Glad you like them, Andrea. Thanks!

$99 is just a silly price. Olympus charge half of that for some of their lens hoods!

Me too I bought it for $99.00 it arrived just recently. I have been pleasantly surprised by how fast it focuses. I’ve used it for macro and portraits and landscapes. Just a fun walk around lens. I’ve also coupled it with the LOW KEY scene mode. Used it from early morning to dusk. In very bright Australian sunlight and oh boy, I don’t need a polariser. I am also just shooting Jpegs, and the brilliance is outstanding. I can highly recommend this lens

Thanks for that, Gill. I'll try out that Low Key scene mode with it. Sometimes there is a sweet combination and the contrasty, clean rendering of this lens must blend with the darker low key, each pulling in a different direction. It's from noticing things like that that a style is formed. I have the lens and the Low Key scene setting - could you send me some Australian sunshine so that I can see the effect more exactly? :-)

David Thorpe yep I will try.let me know how you find the low key mode.

I wish we would get these specials in Australia. for that price it is a must buy, and as David mentioned elsewhere the lens hoods cost half that special price

:-)

It's never sold for anything like that in the UK, a must buy at that price.

Glad you found the videos helpful, Paul, thanks. I've just checked and at the closest focus distance and longest zoom the 14-140 fills the frame width with an object 7m wide. The 60mm is 1.7cm, of course. It's not often you'd want to fill the frame with something 7cm across so for general purposes the zoom would be fine. The other differences are that the 60mm has less distortion and a much more even across the field sharpness distribution, important for documents and critical subjects. The advantage of the zoom is a greater distance from the subject which helps with bugs and things like that - plus you have rock solid dual stabilization. I don't use the zoom as a macro but for close focusing it is good. The 60mm is very sharp and works well as a portrait and short tele lens.

If you haven't got a standard lens and fancy trying a bit of macro, this one would make sense.

What can I say - thanks Michael!

Thanks for that, David!

Thanks! Working on it now - still getting to know the camera. Because I buy my stuff I'm always later than other reviewers.

:-)

Thanks Michael, that's very flattering. I use the equipment for quite a long time before I review it and I get my thoughts in order before I write the narration. It's nice to know it makes a difference.

Similar sharpness but the Meike is a great deal more versatile, if less convenient to operate.

Me too!

I will use Olympus lenses with the G9. My general observation of the Pro lenses with Panasonic bodies has been that they work as well, usually better on Panasonic than Olympus bodies , apart from the E-M1 MkII with its PDAF. DfD seems useful for speeding up the initial lock on to the subject, a matter of a couple of frames, after which performance is much the same with both systems. Under the most trying conditions, say fast moving and unpredictable sport in dim light, I'd expect the PDAF to be more effective. I don't expect the G9 to be a lot different from the GH5, the changes are incremental these days.

I'd go for the Olympus. Both cameras will do the job but for macro a bigger EVF is better and an articulated screen gives you more flexibility to angle the camera. Image quality there's nothing in it but many photographers prefer the JPG output of the Olympus bodies for its colour.

David Thorpe Ok. Which has a better view finder OMD 10 mk III or OMD 5mk ii?

The 5 is better - though the 10's EVF is good and you'd only notice the difference in side by side use.

David Thorpe thank you!

Yes, it would. Wide open or at f/4 for a bit of depth for snatched shots it'd work well.

I haven't tried one, Mohd but assuming it has the same optical quality as the other 4/3 lenses and given its useful 50mm length and f/2 aperture, making it excellent for portraiture/ short tele work, it'd seem a very good buy,

Thanks Dave. Glad you like the reviews. I'll take advice on the voice-over.

Yes, at kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aLqfosaJu9ybgps.html

I found the AF pretty good overall but obviously we all have different criteria according to what work we do. It's a bit of a sod when you buy at a price and then it goes down. Happens to me all the time because I buy stuff as soon as it goes on sale for reviewing. With my books and the ads from KZfaq it is self-financing, though. Of course, I could buy myself a Ferrari and a personal jet with the money but I prefer the cameras 😇

Hi Mark - I'm working on the G9 review but it's such a configurable camera that it takes a while to get to know it. I'm in touch with Amazon about the problem in Australia and I'll get back to you when I get a reply.

Mark- Here's the reply from Amazon. I can't help with the PDF because of my contract. Hello, I'm sorry for the inconvenience caused. We currently don’t support paperback distribution in Australia marketplace. However, you can sell your paperback on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it, Amazon.es, and Amazon.co.jp. While speaking about Kindle, it supports 13 marketplaces. Note: Paperback publishing is not yet available for titles written in Japanese. KDP publishers can, however, publish paperbacks on Amazon.co.jp. We value our international customers and hope to make books available in more locations in the future. However, the customers from Australia will need to buy paperback books from Amazon.com or other marketplaces. However, what I can do for you right now is, I'll take your concern as feature request and communicate the same to our business team for consideration as we plan future improvements. Feedback like yours motivates us to dive deep and unearth ways and means which helps us in making publishing on KDP convenient with most features. We definitely value your opinion and will continue to listen and respond to our publisher's concerns. We will make every effort to evaluate the information you have provided, and try our level best to lead it to program changes or enhancements. I'm unable to promise a timeframe at this time, however, this feature will be available in the near future, we are still evolving and feedback like yours motivate us to dive deep and unearth ways and means which helps us in making publishing on KDP a happy experience. ***** Regarding Kindle book: Upon checking our website, I can confirm that your book is available for sale in Amazon.com.au. You can verify through the link: www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01N9FQSRX Additionally, our system is able to recognize your IP address, if you or your customers located outside the AU, you may not be able to see price on your book’s detail page in Amazon.com.au and need to purchase your book from the respective Amazon website. Please note that, If your customer is viewing your book from Kindle for iOS app, due to Apple's privacy policy restrictions, customers who purchase Kindle books directly from the Kindle for iOS app will only the have the 'Sample Content' of your eBook downloaded to their device. This is the reason, why your customers are seeing an incorrect copy of your eBook in their iPhone devices. In this case, your customers should purchase your eBook from the Kindle Store on the Amazon website. More information about using the Kindle for iOS app is available in our Help pages at: www.amazon.com/help/kindleapp/shop I'd like to inform you that, Kindle is working consistently to make it easy for our customers to access Kindle eBooks through all platforms (including iOS platform) in future. I hope this answers your questions. If anything is unclear or referring to different issues other than this, please write back to this email, I will be happy to help you at any time. We appreciate your understanding and patience in this regard. Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

Thanks for looking into the Amazon issue. In my forum everyone I know (including myself) ended up getting the paper back version eventually. I just did not realise the problems with Amazon. Shame about the PDF, hopefully in the future I suppose.

It seems odd to me that that there is a problem with a country like Australia. Everyone is literate and they have money - why wouldn't they sell books to them?

I'd say so!

I found the autofocus better than I expected given that the lens has such a massive focusing range. I tried it mainly on my GH5 which as about the best SAF anywhere. But I didn't take any pix that stressed the lens focusing at all. Good value, as you say.

Especially when I bought it for only $99.00 at B&H in November. Couldn’t resist at that price.

That's a silly price for both those lenses. The Panasonic is excellent value even at its normal price.

I had the Sigma too and thought it pretty good but it was a bit of a beast on Micro Four Thirds bodies. The 60mm is much better for serious macro work but there is a lack of longer macros for Micro Four Thirds. A 90mm or 100mm would be nice and would double as a quality medium tele too,

Ho Oyeleye - both will do the job since they will both do 1:1 repro, filling the frame with an object 17x13mm. Your pictures are unlikely to be that small and the aperture is immaterial so the 30mm will be just fine. My only reservation with a 30mm macro is that at 1:1 you are so close to the subject that the proximity of the lens block the light. Since your photo prints are unlikely to be that small, the 30mm would be fine.

@@DavidThorpeMFT so grateful for this information. Thanks and keep bringing the reviews

It's a nice lens and worth $189, really. But There are usually offers.

You'll be photographing at a ratio of 1:2 so I don't think anything except a proper macro will do the job. 1:2 is beyond the close focus of lenses that are sometimes described as macro but are in reality just close focusing. The other thing is that a macro lens is designed to minimize distortion and have best definition at close distances. Using a lightbox you don't need to place a lamp or flash between the slide and lens. I mention all this simply to make the answer helpful to people less knowledgeable than you about this area of work. I have two thoughts on this. If you want a macro lens purely for this task and won't use it much afterwards any macro lens will do. The camera will be on a tripod, the focusing will be at your leisure and the lens will be stopped down to f/5.6or f/8 at which aperture all lenses perform similarly well. Thus any film days lens from Sigma, Nikon, Canon etc with adaptor will do the job. as will any native Micro Four Thirds macro lens such as the one in this review. However, if you are likely to use the lens for other macro-ish work afterwards I'd buy the Olympus 60mm f/2.8. The longer focal length allows you room to light a subject - ring flash for insects, for example - and at 1:1 you're still at a comfortable working distance even from small subjects, avoiding the camera and lens from blocking the light falling on your subject. It makes a nice portrait and landscape lens on top of macro and performance is impeccable, too. For me, copying slides your way is better than a scanner anyway.

Thank you for your extremely helpful reply. Much appreciated. I'll almost certainly go for the 60mm based on your advice. Love your channel, by the way. Brilliant.

It's certainly my choice. I've had mine for a good few years now and can find no fault either in use or in image quality.

I just upload the video as always. I haven't had the same complaint from anyone else so I have no idea what is going on. The KZfaq user forums might have an answer?

David Thorpe Maybe you are right. To be fair I am subscribed to many channels so it might be the case. I am not complaining to you that is your fault so don't worry please. Keep up the good work!

No, I didn't take it as a complaint against me. It obviously has a cause but finding it is tricky!

People are buying it for $99 at the moment which I'd say is far from a premium price. Lovely landscape lens too.

Perhaps the drastic fall in its street price reflects the fact that people just don't buy [the pun is almost unavoidable] its laughable MSRP. Unfortunately the same doesn't seem to be true for something like the 12-100 f4; which is a shame because Olympus do really need to be discouraged from these sort of April fools' jokes that last the year. Only Panasonic appears to be enjoying the jest so much they think it reasonable to stick a two and a half grand price tag on an f2.8 200mm optic. I know you use legacy Nikon lenses to cover that sort of range - how much did they cost?

I use a Nikon 300mm f/4.5 IFED from the 80s. The long thin one. I paid £120 for it. It won't be as sharp as the Olympus 300mm and it's manual focus of course but it is plenty sharp _enough_ and with peaking and magnified focusing it snaps in and out of focus. The Olympus 1.4x converter works well on it too. The 300mm Olympus would only be justified for me if I would use it on a regular basis, ditto the 200mm f/2.8. I use long lenses mainly for perspective control, anyway. In general, on the prices, I think we are going to see a continual escalation. It's not only Micro Four Thirds, it's DSLRs too. I always keep in mind that the whole spec thing is out of control. Outside of any specialist use, a GX80 plus 12-32 and 35-100 mini zooms cover the vast majority of what I do. I'd say that for specialist use a FF DSLR would be best but just take a look at the cost of an 8x f/2.8 tele for it!

@@DavidThorpeMFT Thanks for the macro lens reviews. Can you recommend an adapter that will allow me to use my G80 with my favourite Nikon AF-S Macro 60mm F2.8 G ? Thanks very much.

@@slemtones I used to use my GH2 with a Sigma 105mm macro. I wasn't bothered about autofocus for macro work, easier and more effective to work with manual and on Aperture Priority, givig you auto-exposure anyway. I just used the same cheapo adapter I bought from Amazon back then, about £20. You may be able to get autofocus adapters but I don't think they'd be very quick and they'd certainly be expensive.

I agree. I had this lens and took it back in exchange for a 30 dollar macro adapter for my 40-150 99$ bargain Oly lens. It's great for static subjects but your lighting really needs to be perfect. I just couldn't find a use for it, even at the 99 dollar sale price.

Lighting anything is the bugbear with any short focus macro. I like ring flash for macro but even at 1:1 there's not room for it.

? Olympus 60mm f2.8 use that

many dangerous snake species are tiny and snakes venoms are as potent when theyre newborns as when theyre adults, so it makes sense

Haha! I have tried to come up with a witty remark to match but....couldn't find one. Thanks for a chuckle!

I don't agree - you can see from my pix in the video there's nothing wrong with it. I have compared it closely with other lenses so am speaking from personal hands on experience. But - we're all entitled to our opinions so there's no need to apologize. I prefer to say why _I think_ something is good/ bad etc. To say _it is bad_ sounds more like a judgement from above than an opinion :-)

I have found it to be extremely versatile. A great fun lens to walk around with. Try it with other settings