Great Egret - Super Telephoto on Micro 4/3

Yesterday, I posted an image of a green heron, shot with my GX7 and modern Lumix 100-300mm f4-5.6 OIS lens.

 

Just for fun, I decided to try shooting at the same place with my very old (Nikon Pre-AI mount) Sigma 400mm f5.6 lens, adapted to fit the GX7. Here's a great egret shot with that combination.

 

 

Great Egret, Ardea alba, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, Sigma 400mm f5.6 Manual Focus Lens (Pre-AI Nikon mount)

iso 1600, f11, 1/1000 sec.

 

Not bad for an old lens, huh? By the way, this is the lens that I won at the Film Photography Project's Walking Workshop in May. (Click Here) to read more about that.

 

I know that most of you can't click and zoom on this image, due to the way I post from flickr. Here's a ~100% crop from the image above:

 

You can see that he's just caught a minnow. While the results from this 30-40 year old lens don't match the modern Lumix 100-300mm zoom, they're pretty good, in my opinion. This is an extremely low-cost 800mm equivalent field of view combination for someone who has the patience to shoot nature with a manual focus lens. The GX7's manual focus magnifier really helps out, but is obviously only useful for static subjects. The Nikon-to-Micro 4/3 adapter is also very inexpensive, and available on Amazon (please buy yours from the link below and support my blog!).

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

Do I Feel A Renewed Emphasis on Lumix Coming On?

Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNSZcTn2Pqo&sns=em

 

The newly-announced Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 certainly has my interest. The features that attract me most are:

 

1. Improved high iso performance, reportedly as good as, or maybe better than the Olympus OM-D, which has been the Micro 4/3 benchmark so far.
2. Focus peaking, to allow you to see when your manual focus setting is correct. Should be great for using legacy lenses with adapters.
3. Built-in electronic viewfinder (EVF) in a very compact body.
4. Silent shutter - I love that my smaller DMC-LX7 makes zero noise when I trip the shutter.

This year, I have been focused on two things - my Leica M9, and using some of the older film camera treasures in my closet. Both have been great fun, and I will continue at least through this year. Last year, I focused mainly on Panasonic and Micro 4/3. I am considering what to do next year. Current possibilities include more emphasis on film, and picking one camera from each of my favorite types (rangefinder, SLR, folder, etc.) and shooting with that set throughout the year. I'm undecided, but really kind of like the second idea. I have a few months to decide.

 

In any case, the DMC-GX7 is a welcome addition to the Lumix family. I will give it some time to see how people like it in real use before thinking about getting one.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com