Expensive...

Very sharp.

Great IQ.

No shutter shock.

Fast quiet focusing.

compact, lightweight.

Expensive.

Manual "clutched" focus is a bit gimmicky. Seems like a great idea on paper, in use, it is really just adding "stops" to the drive-by-wire focus range. The indicators on the ring that appear in manual mode are largely useless. The actual "focus to infinity" position varies with aperture and never lines up exactly on the infinity marking or at the stop, always somewhere in-between there, so magnified viewfinder focusing is always required anyway. There seems to be a large price premium added for this "feature."

If loosing the manual clutch would drop a price a couple-few hundred bucks, then it would be a 5 star lens to me. As it is, the value is questionable.

Englishman in France wrote:

It is positively shameful that Olympus did not see fit to make the manual focus clutch automatically enable manual focus assist, like it does on their pro zooms. On a Panasonic body, pulling back the manual focus clutch on the 12mm lens will automatically enable manual focus assist. I don't know why Olympus don't add this feature to their bodies; it seem positively daft that it works better on their competitors bodies.

I don't understand why Olympus did not make the infinity marker line up with infinity; it is focus by wire so surely this could have been calibrated electronically. It doesn't come with a lens pouch or lens hood either.

I've actually written Olympus about the issue of their lens working way better on my GM5 then on my EM5 II in terms of focus assist... The panasonic has an indicator that can be enabled, that has a true "focus to infinity" position on the indicator, adjust to there, and it is actually focused to infinity... brilliant... Olympus responded that they have no plans to offer this feature in any future firmware updates.

Totally ridiculous. Yet another reason the manual clutch is gimmicky.... unless its on a panny body!