Yes you are right on the 5x lens on the iPhone 15 pro max. My inarticulate point was that this focal length would be a good complement to the longer 100 to 400mm lens, without having 2 bodies available. One could always buy better equipment but a long lens on a camera body for medium to long shots, plus the iPhone for closer pictures might be a good combo and cover most contingencies.I think the 5x zoom on the iphone 15 pro max is only about 120 mm equivalent at the long end, i.e. about 2.5x magnification, not 5x magnification (the 5x "zoom" is covering the ultra wide to 120 equivalent). 2.5 magnification is not much at all for wildlife.Having "reach"(i.e. long lens) I would imagine would be very useful on a safari if pictures are important to you. Some have suggested that most animals are fairly close, but for small animals and birds you definitely want a long lens. The 100-400mm lens can work on an EM-10 body, but as has been suggested you need to practice a head of time. Keeping the camera stable with a big lens on needs practice to avoid blurry pics. I have an EM-5 using a Panasonic 10--300mm lens and holding the body is difficult as the grip on the EM-5 and EM-10 is problematic(it is too small). I fixed this by purchasing a third party grip and this has worked well for me. Put your ISO on auto and crank your shutter speed up to avoid blurry pictures. The 100-400 lens is relatively slow so low light or night shots might not work on a moving animal.
Recently I have taken to iPhone use for travel photography. This will work well for close of medium distance shots, so you could switch use from iPhone to the M43 camera as needed. Never been on a safari, but from what I read changing lenses is a no-no due to dust. You don't say what iPhone you have, but the iPhone 15 pro max has a 5x lens that give you more reach, so if you are going upgrade you may want to consider that.
The long lens on you EM10 will allow you to get photos of animals far away and ones that are small. It will also allow you to take actions shots or bird in flight pictures providing the light is good. The iPhone might be good for everything else and the newer phones have pretty good low light capability.
Cost is an issue of course, but how often are you going on a safari? They seem pretty pricey, maybe it might be a once in a lifetime trip. How important is photography to you?
Although I haven't been on a safari, I do know people that have. One fine set of folks had their iphones. The pictures of sometimes far away animals were okay if you like non-closeup shots of far away animals (I can almost see the spots on that leopard. Almost). Another person I know went many years ago and had a compact zoom camera. Probably 8x magnification or so. The pictures were far better than the ones from the much newer iphones. The iphone pictures had technically better image quality, but the ability of the compact zoom to get much closer made for far more interesting images. To be fair, the guy with the compact zoom knew more about photography, but it doesn't change the main point -- there is no substitute for magnification with wildlife.
Statistics: Posted by novicemoney — Mon May 27, 2024 1:40 am — Replies 31 — Views 1374