1080-60p in ETC mode (something the GH3 and GH2 don't do). To me it's the most versatile cam ever made for long range wildlife video I do most often. The 100-300 has been a revelation as well. I didn't expect much when I got it as no one seemed to excited about it, but after using the tripod mount for it, it has proven to be a stellar lens, particularly in ETC mode.

Cheers,
Pete
 
FYI... the GH3 does have ETC mode as well as 1080-60p, the GH2 has ETC mode but can not do 1080-60p, only 720-60p.
Just curious, around what f-stop were you shooting at? I would imagine the aperture was closed quite a bit due to the additional light
reflection off the water.
Footage looks good especially the ETC footage, almost no difference when you're in that mode compared to non ETC.
 
The GH3 doesn't do 1080-60p in ETC mode which is what I was referring to. I shot mostly around f/8 to f/13. With the dark background in most shots I never needed the ND-4 I have to go with the cir-pol.

Cheers,
Pete
 
I don't shoot much at 60p. I didn't know the ETC mode was limited by resolution and frame rate choice. I wonder why that is, since it's only cropping the
the 1920 X 1080 area of the chip?
 
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