Around this time of year, a sometimes get a nice bonus. This typically goes on camera equipment, as I rarely buy anything for myself the rest of the year. I am fully aware how lucky I am to get this money in the first place.
Last year when it hit my account, I rushed myself up to Park Cameras and bought the Lumix G9. This year wasn't going to be a new body, after all the G9 is still a lot of camera, even after a year since its launch. No, this year was a lens-spend year, and I had many an idea formulate...
Number one on my mind was that my Olympus M.Zuiko 9-18mm no longer provided the image quality that I've come to expect (I blame that with walking around with a clutch of primes these days). It had to go to a better home. But what to replace it with?
Well, I had aspirations for the Panasonic Leica f/2.8-4.0 8-18mm ultra-wide zoom. I'd hired the lens when I headed up to Canary Wharf, and I couldn't fault it. Excellent build quality, fast focusing, brilliant image quality. The only thing I balked at was the price. For someone whose ultra-wide photography has fallen to the wayside somewhat, it felt a bit silly spending £1000 on an UWA lens that I'd rarely use. Couple that with the fact that it was quite a bit bigger than the Oly 9-18mm, and my mind drifted to other solutions.
As many readers will know, I'm a big fan of manual focus primes, notably the Voigtlander 17.5mm. If I could, I'd have a whole camera bag of their f/0.95 range for Micro Four Thirds - from the seemingly-mediocre-when-reviewed 10.5mm, the nifty-fifty 25mm, and 42.5mm portrait-prime. Not that I was about to buy the Voigtlander 10.5mm to replace the Oly 9-18mm - it's not wide enough.
My eye was on the Laowa f/2 7.5mm ultra-wide prime. Only slightly heavier than the Olympus at 170g versus 155g, and a very similar size, I could quite easily carry around a copy of the Laowa and chuck another lens ontop.
But I didn't buy an ultra-wide lens. I bought the Panasonic Leica f/2.8-4 50-200mm telephoto zoom.
Why? Well, another one of my older lenses, the Lumix 100-300mm, was also no longer giving me the image quality I expected from my lenses. I'd been looking to replace it with the Panasonic Leica 100-400mm ever since it had been announced. But trying that lens at RIAT last year, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be.
It may have been the copy I'd rented. It may have been how I was utilising it. There were definitely difficulties with heat-haze between myself and the aircraft I was shooting. Either way, it is a big and heavy lens, and not one I'd want to carry around with me just-in-case I needed it.
Micro Four Thirds has a wonderful diversity of lens. You can buy small and light lenses, or you can buy highly-capable yet heavy ones. The 100-400 falls into the latter category.
The 50-200, on the other hand, is almost the same size as the old Lumix 100-300. And it is only slightly heavier. Yes, I'm fully aware of the focal-length difference, but I went one step further with my purchase - I also bought the 1.4 teleconverter. This reduces the aperture to f/4 at the wide end, and f/5.6 at the long end - and it also increases the focal length to 70-280mm which is close enough. And looking at my shots from RIAT, most of the good ones were in the 100-200mm range which fits perfectly with the new lens.
I've only shot with it for a couple of weeks, and I am already highly impressed by the sharpness, build-quality and stabilisation of the lens (when coupled with the G9). I'm actively looking for shots where a longer-focal length is required.
So where I started out looking to replace my ultra-wide-angle lens, I went to the complete opposite end of the spectrum and went for a telephoto. Funny how things go sometimes.
Last year when it hit my account, I rushed myself up to Park Cameras and bought the Lumix G9. This year wasn't going to be a new body, after all the G9 is still a lot of camera, even after a year since its launch. No, this year was a lens-spend year, and I had many an idea formulate...
Number one on my mind was that my Olympus M.Zuiko 9-18mm no longer provided the image quality that I've come to expect (I blame that with walking around with a clutch of primes these days). It had to go to a better home. But what to replace it with?
Well, I had aspirations for the Panasonic Leica f/2.8-4.0 8-18mm ultra-wide zoom. I'd hired the lens when I headed up to Canary Wharf, and I couldn't fault it. Excellent build quality, fast focusing, brilliant image quality. The only thing I balked at was the price. For someone whose ultra-wide photography has fallen to the wayside somewhat, it felt a bit silly spending £1000 on an UWA lens that I'd rarely use. Couple that with the fact that it was quite a bit bigger than the Oly 9-18mm, and my mind drifted to other solutions.
My eye was on the Laowa f/2 7.5mm ultra-wide prime. Only slightly heavier than the Olympus at 170g versus 155g, and a very similar size, I could quite easily carry around a copy of the Laowa and chuck another lens ontop.
But I didn't buy an ultra-wide lens. I bought the Panasonic Leica f/2.8-4 50-200mm telephoto zoom.
Why? Well, another one of my older lenses, the Lumix 100-300mm, was also no longer giving me the image quality I expected from my lenses. I'd been looking to replace it with the Panasonic Leica 100-400mm ever since it had been announced. But trying that lens at RIAT last year, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be.
It may have been the copy I'd rented. It may have been how I was utilising it. There were definitely difficulties with heat-haze between myself and the aircraft I was shooting. Either way, it is a big and heavy lens, and not one I'd want to carry around with me just-in-case I needed it.
Micro Four Thirds has a wonderful diversity of lens. You can buy small and light lenses, or you can buy highly-capable yet heavy ones. The 100-400 falls into the latter category.
The 50-200, on the other hand, is almost the same size as the old Lumix 100-300. And it is only slightly heavier. Yes, I'm fully aware of the focal-length difference, but I went one step further with my purchase - I also bought the 1.4 teleconverter. This reduces the aperture to f/4 at the wide end, and f/5.6 at the long end - and it also increases the focal length to 70-280mm which is close enough. And looking at my shots from RIAT, most of the good ones were in the 100-200mm range which fits perfectly with the new lens.
I've only shot with it for a couple of weeks, and I am already highly impressed by the sharpness, build-quality and stabilisation of the lens (when coupled with the G9). I'm actively looking for shots where a longer-focal length is required.
So where I started out looking to replace my ultra-wide-angle lens, I went to the complete opposite end of the spectrum and went for a telephoto. Funny how things go sometimes.
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