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Olympus now join the wide range travel zoom club - Time for Leica to wake up and smell the coffee


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6 hours ago, Gregm61 said:

Worse actually. In the case of the 12-200 M. Zuiko, horrible would be the correct term. I got on the list and received a new one right out of the gate just so I could try it. The 14-150mm M. Zuiko that's been out for many years already is a better lens in that system.

Olympus already has their high-end travel zoom, the 12-100mm (24-200mm equivalent in 35mm FOV terms ) f4, with in-lens IS that pairs with the already high-end body IS to give incredible image stabilization, and the optics are superb. The 12-200 isn't even in the same zip code with the 12-100mm f4, in any way you can look at it. The sample I have is so mediocre I'm tempted to send it back to Olympus under warranty and ask them to confirm it is really up to specs because, if it really is....wow....and that's not in a good way.

The strange thing is that the old 75-150 Zuiko was a superb lens for its time, and is still capable of high-IQ images. The only problem was that it appears that all aberrations had been shifted to extreme distortion from barrel to cushion. As the distortion is not "wavy" it is quite usable on a digital camera; correction is simple. I am surprised that Olympus hasn't based and expanded the design of their present-day lenses on this one. It was a hybrid lens avant la lettre.

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I've postponed plans to buy an SL 90-280 because there are still no matched 1.4x or 2x extenders; I need an AF SL lens longer than 280mm. Sigma's L extender is not SL / TL compatible. Leica should address the 'no SL/TL extender' anomaly before considering a superzoom. In the unlikely event of a TL/CL superzoom being considered by Leica it would probably take 3 years to reach production … but then if it proved popular could compromise sales of regular TL/CL lenses. An extender(s) with existing TL/CL lenses would be a sensible solution … if it was feasible and would work.  

dunk 

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