Jeffrey67
I read a lot of reviews on this lens, and was so hopeful, even though leery of the extremely high price tag, to try it out. I purchased the lens last month, and have used it nearly everyday now in all types of situations, from city architecture to nature (attempting as well its feeble "macro" billing), to indoors, to sporting events. What I will say is the lens is OK - between average and good. Pluses would be the nice zoom range from 12-100MM, and the additional Image Stabilization within the lens . That said, I noticed very little difference when shooting low lit scenes handheld if I had the IS on the lens body turned on or off in terms of usable photos at slower speeds, as compared to the already super 5-Axis IS in the body of my Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II. Another pro is this comes with a hood, and a nice and smooth locking hood at that. The other plus is the ease of going from auto to manual focus right on the body of the lens via sliding a collar up or down. Also the lens is weatherproofed - a plus if you shoot in rainy or poor weather type conditions. The cons though are extreme, and all related for me to image quality. Purple fringing is TERRIBLE. Barrel distortion between 12-25MM focal lengths is TERRIBLE. City skylines look like the tall buildings are at 45 degree angles - yes folks, this is a really bad lens in this regard. Sure you can fix this in post processing, but for this kind of money I shouldnt have to. Images are very soft at the corners in all but F8 and F11, which is not what any review I read said. Lastly, its "macro" feature is a joke. You can get very close to focus at the widest angle which can produce some cool photos at F22, but using it zoomed in to 100MM as a macro, with the focus distance considered, it is average here. So, in closing, to me if I am paying $1200 for a PRO grade lens, I want to get and expect much more for my money. This is a highly overrated lens in my opinion, and frankly I am sorry I spent this kind of money on it as opposed to buying the 75MM F1.8 and another lens. It is pretty on the outside, but unless you shoot between 35-85MM and in bright light, it is definitely a disappointment in my opinion.