Panasonic Leica 100-400mm f/4-6.3 ASPH DG Vario-Elmar Power OIS Lens

This lens, with its maximum of 800mm FF equivalent zoom, offers extreme telephoto capabilities in a compact and rugged package. The built in Image stabilization especially paired with an IBIS equipped body makes it possible to hand hold this lens. Image quality is great, as you would expect from a Leica branded lens.A few cons, zoom ring is stiff as other have mentioned. I would prefer a bayonet style lens hood.Not an everyday walk around lens, but if you're looking at this lease you probably have a reason to want the extreme focal length.

I purchased the Panasonic 100-400 for several reasons such as being the longest zoom available currently, great glass, slightly better light gathering over the Oly 75-300mm, of which I have used for a year now, but find myself wanting a little more reach. For the most part the Oly 75-300 was a great lens for the price, especially if you catch it on sale at $399. I was hesitant on buying the Panny because of the negative reviews about the zoom ring being very stiff and the metal shaving issues when mounting to an Olympus body such as my E-M1 Mark II. I used it for a little over an hour today and can say so far I must have a good copy and mounting it to my E-M1 felt like my other Oly Lenses and was not extremely tight as some have complained. The firmware was already ... MoreI purchased the Panasonic 100-400 for several reasons such as being the longest zoom available currently, great glass, slightly better light gathering over the Oly 75-300mm, of which I have used for a year now, but find myself wanting a little more reach. For the most part the Oly 75-300 was a great lens for the price, especially if you catch it on sale at $399. I was hesitant on buying the Panny because of the negative reviews about the zoom ring being very stiff and the metal shaving issues when mounting to an Olympus body such as my E-M1 Mark II. I used it for a little over an hour today and can say so far I must have a good copy and mounting it to my E-M1 felt like my other Oly Lenses and was not extremely tight as some have complained. The firmware was already up to date in the lens so no worries with updating it on the Oly body. The zoom was smooth on my copy, yes, a little harder to turn than the cheaper Oly 75-300 and is to be expected with the amount of glass in this lens. Yes, the lens zoom ring was locked so I unlocked it. It takes a little bit of effort to unlock. The lens is stout and heavier so expect some extra weight around the neck. If holding the lens down while walking the zoom would creep from 100mm to around 105-110mm, but no more. I’m shooting birds so I’m always zooming so no big deal. The zoom does become much harder if fully zoomed out and trying to zoom back in while the lens is pointing down and vise versus if holding straight upand zooming out. Once again, a lot of glass inside to move. I did not notice any issues with making slight zoom adjustments. The focus ring does take more effort than the Oly 75-300 but still could done with one finger and was very smooth and easy to make minor focusadjustments when the autofocus didn’t lock on a bird perfectly in darker, dense canopy. I use single point autofocus/manual focus with my Oly for birding. The Autofocus was better and slightly quicker than the Oly. I was shooting in a mix of medium to heavycanopy and 100% clouds to 70% cloud cover at times. The Panny was able to hold a slightly higher shutter speed than I normally had the Oly at. I had my ISO settings only allowed to go as high as 1000. Would a constant F/4.0 pro lens be much better…yes, but I didn’t wan to spend that kind of money for the Oly 300 pro, nor wait and then gasp at the price of the new Oly 150-400mm F/4.5 pro comingout. BTW, the Panny at 300mm is at F/5.7 versus the Oly at F/6.3. I did drop to 1/160 exposure at times fully zoomed and still obtained clear, in focus shots. I had my settings set to Lens priority for stability and did not try camera only. With both turned on, I saw no errors on my camera menu and haven’t done a comparison between both. I simply went off what others have found while using this combination. This lens, so far, was a welcome upgrade over the Oly 75-300. It would be nice to see it at $1200 instead of $1579. I expect it may go down when Oly releases their two telephoto lenses but who knows when that is. I could tell right away I was getting betterdetail at longer distances with the Panny over the Oly just in the viewfinder alone. Reviewing them on the computer confirmed this. I shot only one movie clip and noticed the same issues as the Oly, the autofocus was touchy if you moved to much while filming a bird but I was at max zoom and have not played around with different settings. I was also filming from within the custom picture mode I had setup for birds and not on the movie mode so that may have something to do with that. The weight will be an issue walking around all day versus just over an hour I did on my first test. I can say a thicker padded area of the standard Oly camera strap would help a lot. Of course carrying it on your shoulder in between intense bird shots helps relieve the neck/back a little. Once again I think this is just part of adjusting from a plastic lightweight lens to a prime, solid built lens and carrying it all day will not be a big deal. Price wise, I do think the lens should come down to around $1200-1300 but they have the monopoly in the MFT department with the longest zoom. The pictures are from my first shoot with the new lens, straight out of camera.

I was sort of set back by the stiffness of the zoom ring but liked the performance I got out of the optics. I bought a really good, heavy duty metal screw in lens hood to fit this lens and now just grab the lens hood and use the lens as a push-pull zoom. That seems to work fairly well. At 400mm I generally shoot at f/8 and get excellent results. Wide open I did lose just a slight bit of sharpness which can be fixed with Topaz but I don't spend as much time as some people on post processing my raw files. When the Olympus 150-400 was announced, I got on the waiting list but when the price came in at $7300, I took my name off the list. This lens is a bargain compared to the 150-400. Since I have never used the Olympus lens I can't speak of performance comparisons.