Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmar 100-400mm f/4-6.3 II ASPH. Power O.I.S. Lens at Etoren

The Leica 100-400mm lens was purchased to go with my new Lumix G9II. My older long range combo, a Canon 60D (later 80D) and Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary lens was getting too heavy for these elderly muscles to hold steady, and the reach of the new equipment is almost as far and weighs 2 1/2 pounds less!You can see in the pictures the quality of the glass. Another plus is the improved auto focusing and great image stabilization combined with the G9II. In situations where the Canon/Sigma needed at least a monopod, the Lumix/Leica can be hand-held. All of the included pictures where shot hand-held and are heavily cropped, straight-from-camera jpgs.The zoom mechanism is stiffer than my other zooms. Although you can still shake it down, it won’t creep outward on its ... MoreThe Leica 100-400mm lens was purchased to go with my new Lumix G9II. My older long range combo, a Canon 60D (later 80D) and Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary lens was getting too heavy for these elderly muscles to hold steady, and the reach of the new equipment is almost as far and weighs 2 1/2 pounds less!You can see in the pictures the quality of the glass. Another plus is the improved auto focusing and great image stabilization combined with the G9II. In situations where the Canon/Sigma needed at least a monopod, the Lumix/Leica can be hand-held. All of the included pictures where shot hand-held and are heavily cropped, straight-from-camera jpgs.The zoom mechanism is stiffer than my other zooms. Although you can still shake it down, it won’t creep outward on its own while being carried vertically. I really like that. The zoom ring itself only needs a quarter turn for full travel, but I prefer pushing it in and out. The focus ring is perfectly smooth and the simplicity of attaching and removing the tripod foot can’t be better.The only thing I didn’t like is the focal length switch. It sticks up and is too easily tripped accidentally. The lens hood is a little weird, too. Otherwise I love this lens. It’s giving me some great close-ups from such a lightweight rig.

I got delivery of the new Panasonic G9MkII the other day with this lens to try out. I wanted to have a lightweight combo for birding and wildlife at the long end. I have a Z9 and 100-400 with a teleconverter but needless to say it's like getting a workout to use often. Some time ago I had the opportunity to use the MkI version of this lens on an OM-1 I had. Without the OM-1's IBIS on the lens alone was rock solid stable which amazed me. Sadly it wasn't sharp at the long end and went back. This new MkII version had a much smoother extension on the zoom which immediately pleased me. As did the switches and overall built which is very Leica like. Now for the bad news. Out of camera shots were anything BUT sharp from it's 250mm reach on. Very poor at the long end. I ... MoreI got delivery of the new Panasonic G9MkII the other day with this lens to try out. I wanted to have a lightweight combo for birding and wildlife at the long end. I have a Z9 and 100-400 with a teleconverter but needless to say it's like getting a workout to use often. Some time ago I had the opportunity to use the MkI version of this lens on an OM-1 I had. Without the OM-1's IBIS on the lens alone was rock solid stable which amazed me. Sadly it wasn't sharp at the long end and went back. This new MkII version had a much smoother extension on the zoom which immediately pleased me. As did the switches and overall built which is very Leica like. Now for the bad news. Out of camera shots were anything BUT sharp from it's 250mm reach on. Very poor at the long end. I tested it out extensively and found overall the OIS on this lens was very poor indeed. Anything BUT stable which the older version I tried was amazing at. I just couldn't reason keeping it, so it has gone back. I'm really bummed as I really liked the overall performance of the camera body. Maybe I'll either try another lens down the line or just forget about it.

I've used this lens for a week now, using it together with a recently purchased DG-9 mark ii camera. The lens has proven to be very sharp at all focal lengths and operates flawlessly. I was concerned about some comments noting a stiff zoom ring, but this must have been addressed in this version, as it operates very smoothly. So far it's been very easy to take great photos using it in conjunction with the G-9 mark ii. It's an impressively compact configuration for such a long lens. Looking forward to a lot more use!