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Re: Coupla things
In reply to texinwien,
4 months ago
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texinwien wrote:
Anders W wrote:
texinwien wrote:
Now, one thing I've found is that I need to stop this lens down to get sharp results. My understanding is that the Oly is just as sharp or sharper without having to stop down as much, which would make both lenses close to equally fast if sharpness is important to you. It is, for me - I don't have much use for a long telephoto that's overly soft. Might as well use a sharper, shorter lens and crop.
I don't know of any systematic evidence that the Oly is sharper wide open than the Pany. The tests results I have seen vary and few are directly comparable.
Yes, it's unfortunate that these two lenses don't seem to have been tested by the usual, reliable suspects. I had a difficult time finding comparable tests when I was trying to decide which lens to purchase.
Perhaps I should have been more equivocal - I'm neither speaking from experience with the Oly lens, nor from bullet-proof test data. Just from anecdotal reports from others who've owned or tested both lenses. Thanks for pointing out
I think we see eye to eye on this. In my case, I think I have seen just about as many anecdotal reports in both directions. That's the only difference
As to my own copy of the 100-300, I don't hesitate to shoot it wide open at the long end. While it is slightly better at f/8 than at f/5.6, the difference is rather small and the resolution at f/5.6 quite good. It is not as good at 300 as it is at 100 but this is not to be expected. Pretty much all tele zooms of this kind lose a bit towards the long end.
I stated that I've owned my copy for about 4 weeks. I might should have added that I haven't had much of a chance to test it in very sunny weather (it's been mostly cloudy here in Austria since I got the lens). The unscientific tests I have done, however, show a major improvement in sharpness at long distances when stopped down to f/7.1 or f/8. If continued use confirms past experience, I don't think I'll be satisfied with the sharpness of this lens, wide open, but will be satisfied with it at f/7.1 or 8. Perhaps I have a bad copy - something I'll take a closer look at this week, hopefully, since the sun is poking through the clouds. Or, perhaps my expectations were unrealistic.
Same can be said for ISO with a lens like this. I find that I need to keep the ISO way down in order to have sharp enough images when zoomed into the longer end of this lens in order to have acceptably sharp images. In effect, both lenses are really only going to excel in excellent light, where a half stop or so of aperture won't much make of a difference, and if you have to stop the faster lens down more, anyway, the difference in speed disappears completely.
Again, not in line with my experience. With the G1, I tried to stay below ISO 800 (which was difficult in anything but very good light) in order to have at least a bit of latitude for cropping. But with the E-M5, which has nearly the same DR at 800 as the G1 at 100, I don't hesitate to go to 800, perhaps even a bit further.
That's not my experience, so far. What I've tried is a combination of ISOs, apertures and shutter speeds. It could be sample variation, or else bad technique on my part, but unless I have the shutter speed up over 1/500, the ISO at 400 or below, and the aperture stopped down to f/7.1 when at 275mm and focusing on an object ~100 meters away, I'm not getting the kind of sharpness I was hoping for.
I'll put the lens on a tripod and see whether any of that changes as soon as I get a chance.
tex
You might want to really test your copy to see whether you have a problem. Unfortunately, the risk of getting a poor or so-so copy is rather high in my experience, not just with this particular lens but with any. You might want to have a look at the thread to which I link below (not just the OP) for some ideas about how to proceed:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/42257923
As I pointed out, you should be aware that a 100-300 at its long end cannot be expected to do as well as it does at its short end, nor as well as a good standard zoom (e.g., the 14-45) does as its long end. That holds for pretty much any lens of this caliber (70-300 or whatever), not just for the partular lens we are talking about.
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