Modern telezoom lenses is fun to use.
I got one of these beasts this summer.
A Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmar 100-400mm F4.0-6.3 ASPH
This lens alone is almost twice in weight (985 g or 2.17 lb) of my mirrorless DC-G9 camera body.
Yet is considered as small and lightweight in the fullframe photo world.
Walking with a 3.5 lb gear on your neck is tough enough, and carrying some extra weigh of a tripod, while just walking in the park for fun is almost out of question.
This zoom lens is built for maniacs (like me), it has a focal length 100-400 mm, which in fact (on a MFT type camera) is equivalent to a 800mm power, if compared to a conventional full-frame cameras.
But what good can you make with 800mm lens from a hand-held, without tripod ?
This task could be out of question a decade or two ago. But today, with optical stabilization features, seen here and there and everywhere, in lens, on photo sensors, on gimbals, and god knows where else, things become much different.
Look what I managed to snag on a distant building. At the moment of shooting, I had not even close idea how far it was.
When back home, I measured the distance on Google maps.
Guess what. It was shot from 1625 meters away.
1625 meters !
This is just a bit over one mile.
Camera : Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 Shooting conditions were far from ideal, very late afternoon on a dull, cloudy day. But wait a minute, this is hand held job with a 800mm, ONE MILE away ! Will have to repeat this on a more bright day. What is your largest lens?
[click for full size]
Lens: 100-400 mm LEICA DG Vario
Exposure time: 1/640, Aperture priority
F-Number : 7.1
ISO speed : 1600
Date taken : 2021:09:01 18:42
A 1:1 crop shows it is not very excellent, nor fantastic:
Only one try been made, possibly I could get it even more sharp, if several shots made.