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Fed Up with EF-M 18-150mm

Started 5 months ago | Questions thread
Andy01 Veteran Member • Posts: 5,188
Re: Fed Up with EF-M 18-150mm
2

J Peters wrote:

Andy01 wrote:

Have you had a look in the 18-150mm photo threads ?

I can find some and convert from the RAWs with no corrections, but it would take me some time to do, so not today.

That is a good point. Don't worry about putting time into this, but thanks for the offer. I should not have been so lazy! I've just spent 15 minutes looking critically at some that were taken at 150mm. They are lovely shots artistically, well composed, but I have to say that they are mostly not that sharp in my opinion. I think they are comparable with the results I'm getting with mine. Maybe I have an extraordinarily good copy of the 55-200 I'm comparing to

If the opinion on this forum was "Hey, it's an 8.3x superzoom, of course it's compromised, get over it" then I'd fully understand. But that isn't the case - many other users seem to rave about it, which is why I thought I had a duff. At the weekend I'll do another tranche of testing (I need daylight) and then decide what to do.

OK, so here are a few to compare with arguably the best Canon EF longer zoom available.

These were taken a few years ago at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo (outside Brisbane in Australia). I gave my M5 + 18-150mm to my wife to use. It was her first time using the camera because she normally just uses a little Canon G9X (she is very much a "novice" photographer). I was using my 6D ii + 100-400L ii.

All photos were a direct conversion of as-shot RAW files (no in-camera adjustments or corrections). Conversion was using DPP with no corrections, adjustments or processing at all.

The images are not identical (between the two cameras), but were taken at virtually the same time. The M5 was set to P mode with Auto-ISO (because my wife has very limited experience) and my 6D ii was set to Av with a user-set ISO. Generally the 6D ii had more zoom with 400mm compared to the M5 with an effective 250mm FoV.

In general the 100-400L ii unsurprisingly is a clear winner, but the macaw had missed focus on the 6D ii, so not a great shot but the only one I had for comparison purposes. I was not too unhappy with the M5 + 18-150mm shots, particularly after some lens corrections and PP. I think that the shots cleaned up reasonably well for a generally focal-length-limited superzoom lens.

That combo certainly had a lower success rate than the 6D ii + 100-400L ii, but that is not unexpected given the combos are at somewhat different ends of the cost spectrum (I think the L lens is about 4x the cost of the 18-150).

In summary, I don't think (or expect) the 18-150mm to ever be a "great" telephoto lens, and especially when fitted to an older camera, I do think that it is a great example of a versatile and compact walk-around lens that can do most things to an acceptable standard.

Composition win to 6D ii, but focus win to M5

While the 18-150 isn't as close or sharp as the 100-400L ii, it is sharp enough (even in the "raw" unprocessed JPEG) to read the embroidery on the guy's shorts.

 Andy01's gear list:Andy01's gear list
Canon EOS M5 Canon 6D Mark II Canon EF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM Canon EF 35mm F2 IS USM +5 more
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