If you spend time on wildlife, distant sports, or compressed landscapes, this new Panasonic telephoto finally gives the L-mount system a native option that reaches deep without feeling like a boat anchor.
Coming to you from Gordon Laing, this detailed video puts the new Panasonic Lumix S 100-500mm f/5-7.1 O.I.S. lens in context against the main L-mount rivals and shows how it behaves in real use, not just on paper. You see how its size compares to bulkier options like the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS and why it feels closer in the hand to a typical 100-400mm zoom. Laing spends time on the tripod collar, the Arca-Swiss style foot, the zoom-tension ring, and the stiff zoom action that favors smooth video moves over rapid framing changes. You also see how the lens’ weight and length stack up against the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Contemporary, which comes in much cheaper but stops at 400mm. The takeaway is that you trade some money for extra native reach while keeping a kit you can still carry all day.
The video also walks you through the design details that matter when you are actually shooting. The control bank gives you a focus limiter, AF/MF switch, and stabilization modes tuned for general use or panning, which is useful if you track birds or motorsport. Laing points out how the extending barrel and stiff zoom ring slow down fast reframing, so you tend to pick a focal length for a burst rather than zooming through it. Teleconverter handling gets a lot of attention, including the way the zoom limit switch locks the lens to 150-500mm so the rear elements never collide with a converter, unlike the Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM. You get a clear sense of how this affects packing the lens and how practical it is if you want to travel with converters.
Autofocus at the short end looks perfectly adequate for portraits and talking-head work, including face detection on a Lumix S1R II body as he walks toward and away from the camera. You see that the lens is not optically parfocal, so zooming during photo bursts can knock focus out for a few frames, which matters if you like to twist the ring mid-sequence. On the other hand, the heavy damping on both zoom and focus works nicely for video, where you usually want deliberate moves rather than snappy ones. The bokeh tests at 100mm and 500mm tell you what kind of background rendering to expect, especially how the close-focusing capability at the long end lets you frame tighter details with larger blur circles than you might expect from f/7.1.
Key Specs
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Focal length: 100 to 500mm
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Maximum aperture: f/5 to 7.1
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Minimum aperture: f/29 to 40
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Lens mount: L Mount
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Format coverage: Full frame
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Minimum focus distance: 2.6' / 0.8 m (wide) to 4.9' / 1.5 m (tele)
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Maximum magnification: 0.16x to 0.36x (1:2.8 macro reproduction ratio)
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Optical design: 19 elements in 12 groups
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Aperture blades: 11, rounded
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Focus type: Autofocus with configurable manual response
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Image stabilization: Optical image stabilization, compatible with in-body systems
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Tripod mounting: Removable collar with integrated foot
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Filter size: 82 mm front thread
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Dimensions: 3.6 x 7.7" / 92 x 196.1 mm
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Weight: 2.8 lb / 1.3 kg
Laing pushes the lens into the kind of work many people are eyeing it for, including birds in flight along a windy coastline. You see the hit rate he gets with animal tracking at 500mm on a Lumix body and how that compares in practice with pairings like a Canon EOS R6 II plus RF 100-500mm or a Sony a7 IV with the Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS. He is honest about where the Lumix combo keeps up and where tracking at the long end still trails the best from Canon and Sony, especially with erratic subjects. You also get a feel for how the lens works with hybrid zoom and teleconverters on bodies like the Panasonic Lumix S5 II, which is useful if you care about stacking every bit of reach you can get without going to a massive prime. Laing spends time on the value question as well, weighing this lens against more affordable Sigma zooms for L mount, which is where many people will hesitate before placing an order. Hearing those price and handling tradeoffs framed alongside real images is worth seeing play out on screen. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Laing.
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