Review 24-200 Z review

gryphon1911 · Sep 2, 2020

pdk42 said:
Well, I got a mail from Amazon that it should ship next week . I'd prefer to go to a local dealer, but they can't give me any idea of delivery ... sigh.

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on the lens in a landscape capacity. You excel there about 1000% more than me!

pdk42 · Sep 3, 2020

gryphon1911 said:
I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on the lens in a landscape capacity. You excel there about 1000% more than me!

It shipped today! Should have it tomorrow.

pdk42 · Sep 4, 2020

It's arrived! A few quick test shots tell me that:

- At f8 it's almost, but not quite, as good as the 24-70 f4 in terms of overall performance. That's a high accolade since I really rate the 24-70 f4. It's certainly a lot better than "superzooms" of the past.

- Its main optical defect is purple fringing towards the edges of the frame. However, it's easily removed in PP.

- VR in conjunction with the IBIS works well. I can get sharp shots at 1/10s at 200mm.

So, overall, it'll do what I need it to do. Predictably though, it's not quite as good as the Olympus 12-100, esp the VR. The Sync IS combo of the Olympus E-M1ii (or iii) plus 12-100 is just so good as to be unreal (sharp shots at 8s at the wide-end!). Not surprisingly the 24-200 doesn't reach those levels, but I wasn't expecting it to, so that's OK.

I'll hopefully get the chance to take some real shots with it this weekend.

NCV · Sep 4, 2020

Just got back from a short holiday in the Italian Alps.

The 24-200 ended up being used for almost everything I shot.

I bought it as a one lens solution for hiking and it proved its worth for this sort of photography. With the Z7 it is not too heavy to cart up and down steep footpaths. The 24-200 range covers almost everything. I had the 14-30 in my rucksack, but i just used it once.

For outings with my family, it avoided all those lens changes that get me so much stick.

Frankly, it is also so liberating to have just one camera and lens when I am not doing something very specific or where I want the maximum possible image quality.

I also had the the "right lens" on the camera when I happened across a Marmot on lookout duty. This was never the case with my other systems.