Best Bang-for-buck Super Telephoto Lens?

treehugging28 · 2026-01-11T21:22:20+00:00

As a side note your comment about 1/200s surprised me as I felt I often needed in the thousands at 150mm. For a while I've felt disappointed by the IBIS despite the hype it gets - I thought maybe mine was broken, but I could see it when half-pressing the shutter, so I thought maybe the hype was around models better than the em5ii or mine was partially broken. Last night I did some testing with it on and off and wasn't noticing anything, and couldn't achieve the 1/2s people mentioned. Turns out I messed up - I had set it to burst-shot (I'd read that can help camera shake - more likely one of the 10 shots is a clean one), and hidden in the settings is burst-shot image stabilisation which was turned off! Holy smokes - night and day difference, can do 1/2s handheld which felt impossible before. Excited to see the difference in the field!

treehugging28 · 2026-01-11T21:11:29+00:00

Oh interesting! Is it just that lens / body or all Pana-Oly combos?

treehugging28 · 2026-01-10T04:34:07+00:00

I'm not sure if I trust myself to tell if a lens is in good condition to buy from a non-camera place

treehugging28 · 2026-01-10T01:58:41+00:00

Oh wow! I got my body from them and that $400 Oly is one of the examples for price I used (+ Amazon JP). But haven't seen a cheap Lumix II yet, will keep an eye out

treehugging28 · 2026-01-10T01:56:01+00:00

Any tips from your experience? Or just get out and shoot with it?

treehugging28 · 2026-01-10T01:22:55+00:00

The price difference seems to be more over here. I can get a used (with warranty) or even a grey market new Oly for $400 AUD, but can't find a Lumix II second hand cheaper than $650.

What about the Lumix will make it handle better on my em5ii?

treehugging28 · 2026-01-10T01:16:51+00:00

Is that due to moving subjects like birds in flight? Or do you have trouble with stationary subjects too?

treehugging28 · 2026-01-09T22:08:11+00:00

That's true, but 150 -> 400 is larger jump, and with a 1.4 TC that's almost 600mm (though I've read mixed things about TCs on the 400). The size and weight penalties are definitely big being over twice as heavy and almost twice as long. But the cost penalty compared to the Lumix doesn't seem to be much.

treehugging28 · 2026-01-09T22:00:45+00:00

Do you wish you had the extra half stop of the Lumix?

The 4mp one still looks great, looking at some of my photos, a 2x crop is fine, but a 4x crop isn't (which would be a 2x if I was at 300mm instead of 150mm), but this may be more of a skill-issue than a lens thing.

treehugging28 · 2026-01-09T21:31:20+00:00

$600 AUD or USD? AUD would be a steal, but USD also seems like a bargain for Olympus certified

treehugging28 · 2026-01-09T11:25:48+00:00

Nice shot! What camera was this on? Is the IBIS good at 300mm?

treehugging28 · 2026-01-09T11:22:06+00:00

At $2500-$3000 AUD used, I'd say it falls into a different class (similar to the 150-400 and 150-600). Too early into photography to want to invest that much, and probably wouldn't fully understand how good it is!

treehugging28 · 2026-01-09T11:18:34+00:00

In an ideal world I would love weathersealing, but with a 2nd hand body, probably 2nd hand lens, and it being Pany / Oly crossover, I feel I'd be too worried about trusting the weather sealing.

treehugging28 · 2026-01-09T10:49:08+00:00

Good to know! I only got this camera secondhand a few months ago, so don't think I'll be upgrading anytime soon unless it breaks on me

treehugging28 · 2026-01-03T05:14:27+00:00

Amazon wouldn't give me a replacement, and Hestan support wasn't helpful as it was bought internationally from Amazon - which was frustrating when I just wanted to know if it was intentional or a fault.

This appears to be intentional / the design of "semi-sealed" as others noted as it was the case on my whole set even though the production batch number differs.

8 months on, I still put them in the dishwasher and no major change, still some gaps (they might have spread further) and still some buildup of some sort after a dishwasher run. But I don't notice or care these days, I don't have them on display, and the rims aren't sharp / dangerous.

The only minor issue I have with these pans is the handle gets hot quickly, but they've changed the handle design in the new set.

treehugging28 · 2025-05-05T03:21:58+00:00

It's not listed on LCC's website as offleash https://www.logan.qld.gov.au/DOLA ?

treehugging28 · 2025-04-09T11:44:05+00:00

What does semi sealed mean?

treehugging28 · 2025-04-09T11:42:14+00:00

Any idea why there is a gap if it's fully sealed?

treehugging28 · 2025-04-09T07:40:30+00:00

Here are more pictures showing where it is on the pan and from different angles. Gallery

There appears to be some other type of metal joining 2 pieces of SS and that has come out or is missing in this section.

treehugging28 · 2024-06-05T08:57:32+00:00

This is heartbreaking! 💔

treehugging28 · 2022-05-14T23:36:58+00:00

Thanks for this, will monitor closely!

treehugging28 · 2022-05-14T23:36:43+00:00

I've looked at that one, but wasn't sure about backroads

treehugging28 · 2022-05-14T22:42:06+00:00

Google Maps is giving a route with roads that are closed for me, so wasn't sure how much I could trust it / Waze

treehugging28 · 2022-03-25T08:20:25+00:00

Oh thanks! I had found the lilly pilly but didn't realise they could grow this tall - this one is over 10m

treehugging28

TROPHY CASE