GM5 and some BIF's

Well done.

I have hesitated on the 100-300 despite being a strong advocate that the GM1 can be used like full sized camera with full sized lenses.  It works fine with the 42.5 Nocticron and the 35-100 f2.8 lenses.  I have also tried it with monster legacy MF lenses. The extending zoom of the long lens has also been a put-off (a personal thingie only).  But I have the non extending 45-175 lens and I should put it to the test.

The 100-300 seems more attractive since seeing your results.  Fist I have to figure out a red-dot mount system for my GM1.  Meanwhile the red dot system is on my GX7 and I am happy to see that parallax is not a problem - I did not think it would be.

Here is mine - on a GX7, but it should work just as well on a GM5.

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55889652

I have not tried it on birds as of yet.

Yikes!  and the lens is not as large at rest as I thought it might be ....

Great work as usual, hifi. Unfortunately you're too modest. You can make an FZ30 sing.

I haven't looked at my shots yet 

-

My nickel, since the penny is now discontinued...
Jeff.

hifi wrote:

Tom Caldwell wrote:

Yikes! and the lens is not as large at rest as I thought it might be ....

The 100-300 when collapsed is actually not that big. My camera bag of choice at present is a Tamrac 5720 zuma compact. The 100-300, along with the GM5, scope, some extra primes, batteries, and lens pen all fit in there quite comfortably. When zoomed out and with the lens hood attached, the 100-300 does get much bigger, but I am only concerned about the size at rest state for transport purposes.

The poor 100-300 does take a beating on the forums, but I think it is a superb lens, especially for the money.

Well the 100-300 certainly takes great images. I had and still have the Canon 100-400 f.5-5.6 IS "trombone" lens affectionally known as "the dust pump" which did not seem to cause me any dust problems - maybe it was here and how I used it. Anyway vigorous pumping of ttha lens was more likely to cause internal displacement of tiny bearings from inside zoom lock causing all sorts of mayhem that Canon would not warranty.  But that is another story.  After using several other lenses with internal focusing and zooming where applicable this has become one of my few loose rules in choosing a lens.

But there is no reason why the compact storage format of a lens with a huge extension should not be valued.  It would otherwise be hard to make an extreme reach lens portable.

I may end up with a 100-300 yet but for the meantime I have not progressed beyond the 45-175 which is quite compact and does not extend.

hifi wrote:

Tom Caldwell wrote:

Here is mine - on a GX7, but it should work just as well on a GM5.

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55889652

I have not tried it on birds as of yet.

Looks good!

Ozray and myself have found that fitting a red dot sight scared off the birds.  It seems as good as a scarecrow. Maybe the seabirds are not so easily put off ....

hifi wrote:

Tom Caldwell wrote:

Well done.

I have hesitated on the 100-300 despite being a strong advocate that the GM1 can be used like full sized camera with full sized lenses. It works fine with the 42.5 Nocticron and the 35-100 f2.8 lenses. I have also tried it with monster legacy MF lenses. The extending zoom of the long lens has also been a put-off (a personal thingie only). But I have the non extending 45-175 lens and I should put it to the test.

The 100-300 seems more attractive since seeing your results. Fist I have to figure out a red-dot mount system for my GM1. Meanwhile the red dot system is on my GX7 and I am happy to see that parallax is not a problem - I did not think it would be.

The lack of hotshoe was also a reason I did not get a GM1 when it was first released, and why I was so happy with the GM5.

You can still use the RDS with the GM1, but you need to use a flash bracket setup and to mount the RDS on the bracket, something like this:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/38540984

but if you already have a GX7, then probably a better match with the hotshoe already there.

I have become something of a sometime expert with double sided tape after my experience with making various mounts for my VEfinder "lens on a stick" device. I have found that the double sided tape is not only a quite strong mount (use the right stuff) but with some difficulty and a due measure of care can be removed leaving the under surface undamaged.  I had prototype mounts on an off my "test horse" GXR at least ten times without any noticeable problem.

My idea is to see if I can fix a neat hot shoe on to the GM1 - there is just enough room for one.

An evf is always better but the VEfinder is a reasonably good substitute that makes the use of such cameras as the GM1, Ricoh GXR, and Pentax Q quite effective without an evf.

My light mount for the small red dot sight does work well on the GX7 but does interfere with the action of both the flip evf and the flash unit - however they are hardly necessary when a red dot sight is mounted for use.  The other potential problem is that whilst the mounted red dot sight on my camera is quite rigid, immobile and strong, it has a slightly sloppy fit at both ends and might tighten down at slightly different angles each time it is remounted.  This would mean a re-calibration on re-mount which is a prospective pain.  I am already thinking of MkII and MkIII versions with tighter tolerances and easier/quicker mount/demount facility.

I should even consider a magnetic mount version as the use of rare earth magnets has made my VEfinders both rigid tight-mount and click-on click-off.