Wrest Park

Annoyingly my big telephoto has a problem with auto-focus SOB!! Trish kindly volunteered to take it to an authorised repairer and to collect it!!! We took advantage of this to hire the Panasonic 14-140 and 100-300 and have a test of them. Comments at the end.

So we've made a day of it and gone to Wrest Park, curiously we went last year on August 12th which was just after the big relaunch!

Little of the house is open but the gardens are lovely, there are formal parts and wilder parts the lake looks like a river and I really like it. I won't waffle on other than to say do go visit! I will make one criticism towards the end.

Enjoy!

A wedding was being prepared in the Orangery.

This bee had been working hard!

My one criticism is that the set up of the cafe is poor. Last year you really had to queue and there were queues again today.

One person serving and one till is inadequate.....

Nice car eh!

A lovely garden and one that will repay repeat visits especially if/when more of the house is opened.

Those lenses? The 100-300? it is quite small when compared to the Nikon 70-300, I think it's a little soft at the long end and I don't think it focuses quickly enough for action. Yes it offers a lot of reach but really I think the Nikon 70-300 is a better lens.

The 14-140 is relatively big for an m4/3 lens but it is compact when compared to a Nikon 18-200. From what I can tell image quality is good (for a travel zoom) and as good as those available for dSLR's (from the comparison we did) and it is more compact. Auto focus is fine for walking around gardens / travel.

Would I buy a 100-300? Nope it's all about auto focus and though the newer m4/3 cameras are better they aren't really there for action.

The 14-140? If I didn't have a travel zoom for my dSLR I might be very tempted but I think not, to be honest I like the primes they are sharp and they make for a nice light kit.