This is (by far) the biggest lens we’ve ever seen on a Micro Four Thirds camera
posted Friday, June 7, 2013 at 1:36 PM EDT
One of the great things about mirrorless cameras is that with an adapter, you can shoot with just about any lens in existence — and sometimes, this gets taken to ludicrious extremes. What you're looking at here, is a Panasonic Lumix GH2 with a B4 adapter, strapped into a Canon 9.3-930mm XJ100X9.3B DIGISUPER 100AF Digital Zoom Lens with Auto Focus. That's right, a 9.3-930mm broadcast lens, that completely dwarfs the Panasonic. The only way you'll get a bigger piece of glass on your camera is if you start shooting through a telescope!
The Canon lens is a $200,000 piece of equipment, with a 100x (and a built-in 2x extender) range. It keeps a maximum aperture of f/1.7 all the way up to 296mm, and weighs a spritely 52lbs. It's designed for shooting for broadcast, is controlled by a wired remote, and requires an external power source. So, not exactly something you'd expect to see attached to a little Micro Four Thirds camera!
But the real question is how does it shoot? Unfortunately, there are no available sample images or video captured through this hilariously mismatched rig, but as I'm sure you can guess, it's a less than practical setup. According to Esben Garn, who assembled the setup, image quality is best at f/4, and the image circle is too small for the sensor, requiring further fiddling. But hey, if you've ever wanted to record someone half-way across a city from you, here's the rig to do it!
