Has anyone tried long focal lengths with the m5? I'm curious to see how well it does real world with 100mm
I put a 24-70 on my 5D MK III and balanced for 24 mm. One of the first tests I did was to see how well it worked if I just zoomed it to 70, but did not re-balance. Preliminary results were great. It seemed to handle it quite well. The only issue is the Jello effect becomes far more pronounced. I will need to pan and rotate much more slowly when zoomed in. I will be posting some results in the near future.
We balanced the 24-105 at 70mm and it works fine at 24 and 105 even though those settings will have the tilt axis out of balance. We only did this with a freshly charged battery, so you may find that it doesn't work as well as the battery is at a lower voltage. Andy.
My thinking is exactly along this line. If you have a zoom, especially one with a significant weight difference, you should balance it for the focal length you will use most of the time. If you need to grab a shot at some other focal length you should be able to quickly just change the focus, but at the cost of more battery usage. I would also assume that you will not get as good a performance for stability since the motors have to fight more, but that it will likely be sufficient most of the time. The IS on that lens will also help.