45-200 any alternatives ?

Hi Bluebird

The 45-200mm Lens is an good safe investment, there not much else about atm apart from the 14-150mm and that around £600

Panasonic do have a 100-300mm lens due out in a couple of months, if it's anygood nobody knows yet, though it should be as Panasonic not made a duff lens yet.

Eitherway you won't be dissapointed with the 45-200mm.

Prices wise you can get this lens for £237 if you use the discount code FEB12
but it out of stock at the moment.

http://www.jacobsdigital.co.uk/index.php?target=products&product_id=31539

Also you could try ebay I got mine for £199 as new
Here a link worth keeping an eye on.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PANASONIC-LUM...es_CameraLensesFilters_JN?hash=item3a5743033b

 

I was very lucky as I got the lens for £150 while going through duty-free at Manchester Airport.
I went up to Trafford Centre the other day and it was selling in Curry's for about £350 IIRC. To my mind the lens is way overpriced

I have taken good pictures with the lens and there are decent examples in the forum BUT above 150mm I reckon it's below par for 3 reasons:

1. The image softens considerably
2. Unless you stop down to f8 there is serious vignetting
3. Focusing is frequently too slow for action shots like fast jets or birds in flight.( here it seems like a combination of the lens with the inherent focusing abilities of the camera )

Yes it can be used for action shots as here but I'd love to see it replaced by something better.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/crabb/4331355766/" title="P1010105 by d_crabb, on Flickr">

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Thanks Dennis, and that's a nice shot.

Cheers

Brian