Take some left over red, white and blue bunting from the jubilee earlier this year. Replace the blue flags with green ones. Add some embellishments and what have you got...?
Yes indeed, Christmas bunting... hurrah! Plus an opportunity to test out my Lumix G Vario 100-300mm f4-5.6 II Power OIS on my OMS Olympus OM-1 wide open at f5.6 at 300mm in low-ish level light conditions.
The images were taken hand held at 1/60th sec at ISO 1600. Despite claims to the contrary by various sources this lens's Power OIS happily works in conjunction with the camera's IBIS to give you fully functional Sync IS. In this case allowing me to hand hold at over 3 stops lower than normal and at very close distances where visible shake is much more apparent.
Although I did not try it on this occasion, I think that, with good technique on my part, I could have got away with using 1/30th and still got a decently high percentage of sharp images, so good is Sync IS on micro four thirds these days; and all this on a lens equivalent to a 600mm in full frame 35mm format!
Well then, what conclusions can we draw from all this? Firstly, repurposing old stuff is both fun and worthwhile. Secondly, the Lumix 100-300mm II is a great compact long tele-zoom lens (200-600mm crop equivalent) and used in conjunction with for example the OMS Olympus OM-1 can be a very effective photographic tool.