Some comments have been made on the clickless aperture control on the lens. I have never been particularly worried about clickless apertures as long as they had a good reliable action. I am hopeless at “counting clicks” and would never make a musician.
When I set aperture I generally look at it to do so. Changing aperture whilst “on the viewfinder” is as much composing with focus ring and exposing with aperture - whatever looks good is best and whatever the focal distance it needs to be is not of much concern as is the aperture that gives me the required exposure look and depth of field. Bright day - set f5.6 and work it from there.
There has been some criticisms levelled at the aperture control. I have none that are truly negative just some further observations on the subject for clarity. These are variable spaced aperture markings and a certain “grittiness” at the smaller end of the scale. There is no room to fit the F11 marking. These are related - it must be the leverage mechanism on the aperture control - wide open there is more movement between stops and the leaves are close to wide open. Minimum stops are increasingly closer together with less leverage and the leaves moving towards fully shut. So the net effect is a tightening feeling as the aperture is closed (not to be confused with “gritty” as the action is quite smooth and well damped). Therefore from f8.0 to f16.0 the action could be described as “getting stiff”. I don’t see this as a big issue but it could be seen as taking off a little layer of refinement. In fact with a bit of practice one could almost judge the aperture in use by the increasing resistence as it is closed.
The focus action is light and precise and fairly short - it can hardly be criticised in my opinion although maybe just a trifle slicker moving than absolutely creamy if we wish to really carp.
I am naturally disappointed that I cannot use it on my adopted main camera format (M4/3) but it is a happy lens on my GXR-M. I will try it out on a Sony A7R when I get the chance.
If any lens needs a ND filter in this bright sunny land of ours it is this one - I will have to have a look though my drawer of bits and see if I have one with the right filter thread.
