Panasonic LUMIX G X VARIO 35-100mm / F2.8 / POWER O.I.S - hands on review


ed9119

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Mar 11, 2002
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Specs and Press Release can be found here http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/four-thirds-standard-4-3-m43/1156924-panasonic-announces-lumix-g-x-vario-35-100mm-f2-8-power-o-i-s.html

Clubsnap just collected the lens this afternoon for a week of trials

A summary of first impressions :

Its SO SMALL at about 10cm long
Its SO LIGHT at 360g (not including lens hood and lens cap which should add another 40--50g .... still so light)
Its CONSTANT f2.8
Its WEATHER SEALED
It sports a 58mm filter ring
Its an INTERNAL Zoom (lens size stays same whether you're at 35mm or 10mm)

It fits (WITH a M4/3 body attached) into my Thinktank Chimp Cage Slim with room to spare

I'll be shooting with it this weekend and posting more images and (hopefully) find something to complain about ...... no such luck so far after half a day.

Comment: I am still trying to figure out how they managed a constant f2.8 into a 35-100 (effectively 70-200 in 35mm format) zoom this size .... was under the impression that larger lens elements are required to gather enough light even at wide open f2.8 ....


OK lets get started ....... more images will be added as the weekend rolls along

Image below courtesy of D. Lee who used it for a little while today lunch time at Tiong Bahru (attached to a Panasonic GX-1 in 1:1 perspective) .... just resizing applied
Comment: Bokeh is worily sweet

eddie_1.jpg


Image below .... a 100% crop of above image ...... just cropped and resized that area .... the guy needs a shave
Comment: It resolves well
Comment: The END of the Cigarette is already in bokeh lol

eddie_1_crop.jpg


Image below ..... a 100% crop of first image above..... just cropped and resized that area ...... Collar area of subject

eddie_collar.jpg
 

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nice! so poisonous! :heart:
 

Heard that there was a Hokkien Opera in Tampinese tonight so rushed there to shoot with the 35-100

The image below was shot at
f13.0
ISO 200
shutters peed 1/160sec
Camera body used: Panasonic G5
Comment: Notice the much deeper DoF from the fan's fingers to the subject

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zzz_opera_2.jpg



zzz_opera_1.jpg
 

The 35-100 paired with a Panasonic Lumix G5....
used a watch to give an idea of the size of the lens

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The 35-100 paired with a M4/3 body from another brand
used an old SD card to give a better perspective of the size of the lens

zzz_35100_other.jpg
 

Returned to Tampines Rd today to continue shooting

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Crop of above image
b_actors_crop.jpg
 

'enough said .... debate over .... this pic below saves me a thousand words ...

c_kueh_tutu.jpg


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Message to Panasonic : " We will need a 1.5x or 2x Teleconverter to go with this winner "

For the last 3 days I have been using TWO m4/3 cameras ... one attached to a 75mm f1.8 from Olympus and and another attached to this 35-100mm f2.8 from Panasonic

Running back and forth between Yishun, Tampines, Bedok and Telok Blangah ..... its sunday night now and I am normally in pain and at the chinese medicine hall getting my back and shoulder treated .... not tonight

I did not have my usual huge camera bag ... NOR did I suffer from shoulder ache ... carrying such lightweight equipment around .... a M4/3 1.5 or 2x TC would be total icing on the cake

Because of the much lighter equipment load, i was able to move around much faster and able to go on briskly through the entire weekend
 

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just a few fun pics to share shot with this lens

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Jean Danker showed up for a while too

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ONE note about handholding this lens

With Power OIS turned on, and when holding this lens as front of the barrel as possible , even on the lens hood, I find hand shake very very minimal

See above image of Malay girl for example
 

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.... ONE FEEDBACK ...PLEASE engineer a tripod mount ONTO the lens ... mounting a M4/3 body onto a tripod with this lens attached .... is scary and almost dangerous.... for the equipment.

Its very hard for a ballhead to keep the rig steady or from creeping due to the outward leverage of the lens vis a vis the body

Locating the tripod mount somewhere below the Power OIS on/off button should be easy enough to engineer for newer batches of this wonderful zoom lens

This afternoon
zz_ix7.jpg
 

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.... ONE FEEDBACK ...PLEASE engineer a tripod mount ONTO the lens ... mounting a M4/3 body onto a tripod with this lens attached .... is scary and almost dangerous.... for the equipment.

Its very hard for a ballhead to keep the rig steady or from creeping due to the outward leverage of the lens vis a vis the body

Locating the tripod mount somewhere below the Power OIS on/off button should be easy enough to engineer for newer batches of this wonderful zoom lens

This afternoon
zz_ix7.jpg

Hey Mod,

does this apply to high end ballhead like Markins, RRS and etc with higher rating?
I understand this lens might be pretty off balance mounting on E-M5
Thx
 

had this problem with the Manfrotto 496RC2 ballhead .... one touch of the lens hood and it could move ... its a hassel to keep adjusting the rig

So yeah, the physics of leverage will come into play here even if the outfit is light
 

Hi there. Thanks for posting your images, this lens looks better than I expected. Any chance you could take an image that will allow us to judge vignetting wide open? A review somewhere noted that as an issue, and it will be a decider for me, as I mostly intend to use this for landscapes. Thanks a lot!

Cheers, Tom
 

Hi there. Thanks for posting your images, this lens looks better than I expected. Any chance you could take an image that will allow us to judge vignetting wide open? A review somewhere noted that as an issue, and it will be a decider for me, as I mostly intend to use this for landscapes. Thanks a lot!

Cheers, Tom


Alot of the images above were shot wide open at f2.8 (and uncropped) (check the embedded EXIF info to confirm which images)

For a 70-200 telezoom to vignette, is extremely unusual due to the telephoto focal lengths and accompanying narrrow field of view ...... vignette for shorter wide to ultrawide focal lengths I can understand.

So I am skeptical about the vignette claim but stand corrected if you can point us in the right direction

Please post a link to that review so that I can have a look at this .... I am curious

Anyway, the lens is now with Dream Merchant for his perspectives and feedback .
 

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...... I mostly intend to use this for landscapes. Thanks a lot!

Cheers, Tom

wide open and tele for landscape ? i think you'll be better off with a different (and wider) lens stopped down than to use this 35-100 wide open for landscapes .

Sure if it rocks your boat but IMHO using this lens for landscapes is a wrong application ..... like entering a Formula One race car into a WRC Rally instead of a Subaru WRX or a Mitsubishi EVO

ok this is a seperate different discussion under "Using a fast (70-200 equivalent) telezoom for Landscape Photography"
 

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