retooling

 After many thoughts in several directions, my kit is settling into place.

I had promised that if the S5 system didn't work sufficiently well enough I'd consider retooling the micro43 kit instead. Looking that over it doesn't make enough sense, as used S5 and eM1.2 or .3 is nearly a price match now - so I gave myself a week off, and considered other kit mutations.

Once I settled on the Lumix-S as my best choice, I evaluated my sorry lack of AF telephoto. It's clear that SA to L adaptation is not of value. So what about EF lenses using the Viltrox EF-L adapter? It's  cheaper than the Sigma SA-L, and much less than Sigma's EF-L option - so we're giving it a try. 

Reviews suggest that 3rd party EF is less consistent with adapters from all brands, so the reverse-zoom Canon options were explored - well those in my miniscule budget zone at least. Too bad, as the Tamron 28-300 vc would be handy and it zooms the "correct" direction!

Of course I'm also wishing to keep weight down also! The table below (almost) sorts some options by grams, with adapter included. The bulk factor eliminates a few - but many more are in play with EF. Canon actually made a 36x24 compatible 55-200mm.. bummer that it's old and reviewed rather poorly. They have a couple of 70-300 types, and an early 70-210/4 with push-pull zoom. Wow: Tamron has a modern 70-210.. but ugh 990g when adapter is added, nearly 300g heavier than the Canon.

I finally decided on a bargain 100-300 f/4.5-5.6 with USM drive but no IS. The S5 can stabilize it
though, hopefully that will serve. That 70-210 might catch me yet though! *

It leaves a sizable kit gap from 60-100mm though. 

The vivitar 70-150/3.8 is a good manual option, and I expect a Meike 85mm or TTArt 75mm will plug the gap at some point. Or maybe that Pentax 85/2 that I own will resurface! 😃 But another option would also serve: the EF 28-105 usm is small and light, faster than many at f/3.5-4.5, and it takes the same 58mm filters as the 100-300. And it's quite cheap! So I dumped most of the SA mount lenses and adapter to a reseller for the 28-105. 

The Lumix 20-60 will serve for wide work much of the time, but the two canons can fight over the rest of my needs. For now.

I did search for the 75/85 primes online but didn't see any deals. 

However..
I did stumble upon an open-box Meike 35/2 in L mount, for $50 off! The TTArt 40/2 was nice and tiny, but the Meike has a moisture gasket - which isn't proof of much, but feels comforting. I won't test it very hard for weather endurance, that's the 20-60's job! For clear nights and other low lights, though, it will be great.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

* whoa - an EF 70-210/3.5-4.5 usm happened? That gets added to the list.. and tinted blue! A pinch heavier than the 100-300, though. We'll consider this once the previous announcements have arrived and given their chance to impress.

A few too many

options! But how to choose 

which telezoom to carry??  

What I'd like is an L mount answer to this question. Sadly the two listed below are not available on my current budget. Plus they are heavy - not by current standards, but definitely so compared to most of my other acquisitions shown here!

So for mow I can choose from the manual-focus options below. 

Ideally I'd prefer to get to 200mm and brighter than f/5.6, which suggests the pleasantly light 100-200mm .. but its minimum focus is quite disappointing* . I also have that Focal 80-200, which is nearly a stop faster - but it makes modern lenses seem light!

The most convenient are the SA mount 70-300 and 28-300 lenses as they share focal length and aperture data with the camera.

So we then move to the other options. The relatively light 100-300 is f/5.6 at 200mm, as is the more versatile 35-200mm with its nice range & close focus. The 28-300mm uses the same filters as the 20-60mm, but it's bulky and uses the reverse zoom direction from the rest of my collection. 

The vivitar 70-150 f/3.8 is light and fast, and it doesn't leave the gap that the 100-x00 lenses create. But of course this stops 50mm short on the long end! But I do have the 1.5x multiplier - but then the lens becomes 105-225mm f/5.3 and the 60-100mm gap returns. Taking off and putting on the multiplier fixes the gap but is twice the work of swapping a single lens, so that's a new problem. So this option has a few too many 'but's.. but when I want a little tele in low light, it's the right choice!

So each lens has its good and difficult points. 

Clearly that means I have everything covered! 😉

* I do have a Minolta 50/2.8 macro for when that's a problem!

the Oct '25 kit

And so we return to a familiar spot.

An S5 with the 20-60mm lens, several adapted primes and telephoto zooms, and a GX7 with a good supply of µ43 lenses.

While I'd prefer an AF long zoom, the 70-150 Vivitar f/3.8 available will do for now* until more suitable native teles are available.

I'm covered at 20 to 300mm/e and 1:1 macro in both formats, and 600mm/e with μ43 gear for when that seems like a good idea.

---

The S5 can do things I really like, and several other things I've dreamed of but have not yet achieved (nice 4k videos, composite images, super resolution shots). 

Learning these features will occupy more of my time, rather than presuming that another camera would do a better job. I'd decisively proven that by owning almost everything in the past fifteen years.

* Update -

I found an MC-21 adapter for $80. Now that I know what it can and cannot do, the SA-mount Sigmas (28-300 and 70-300mm) are back in play. No autofocus but focal length does reach the camera for properly stabilized shots, and aperture control is on the dials. That's more than my other lenses can do! 

While much of the time the smaller 70-150 Vivitar will serve nicely, on well-lit days the 28-300 is all I'd need, with the 20-60 and 70-300 also being a good pair (as both take 67mm filters). 

A Samyang 60-180 f/2.8 has been announced, but that's all we know.. that and Samyang's very slow rollout of L lenses.

Surveying the battlefield

So what is my camera decision?

A decision has been rendered. At last?

The Lumix S5 feels right overall, but it hurts to see no clear telephoto zoom option today. Its benefits (noted in the past, summarized below) win the day - but not by a huge margin. The Z6 is a worthy camera but planned for a seasoned Nikon user I believe.

The order of my table looks odd, but it reflects my order of importance for each. I may adjust the z6 order and repost at some point.. or perhaps not - I really like Silence! 

Some things may betray my ignorance (e.g. Lumix Club using the cloud may serve as well as the Nx app). And the bottom items are nice, but not Massively Big Deals.

It's those first 3 or 4 on the list that bring me the feeling that I am more likely to enjoy the S5 more than the Z6. 

I shall feel some regret the day that a Z-mount 20-xx lens arrives - and I shall rejoice when i pull a 'Silence' LUT from Lumix Lab!

This has been an exhausting experience. OK not exactly: having surgery to remove my prostate plus correcting a post-op complication while doing this - that made it hard. Timing is important in photography, and in real life.

For now I'll go forward with the following kit until a telezoom arrives that's a good fit for me. None currently qualify, and the announced Samyang 60-180mm f/2.8 is merely words. I see that the Nikkor-Z /Tamron 70-180/2.8 has 1:2 closeup ability and is 'only' 795g, so it weighs the same as the 70-300S.

weight includes L adapter

Several of the primes I would call optional, given the two zooms I've listed. If I carry the 70-150/3.8 the 135/3.5 really isn't as valuable, and the 20-60 can do .43x so a true macro isn't as vital - and I have a lighter Pentax 50/2 if low light is involved. 

For most of my imaging, the two zooms are sufficient* - unless 300mm is needed, of course! Beyond that range, the GX7 can take over to 600mm/e.

In the meantime?

I must find that missing pentax-m 85mm f/2!!!

---

Bonus! Just scored an $80 MC-21 adapter, which brings the SA-mount 28-300 and 70-300 into play!

The AF will not function, but EXIF and therefore i-Stab will perform as expected. 

That means fewer manual focal lengths to deal with, which was an S5 drawback. Whew.

* with the 1.5x TC, the 70-150 can become a 105-225mm f/5.3.

No kidding?

No matter how much you read about a prospective camera purchase, you're bound to miss things that presumably "aren't worth mentioning". That might be true for 98% of those reading - but someone (like me!) will learn things the hard way. 

My z6 kit has not been completed sold off, and the screen issue has dropped my price quite a bit. And now I find two hassles that it covers and the S5 drops the ball:

1. Focus ring reversal. The Z6 (and S5ii) allow the user to reverse the focus ring direction. The S5 does not: infinity is at the counter clockwise end of rotation, like it or not. Since all my Pentax manual primes are opposite, that's unpleasant. Especially unpleasant with telephoto zooms, where a single lens might need three or four presets to work the imgStab properly! The Tamron 70-300 solves that specific problem nicely, but the L-mount telephoto zooms are massive and spendy.
2. Focal length input for 'alien' (non-native) lenses. The S5 allows three presets plus the dialed-in setting, the z6 has Twenty presets. Ouch!!

In other words, Nikon's history of accommodating older lens mounts extends to their mirrorless models, while Lumix-S bodies are born expecting L-mount lenses to be attached.

So what do I do about this?

Winding up\down

The S5 is here, with 3 batteries and the 20-60mm lens. And hey here's the tripod plate for it - how nice! Adapters for pk, nf and Minolta AF are here also, so I have several adapted telephoto options. It might be easier to just turn iStab off rather than adjusting it constantly for adapted zooms though..

All the operational S1 features are here, with a few bonuses and less mass. With those things the S1 comparisons from before are apt but the convenience of lighter weight is gone. The dual tilt screen and superb EVF were nice but the payload price was too steep. This battle is nearing its end!

First of course is yet another plow through menus to reset then set my preferences. Where is that option for front-dial exposure compensation.. ah yes, my old S5 menu listing is on the table! Hm, maybe I'm thinking of the Z6 method not the Lumix? Is this why people don't do such battles often?

For so many small reasons, the Lumix is winning. Coming from Pentax and µ43 Lumix-G, the S-series controls and menus are familiar. Nikon does things that are familiar to F-mount people, so things like the lens mount in 'reverse' fashion was an easy choice for that group. The 24-50mm Z lens is not for me, given the 20-60mm Lumix' ideal range and stronger construction; that's a weight price I gladly pay!

Reflections on the Battle

 Reading the comparison websites is frustrating. As mentioned before, very few update their pages with firmware improvements. Both bodies have been updated a few times but the reviews are comparing five year old cameras with 1.0 firmware.

Worse yet are the features not mentioned! The z6 beats the s6 for landscape use on one site, but no mention is made of the s5's hi-res capability (48/96 Mpix). That's pretty valuable for many folks!

Also: internal stabilization is checked off for both bodies, but I've seen the Lumix give very impressive results and comments on most reviews rave specifically about Lumix' stabilizing prowess. And the aspect ratios are much more versatile on Lumix than.. well, Everyone, including Nikon. 

Another vague area is lenses. Total lens count is pretty useless between mounts, especially since my preferences are for 20-xx and lightweight telephoto zooms (availability for L and Z is 0-1 and 1-0, respectively). Aarrrgh.

The other issue is resale value. I'm getting a nearly straight trade of s1 and s5 * - but the z6 has some scratches and marks on the big screen. I don't see the marks when the screen is illuminated, but prospective buyers practically demand an unmarked screen. This swings the value factor toward the z6. But can I tolerate the flimsy feeling of the z24-50, videos locked to 16:9 aspect ratio, and stills also with fewer ratio options?

Once the S5 is in hand, that question will presumably be answered. Sure hope so!

* Mostly due to s1 grip and spare batteries!