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Cons: It is not a constant f2.8 and has no MF clutch. Zoom ring turns the wrong way.

Pros: Has a removable hood, a filter thread, good optics, weathersealing.

Summary: My favourite MFT UWA zoom, albeit I think the 8-25mm f4 might be the a good candidate too.

Cons: Sample Variations! TEST YOUR SAMPLE. Only the 3rd one was really sharp. This is why I went for 4 rather than 5 stars. Exactly 9 mm shows a significant drop in sharpness (not 8 not 10) - crop your photos from 8 mm if you need 9.

Pros: The 3rd sample shows very good zoom sharpness all over the frame at all apertures and all focal lengths. No noticeable difference between f/2.8 and f/4 at 8 mm except for vignetting. I cannot confirm lenstip nor other users in any significant drop of sharpness in any situation apart from exactly 9 mm. Only primes can slightly and partly outperform this lens. Way better than Olympus 9-18 f/4-5.6. Very good video capability: Smooth, silent and reactive AF, almost parafocal behaviour. Very good build quality. 2 stacked thin filters possible. Vignetting clearly better than average.

Summary: Apart from annoying decentered samples and if you can get a good one: This is an excellent extreme zoom lens and absolutely worth the price.

Cons: My only complaint with this lens might be the corner softness at the shorter focal lengths in my LPPM tests with my sample, but in the real world shooting this has never been noticeable to me. I have had no problems at all with the construction of the lens nor with its operation.

Pros: This is a stellar lens and my favourite one-lens-only choice for any architectural and street photography and also some landscape photography. It gives the sharpest images (and best sun star patterns at f:22) of any other lens I\'ve ever owned and tested in this focal range. The FFE range of 16mm-36mm and the f:2.8-4 aperture makes it very versatile for any walk-about shooting in daylight and even for some street photography at night with urban street lighting. Hand-held and without bracing on my Lumix G85 or GX8,I can trust to get sharp images down even to 1/4 second. This makes it an ideal lens to take into any church, cathedral, monastery, or dark castle that I\'ve ever visited. It performs better across the board than my Panasonic 7-14mm f:4 which I traded in for this lens, though I had been very happy with that lens (except for the solar flaring) until I saw the 8-18. At 18mm it gives just slightly smaller than 1:4 macro, which can be quite useful and interesting in urban and architectural shooting. Finally, being able to use a 67mm variable ND filter on this lens and with a tripod is a huge bonus for shooting moving water close up while including the background. At 8mm and f:2.8, focus the lens at 1.5m from the sensor, and the depth of field runs from a bit under 1m to infinity already. Stop it down and you\'re just improving the foreground while still at hyper focus.

Summary: It is the perfect companion lens for the Panasonic Leica 12-60mm f:2.8-f:4 which with 1:1.67 macro equivalent at 60mm basically eliminates any need to carry a macro lens for most purposes. For what the lens is and delivers, I think the price is very fair.

Cons: The build quality is unacceptable. The metal-bayonet is actually a thin steel sheet which is connected to the plasticky interior of the lens by 3 screws. These screws are screwed into 3 thin plastic bushes. My G9 with the lens attached fell from approx. 60cm on a cork floor. The whole thing broke apart, which revealed the cheapo interior. Panasonic requested 765€ for the repair.

Pros: The optical quality is simply fantastic. It easily outperforms my Canon 16-35 L 1:4.0. I used it a lot for astrophotography with my G9

Summary: A very similar review was posted by Hans-Peter on the Leica 12-60mm! This build quality doesn\'t deserve the Leica name. Just a remark: In the good old days cameras and lenses were built like tanks.Back then my brand new Olympus OM2 with the 2/85 lens fell from ca. 1,20m on a concrete (!) floor. Nothing had happened except two dents. Camera and lens continued to work flawlessly.