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Very long zoom lenses on m43
  • 79 Replies sorted by
  • @Gabel, Yes it is and it comes with an aperture adjustable ring. Its fully open that a made sure of, I don't know how to describe it, it just produces ghost like reproductions on objects. It's also not fully in focus at the maximum 500mm- which is 1000mm on the Panasonic GH2. I don't think its because the quality of the optics as most people say its great lens. What i can say is though I had similar problems when trying to adapt a Spotting scope to the Panasonic GH2.

    This is what adapter a bought:

    http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/290621097285?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
  • Could you take some pictures for us to show?
    But mainly, have you tried any other lenses with that adapter?
    I should add that a 500 is not a 1000mm lens on a GH2, but rather more along a 900mm (the GH2 has more of an 1.8 crop than 2 crop).
  • @Gabel, I will get some photos done and post them, It prob will make it easier to understand whats it all about.
  • Right I have done some samples and they are not as bad as before. I know what I was doing wrong I was trying to take photos out of a window, which had a window net sheet. I was taking photos through this and was getting ghosting like images. However The images are not as sharp as they can be and I think it has something to do with the adapter that is not close enough to the lens mount glass.

    Let me know anybody of some ideas to solve this.
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  • What shutter speed did you take these and did you use a tripod? Might be something so simple as vibration causing it?
  • @Gabel, I used F4.0 and a shutter speed to be honest I used aperture priority so I don't think it gave me the option. What do ya think is a good shutter speed for a Sigma 150-500mm lens? something like 1/8 for 800 and 9/10 for 900 and 1000mm hey?, I used it on a Video Tri-pod and do most of the time as its a heavy lens and most of the functions are disabled.

    Chris
  • Hmm, well for stills a general rule is a shutter speed twice the focal lenght, so for that it would be at 1200...

    What I was thinking was that you might be getting motion blur. If it's any sun out, try taking the lens outside, shoot something with those settings with an aperature of 5.6 and see if that helps?
  • @Gabel, I have been shooting in doors getting with lots of light. The only thing I can think of is I read up on the 2x teleconverter for sigma lens- Users were complaining that the images were too soft and with the 1.4 x teleconverter the images were ok on nikon cameras. I am thinking the sensor is too far away from the glass (mount). How do I put it- The lens only has a curtain focus range and the distance from the glass (were the image is sent to the sensor) is too long, so the resulting image becomes out of focus. Almost like when using a magnifying glass. At a curtain point you will be infocus to the text or object once you get in range. Its a problem related to digiscoping if you get an adapter that's too deep you will get vignetting and focal length issues.

    I not sure though what's causing it. I will fix it or god help me :-)
  • That sounds exactly like what would happen when the distance is off from the sensor (with not having a proper focus scale and all). I'd call any camera shop near you and see if anybody has a Nikon to M4/3 adapter and see if you could try it in the shop, see if it goes away then!
  • @Gabel, year I am not sure at the moment. Someone who's got the same lens but the GH1 says to me it should be no problem what you are doing. I might see if I can find a Nikon camera around.
  • Do that too. Basically it's down to troubleshooting, so best would be to try all the different components (try using a different Nikon lens on your adapter and a different adapter with your current lens).
  • Once again I have done some more samples of the Sigma 150-500mm lens on the Panasonic GH2, but for some reason the adapter with the lens is making the distance between the sensor and and glass too far. This is making it out of focus by a fraction. A possible solution would be to buy another adapter too solve this. A other solution is Adobe are bringing out there new Photoshop CS6 which has a De-blurring tool ,so this will lead to post-production after touch ups- after all most digiscopers do it anyway or didn't know you that :-)!!!

    As you can see from the Photos this Kind of zoom from a £600 lens is not bad all.

    If anyone of you have such as lens and don't have this problem then please share your results.
    ETC On Furthest Possible Zoom (2600mm).JPG
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  • SLR Magic just released a Spotting scope for the GH2 which looks promising for your long zoom needs. They offered me $350 for it, but at the time I bought the sigma lens. It would be nice if someone has bought it and can share some photos.

    http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SLR-Magic-12-36x50-ED-420-1260mm-GH2-GH1-G3-GF1-GF2-GX1-EPL1-EPL2-EP1-EP2-EP3-/250955814486?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6e21d656


    Update: January 24th 2012 - SLR Magic sent me some samples.
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  • @chrimsbroome

    Do you want good advice?
    Forgot about this thing.
    Get panasonic 100-300mm and start shooting more.
    All this unstabilized long zooms are bulky and not very useful.
  • Just finished evaluating the Canon 600mm with a Canon 2X Extender (v3). Hope to have some shots (video and stills) available soon. For example, clearly reading text off buildings more than 5 miles away and shots in EX24H mode of the sun where you can just barely make out sunspots and the moon takes up more than the whole frame.
  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev- I am seriouly considering selling my sigma now :(, the image is just not sharp enough for it to be usefull. Its strange how Nikon Images are very good, but not with the GH2.
  • @chrimsbroome

    You really tested your exact lens on Nikon?
    As you must remember that lens variability exist.
    Plus such long lens is greatly affected by camera stability, shutter speed and atmosphere even.
  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev- Yes I did, well a friend has the same lens and he had it on a GH1 + he sent me some samples of the the lens on a Nikon D90 and the images were far better. O well sometimes you said I wish I never bought that.
  • I meant exactly your lens, not the same lens owned by your friend.
  • @Vitaliy, no I dont have a nikon camera mate.
  • @chrimsbroome I'm intrigued - why did you get into this long lens stuff. Just out of interest? It's a very specific specialism.
  • Nothing wrong with unstabilised lenses. I've used 200mm in ETC mode fine.

    Anyway on long lenses you want to mount the lens to the tripod instead of camera, especially given long adapter lengths.
  • @Mark_the_harp- I first got into Digiscopeing and liked it a lot. Thought its a great alternative to buying £8000 lenses. Then found a Lens for £600 & thought what the heck its cheap and people have used it and its got good reviews. Like the challenge fo getting up close from long distance ever since Panasonic made the GH2 with ETC mode that does 1560mm zoom.
  • Panasonic's 100-300mm Lens is a very good lens to use with the hack. You can get up close with objects 200 meters away.

    If only Panasonic would make longer lenses, which were just as good. Using a video scoping method is great for getting up close and getting some snaps.

    I have picked up a trick with the video scoping side though. You can use Photoshop CS5 to re-size the image thus creating a 16.2 mega pixel image like the GH2. Its not 100% as good but its better than nothing.

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  • Just recently I have updated to Driftwoods latest patch and all I can say is wow o WOW. I been taking some long zoom shots with my sigma lens, which is no longer for sale since I have discoverd this amazing patch that fixs all my problems.

    These are screen captures from the video and I am very impressed, not only by the clarity of the colours and the fact that the ETC mode makes my lens so much more better now :)

    What I have noticed, which is normal is the F stope is reduced. I have to alwasy remember increase the aperture on the lens adaptor to let more light in. As you will see the image is darker the further it goes.

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    Panasonic GH2 on Sigma 150-500mm lens (Zoom @ 300 mm - 35mm Equiv).bmp
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    Panasonic GH2 on Sigma 150-500mm lens (Zoom @ 1000 mm - 35mm Equiv).jpg
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