UKC

I'm going trekking and climbing in the Sinai desert later this year. I have a Panasonic G9 with a 14-140mm lens, neither of which get used a great deal, but I'm not likely to do this kind of trip very often, so I'd like to get some good pics. The lens obviously isn't a great landscape lens, so I'd be keen for suggestions for a suitable lens. I'll probably be looking at second-hand.

Or, am I just as likely to get good enough pics with my phone (Pixel 6a)? I know, what's good enough is personal preference and all that ...

All useful suggestions welcome.

I have an Olympus EM5 Mk2 and really like the Olympus 12-45 F4, great compromise between size, weight, image quality, build quality and weather sealing.

I use one of these with an Olympus micro four thirds slr.

https://www.four-thirds.org/en/lens/?m=Panasonic&type=Single+focus&...

Very impressive, and good for star trails, aurora etc.

The OM 12-100 f4 pro is an excellent lens (read the reviews) and not too bulky. You’ll not have to changes lenses risking sand getting into the camera

Thanks - I like the sound of the star trails and aurora - I'm going at a time when there could be a good metoer shower or two.

Has it got proper manual focussing with markings on the barrel? I had the 20mm panasonic and it was useless for anything other than portraits as you couldn't pre-focus it accurately.  I replaced it with the Olympus 17mm f1.8.

It's not obvious to me why a 14-140mm range isn't great for landscape work?

Or does this particular lens just have terrible IQ ?

14mm is not really that wide angle on m4/3 - it's equivalent to about 28mm on FF, and that's even without taking the squatter 4:3 format into account.

28mm (FF Equiv) is the definitive wide angle lens surely !

... and discuss

Hah. I used to take many landscape photos with a very fast 35mm and 50mm wide open, but I am a bit peculiar that way...

Still, I'd say that most people associate wide angle for landscapes with at least 24mm or less. 28mm is still a bit too similar to the usual human vision angle, not really having that "pop" factor. Whether that's a bad or a good thing is a moot point, obviously.

Personally, I draw the line at ~20mm – anything near or below that is "super‑wide" for me.

I had a G9, and now I have a G9M2.

I've also got lenses from 7.5mm all the way to 400mm.

If you are going in a dusty environment, which I'm guessing the Siani desert tick's that box, then I'd try to keep swapping lenses to a minimum.

If you are after a Landscape lens, and money is not an issue then I'd suggest a Panasonic 12mm f/1.4 ASPH LEICA DG SUMMILUX Prime Lens. I got mine second hand from MPB. It is incredibly pin-sharp and more importantly weather sealed to keep dust out.

However if you want to be a bit more flexible with your landscapes, and money is not an issue, then I'd suggest the 12-35mm f2.8 zoom lens.

But your 14-140mm lens ticks an awful lot of boxes and the G9 is a really good camera. You just have to think is it worth buying/renting a lens if you are not happy with the image quality of your lens as it covers quite a lot of the fun zone of focal lengths.

On reading reviews your 14-140 lens is not that bad. You may want to consider getting the excellent Panasonic 9mm for those extra wide shots. You mention that your G9 and 14-140 don’t get used much. Best advice would be to start using them both a lot now to get really used to all the functions, capability and characteristics. As well as the supplied user manual get one of the recommended third party tutorial books for the G9 or scour the web for video guides. Enjoy

I'd second the 9mm lens. Its pin-sharp.

Thaks for these thoughts, and to the Lemming for his - given his professed enthusiasm for his G9, I expected to hear from him.

The 14-140 is fine except it's a bit bulkier than I'd ideally like. When I was younger, I'd regularly head for the hills with an SLR and a couple of lenses, and I'd regularly fail to use them because of the faff of stopping, getting them out of the rucksack, etc etc, and I'd find I wasn't taking any pics at all. I ended up buying a compact point-and-shoot, which didn't produce anything of any great quality, but did at least get used. So the hope, which may not be realistic, would be go for something more compact, such as a 12-35 or 14-42, or a wide-angle prime, if they're considered of adequate quality (I know, what's adequate ...?). I'd prefer to only take one lens, hence the preference for a zoom. I probably should have explained this in the original post.

The point about getting used to the functions and features of the camera is well made and I'm working on it. Fortunately, I have six months to get properly up to speed.