My new best friend!

soundimageplus · #1 July 2nd, 2010, 05:19 AM

PANASONIC LEICA D VARIO-ELMAR 14-150mm/F3.5-5.6 ASPH./ MEGA O.I.S.

Read my totally over the top, "We're not worthy" mutterings at:-
Soundimageplus: Zoom Lens 2

Herman · #2 July 2nd, 2010, 05:30 AM

Thanks, interesting article to read. It's the allround lens I like, with over 10 times optical zoom range. How about size and weight?

soundimageplus · #3 July 2nd, 2010, 05:32 AM

Quite chunky - but not over heavy. 480g I think. It feels more comfortable than it looks.

Brian Mosley · #4 July 2nd, 2010, 05:40 AM

Congratulations - I've been raving about this lens ever since I bought mine... but with the mZD 14-150 f4-5.6 being so close in IQ, and so much better in size/weight/price I think I'll be selling mine soon.

Cheers

Brian

Amin Sabet · #5 July 2nd, 2010, 05:50 AM

David, fun blog post

. I've heard only great things about that lens. Have you considered getting an L1 or D3 to pair with it? Seems like it would be quite the enjoyable combination to use.

soundimageplus · #6 July 2nd, 2010, 05:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Mosley

Congratulations - I've been raving about this lens ever since I bought mine... but with the mZD 14-150 f4-5.6 being so close in IQ, and so much better in size/weight/price I think I'll be selling mine soon.

Cheers

Brian

You might be able to help me with something. Does the O.I.S work with Olympus cameras? I can certainly hear that it comes on as the whirring noise starts up as soon as I switch it on. I say this because I've been able to take some pin-sharp pictures with it hand -held at 1/8th second.

Does it mean that there are two IS systems working on Olympus cameras or does only the in-body IS work.

Brian Mosley · #7 July 2nd, 2010, 06:00 AM

Yes, the OIS will work on the Pen - just remember to switch off IBIS in the camera (via the quick control panel) and enable OIS on the lens (via the lens barrel switch).

You'll notice the lens takes a little time to 'settle' on the scene you're about to shoot when using lens based OIS.

What I tend to do, to conserve battery power is leave OIS switched off and IBIS switched on... when I shoot video, I switch the lens OIS on (IBIS is automatically switched off during video anyway) - then back off for stills shooting.

Cheers

Brian

soundimageplus · #8 July 2nd, 2010, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amin Sabet

David, fun blog post

. I've heard only great things about that lens. Have you considered getting an L1 or D3 to pair with it? Seems like it would be quite the enjoyable combination to use.

I've got an L1 at the moment. I bought one S/H mostly for the 14-50 f2.8-3.5 that comes with it. I did have a digilux3 / 14-50mm combination a while ago but it suffered from the intermittent shutter sticking problem that I gather these things are prone to, so I sold it. I loved the lens though.

I tried the 14-150mm briefly on the L1 and the results were excellent. I've always liked the camera, very "chunky" and only having 7.5MP gives astonishingly good results on the 4/3 sensor.

The 14-150mm has the advantage of AF on my GH1 which the 14-50 doesn't.

soundimageplus · #9 July 2nd, 2010, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Mosley

Congratulations - I've been raving about this lens ever since I bought mine... but with the mZD 14-150 f4-5.6 being so close in IQ, and so much better in size/weight/price I think I'll be selling mine soon.

Cheers

Brian

Thanks for the OIS INFO.

Regarding what you wrote above. I was as you know very interested in your Olympus 14-150 experiences and certainly thought your images looked really good. I then looked at some other reviews and samples and was a bit underwhelmed by what I saw. The dpreview samples were a case in point.

On an far eastern website I saw some blow ups from samples of the Lumix 14-140, Olympus 14-150 and the Vario-Elmar and it was the leica that jumped out at me, being significantly sharper.

In terms of sharpness, your samples were the best I saw, particularly your house/brickwork blowups. If all the others had looked like that then I might have gone for the Olympus.

However in the end I decided to go with the Leica, mainly as a result of these reviews. The comments from the dpreview team were luke-warm at best regarding image quality, distortion and CA.
I also use use a GH1 and the fact that the Vario-Elmar has IS built in and can't make the same corrections that the Olympus can makes it more useful for me.

Finally I think its interesting that 4/3 and m4/3 are showing what can be done with these "superzooms" Some of the offerings from other manufacturers are pretty mediocre, to say the least, whereas Olympus and Panasonic seem to treat them as important elements in their lens line-ups. I've used Nikon, Canon, Sigma and Tamron zooms and been disappointed with them all. Not even close to the performance of the Vario-Elmar.

Brian Mosley · #10 July 2nd, 2010, 06:50 AM

David, I think there's an unmistakeable Leica touch to this lens - could be the coatings used also... but in real terms, as I said the IQ of the m4/3rds version is in the same ballpark, and the focusing of the mZD 14-150 on any m4/3rds cam will be way faster than the Vario-Elmar.

As for dpreview samples... I think their lab based widget tool is fantastic, nuff said

Cheers

Brian