Bruce
The G9 and kit lens here (your second example) in the UK is about £1099 new. It all comes down to personal choice. For me I can not see myself using a phone for taking photos but then I came up old school using a camera for photography.
Phone thefts are rife over here anyway , not a good idea to hold one up for a photo they get snatch by people on motor bikes. a camera with a neck strap is harder to steal
I c an’t see the boss “er wot must be obeyed” allowing a red light area 
in the house now.
I’ve tried using my smartphone for taking pictures Bruce, and although the phone takes good photos I much prefer to take my Cannon SX620 HS compact. It has a 25X optical zoom and I don’t need to wear my specs to work it. I was out using my phone the other day and while I was trying to take a photo a message came up…I hadn’t a clue what it said, but it wouldn’t let me take a photo until I had addressed the matter. It’s also a bitch downloading the photos onto my laptop. The Cannon does it in seconds with no fuss.
1 Like
There are subtle differences between phone pics and “real” camera pics, computation vs optics. The latest phones do both but rely heavily on digital jiggery-pokery (AI), the latest cameras do both but rely on good old-fashioned glass. They are becoming almost as good as each other but for one area: print size. Real cameras with big sensors print big, having said that, even small phone pics are made up of smaller slices stitched together, so perhaps there is milage in stitching more for poster size results.
1 Like
You’re undoubtedly correct and I still use my camera when I am travelling but for the odd snap to share on this forum for example it is hard to go past using the phone.
For me one of the advantages is that any picture taken while I am out is on all my computers by the time I get home (via Dropbox - though OneDrive would do the same job) whereas camera photos would have to be transferred to a computer.
I’m surprised neither of your Panasonics have WiFi
Went out this afternoon to test run the G9. only having the 12-60mm lens. I definatfely also need the 100-300mm one for the reach. Still with only that lens I managed this as taken no editing in Jpeg
(upload://zk6hmwDB4iCeChypjesu4BxAqFW.jpeg)
heavl crop
even cropped the photo came out quite well I thought
I don’t know the G9, but I’m guessing it’s got in-camera Raw Processing like my two Panasonics, really good for fixing things like highlight & shadows in things like bird photography. Having said that, the first looks good, the others require a longer lens.
Dood this was more or less a find out all about it exercise , What I am doing right and what i am doing wrong. Yes I did make mistakes first to admit.
First thing I noticed I need to let the camera focus properly before taking the shot, so now menu alteration to “fast focus” setting that should help a bit. Note to myself “don’t rush the shot”.
getting the setting as one wants does need tweakingas getting used to it. At least being able to lock in the settings helps
the Nikon D810 is acompletely different animal which I am used to
I totally agree with you about a longer lens and doing research right now. As to which to get. In the 100-300m range is a minefield Obviously the panasonic version come first to mind but there are good and bad reviews. At around the £500 most claim to be soft @300mm.
The next question that comes to mind is if I paid for a better lens how often would I use it? I don’t think often enough to warrant the cost
Checked out used prices as well but most seem to have attracted dust particles inside the lens or if not have “breathing” issues.
So I think a hell of a lot more research is needed first., even into one that only does a max of 200 mm
lthough one of those is a video above (the seagull on the water) that is not what I got the camera for as I will be using my camcorder for that
1 Like
They do, but it is just as easy to plug them into the computer, I have a variety of USB cords permanently plugged in. Sometimes the old way is quicker (and it charges the battery too).
UPDATE
At last decision made and purchased. My criteria was mainly cost - mm range and amount of usage and optical stablisation. So just ordered a Panasonic 100-300mm f4.0-5.6 II Lumix G Vario Lens. This cost £479 against £1500 elmarit . I could buy 3 of the one I bought, makes one think
Had a serious look at this the 50-200 amd 200-400 elmarit versions and have to be honest I cannot see how they justify the cost . OK what about the used ones then? yet again did a lot of searching on all three and It appears that dust was present in all that I looked at from different companies. Now to my mind I asked myself why were they being sold second hand? there must be a good reason, which gave me doubts.
So being a bit fussy with my gear I decide not to go for someone elses throw outs also the cost of around £1000 for used I thought was a bit steep and the risk of getting a bd one diidn’t justify getiing one.
So the version I have just bought should be ok for birds-animals- butterflies etc and those that are a bit further away. As I said I looked at vertually every youtube video there is to get others viewpoints.
Now have wait and see how good it actually is when it comes. The boss says I have to get rid of some of my Nikon gear as well to help pay for the purchase so that will be the next step on here to see if anyone is interested.
I didn’t know there was a 200-400!
Anyway, slightly off topic, I’m going to show some lovely four thirds gear.
GX800 + 42.5mm f/1.7 (that’s 85mm equiv. of course)
The card gives an idea of how tiny it is. I love it.
I have the dc-tz95 compact as well.
sorry but I have to say again I am amazed how good this G9 panasonic camera is. I still can’t really get over how sharp it is and the colours are spot on
Ah but this is a different kettle of fish, it may be compact but it’s not what’s classed as a compact camera, it’s a M43 interchangeable lens camera, will take the lenses your G9 takes.
£300 @ MPB.
New lens arrived the panasonic 100-300 mk 2
So before it got too dark outside I grabbed a shot of the apple tree in bud
bit windy outside so need more practice
best seen @+ 500%
Hand held unedited
P1000949 by bazza, on Flickr
Panasonic G9 using the panasonic100 300 mm lens @300mm F5.6 shutter speed 1/640
quite please how sharp it is considering
I was trying a lens comparison this morning, nothing scientific, Lumix 42.5mm vs 12 -60 @ 42.5mm. I didn’t learn much other than use what you feel happy using. Lens weight, size, balance is important to how much fun you can have with it. It’s also nice to have different Camera body/Lens combos to add variation to your hobby.