So the Oly 12-50 finally appeared:
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Sorry for the lacklustre quality, I think I am seeing where the small sensors comes up somewhat short, the last shot is blurred intentionally as I am a innocent man and it seemed a bit obscene...
(or I may have missed that the camera missed focus).
First impression is that I like it, mounted it on the G90, and I think it is a good match for that. It is unobtrusive, even with the length, at least on the G90 body, most likely it will be on the GX9 as well. The smaller bodies probably not so much, and as it is a Olympus lens, it will with the GFs and GMs, give a totally unstabilised package.
It came with firmware 1.3 so I upgraded it to 1.4. It is same straight-forward procedure with the Oly lenses as the Lumix ones, whilst on a Lumix body.
The procedure is with a fully charged battery and the freshly formatted card, insert card in PC, drag the .bin file over on the card, pop it in the camera. Turn on camera and press show pictures button and it will install itself. Very easy.
Am awaiting a JCC copy hood for it, ordered via Ebay so it takes some time for it to reach these shores.
Haven't used it in earnest yet, but horsed around with it a bit. The Macro function gives a 1.3 ratio at 43 mm focal length and aperture 6, or so I read, with an approx distance from teh front lens to the object at about 10 cm/4" based on the fact that it is a non-collapsible design. I may try it with some Meike rings I have in the cupboard, somewhere down the road. Popping that zoom ring back and forth for manual or motordriven zoom and sometimes whilst pushing in the Macro button makes for an interesting design. Interesting design is somewhat why I took a fancy to it in the first place.
The second reason was to see if its slender design and light weight (211 grams) made it as unobtrusive as I thought and that is my general feel for now. I had pondered getting the Lumix 12-60 for a "dog walking lens", but having the PL12-60 made me iffy to spend the cash on one for marginally lower weight and a dip in IQ, this one I got for $100/€100 inc postage and 20bucks for the lens hood, so 120 all in and a weight saving of 110 grams or about 3.8ish ounces and a serious dip in IQ by what most reviews has stated. Am thinking it will make a nice pair alongside the Lumix 45-175.
Guess I will find out over the coming days.
This leaves the lens fancy at 3 items, the Olys 17mm f:2.8 and 14-42 pancake and fresh to the "fancy pile", the PL 9mm.