Impressed With Panasonic 45-200mm G Vario OIS

I recently picked up a used Panasonic 45-200mm G Vario OIS lens to pair with my Panasonic G3 camera body. As some opportunities present themselves, I've been giving this combo a whirl and I have to say that, so far, I am impressed.

Don't get me wrong... This lens is not even close to being my sharpest, most impressive lens. However, for its cost, size, weight and format, it is pretty impressive though. 

This lens has a decent amount of reach being equivalent to a 90-400mm in full frame terms and that means a lot considering the small size of this lens. Also, having OIS (optical image stabilization) is a pretty huge plus. This image stabilization could come in handy in less-than-ideal light.  

If I could find some birds or wildlife in my yard, I would test this lens in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, our neck of the woods seems to be void of wildlife lately. It is actually pretty quiet out there... no birds calling, no squirrels chattering, nothing. I've come to the conclusion that either we have far too many neighborhood cats as predators or we have a resident hawk as a predator. Either way, I'm left with no wildlife around the house to photograph.

In the meantime, here are three non-wildlife photos shot with this lens mounted on my Panasonic G3. So far, I am pretty impressed with this little lens...

No birds to photograph but here is a limb which could or should have a bird perched on it...
No bad for a sub-$200 lens... not bad at all.

Just a snapshot from our front deck. I wanted to check the ability to capture
fine detail in the trees... this lens is looking good here.  I consistently had trouble
with images like this when shooting with my Olympus E-620... that camera was
miserable for capturing fine detail which is what prompted moving to Panasonic.

It is exceptionally difficult capturing detail when the moon is full but this lens did quite well
with this full moon. I even shot this image without a tripod yet the image is crisp with a lot of detail.