Olympus 12~50; alternatives?

One way of looking at it is that f/6.3 sounds worse than it is; only a third of a stop worse than the long end of the 14-42. The Oly 14-42 II basically has a 1/3 sop advantage through the entire range; the 14-45 is surprisingly no brighter through most of the range. See this chart for the gory details. You get weather sealing, power zoom, and 43mm macro too. With the extra reach, maybe not a bad offer? Not a lot of lenses get to 12mm.

Of course, another way of looking at it is that Olympus gave us an optically subpar f/6.3 zoom and asked $300 for it, which sounds more like a prank than a serious attempt at a serious kit lens. It's too big, and the features are minor. If it weren't for sealing, no one would ever use it.

I think all of these things on different days, but the lens is still here...