[AgentL]

Have you seen a Laowa 4mm f2.8 circular fish-eye lens?

Do you know the physical differences between a fisheye and recilinear ultrawide?

[aaacb]

[seventysixersfan]

@aaacb what lens is this? 45-200 or 100-400? nice shots.

[Ivan]

exif says 400mm.

[aaacb]

@aaacb what lens is this? 45-200 or 100-400? nice shots.

It's pana leica 100-400

[edom31]

Oly 14-42/3.5-5.6 - just got it for $60 shipped... not too shabby...







I was about to give up on my M43 project... granted my E-PM1 is not the best camera, but I was not enjoying it... now I think I'll give it a last college-effort.

[Davep]

Visited the local wildlife area to feed the mosquitoes, and took the GM1 with Leica 25 f1.4.

Frustrating afternoon, in that I took 50 shots with only a couple of keepers, and even they were only borderline. I had a devil of a time in the forest with blown out highlights where the sun broke through the trees. But even more exasperating, was the forest had very heavy undergrowth and the camera focused on any wayward branch or whatever it chose to. The touchscreen is virtually useless in bright sun, so I had touch auto focus disabled for the afternoon, which meant it should only focus in a box area locked to the centre of the LCD. But even so, the AF seemed to vary excessively. Next time, I will try spot focus. This was my first outing with the Leica 25, and perhaps I was rushing the AF a little. If I stood still for more than a few seconds, the mosquitoes homed in for a feeding.

This shot is full image. I saved a copy with some of the foliage in the foreground cropped out, but I think I prefer the full image. I thought about waiting to see if the breeze would subside for a classic mirror image of the clouds on the water, but the bugs were too much of a nuisance.

---

Last edited by Davep; 06-17-2021 at 06:59 AM. Reason: typos

[northcoastgreg]

Terrified black squirrel, with the Oly 100-400:

[seventysixersfan]

took the GM1 with Leica 25 f1.4.

GM1 is my camera too -- I don't own the Leica 25 f/1.4 but have the Leica 15mm instead. Tempted to add the 25mm someday. This is a nice image you took!

[AgentL]

[Davep]

GM1 is my camera too -- I don't own the Leica 25 f/1.4 but have the Leica 15mm instead. Tempted to add the 25mm someday. This is a nice image you took!

Thanks for the comment.

I bought the GM1 as new old stock for an incredible price. I wanted something small and compact that I could use as a walk-around kit. My buddy shoots Olympus MFT, and swears by it, so I thought I would give it a whirl. You can't beat the size, and the glass cost is very reasonable compared to aps-c and ff.

My problem is I mainly shoot K-3 and Sony A7. Not too smart, because unless I use the three camera systems frequently, I forget the controls and screw up shots because I fumbled something. The GM1 is my least frequently used camera, so it becomes a learning experience every time I take it out. And not having an OVF or EVF makes it doubly hard to use. But you can't beat the compact size or miniscule weight, and the image quality is surprisingly good.

[DamienW]

Terrified black squirrel, with the Oly 100-400:

You're really not helping my GAS with all the sharp images you're posting from that lens.

[AgentL]

Thanks for the comment.

I bought the GM1 as new old stock for an incredible price. I wanted something small and compact that I could use as a walk-around kit. My buddy shoots Olympus MFT, and swears by it, so I thought I would give it a whirl. You can't beat the size, and the glass cost is very reasonable compared to aps-c and ff.

My problem is I mainly shoot K-3 and Sony A7. Not too smart, because unless I use the three camera systems frequently, I forget the controls and screw up shots because I fumbled something. The GM1 is my least frequently used camera, so it becomes a learning experience every time I take it out. And not having an OVF or EVF makes it doubly hard to use. But you can't beat the compact size or miniscule weight, and the image quality is surprisingly good.

I bought the GM1 years back but traded it rather quickly for a GM5, but if I hadn't found a good deal on the latter camera I think I could've shot the GM1 for a good while. It's got really good IQ, along with the GM5. M4/3 bodies sometimes had trouble with shutter shock in that era, but the GM1/5 have a super soft 1/500-sec maximum mechanical first curtain shutter which solved that completely. Panasonic went on to redesign their shutters for the GX85 with an electromagnetic one offering faster mechanical shutter speeds but less vibrations.

Unfortunately the GM1 offered very little way to set exposure, with the rear circular dial, which is Panasonic's worst dial, as the only dial. It's finicky to say the least. The 15/1.7 offers a good way of solving the trouble of clicking between exposure parameters by letting you set the aperture on the lens, honestly one of the main ways to make the GM1 tolerable to use in my opinion. Shooting in A mode with the rear dial functioning for exposure comp, with a click in to change ISO, is a way to shoot quickly and easily if my memory of the camera's settings is correct. The GM5 had a rear dial which clicked inwards to cycle between the two main exposure parameters for the given mode, which was a marked improvement.

[northcoastgreg]

You're really not helping my GAS with all the sharp images you're posting from that lens.

Yes, it is a nice sharp contrasty lens — which is why Olympus and later OM-D Solutions have struggled to meet demand for the lens. I'm not sure how easy it to acquire. It took me about a month and a half. But it's given my E-M5ii a new lease on life, as I hadn't been using it much before acquiring the 100-400.

Another shot with the lens, this time of a squirrel:

[AgentL]