Looks very nice. Personally I'm not sure it offers me any advantage over the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 I have, as I prefer the slightly less wide focal length. There are a few raw samples from the 17mm floating around and it seems its OK for sharpness. There is no real "wow" factor from what I'm seen, however I'm sure it will be a decent lens because most Olympus m4/3 lenses are and its nice that they have added a fast lens similar to a 35mm on 35mm film sized sensors.
I imagine we are are going to get endless comments about how wonderful it is for "street photography" (yawn) Interesting how many "street photographers" are seemingly so predictable and rigid in the way they think. Plus has it never occured to them that all the pictures they take will start to look pretty similar after a while? When are we going to get a "street photographer" who shoots everything on a 300mm f/2.8? Not that there is a great deal of difference already. I've lost count of the number of pictures I've seen of the homeless sleeping on the streets (well they can't answer back can they?) and people walking past some large advertising billboard with some "amusing" juxtaposition. (yawn again)
However, back to the lens. Its a nice addition to the 12mm, 45mm, 75mm fast prime lens line and I would probably have been very interested pre Sigma DP2 Merrill.
I am still in the process of shedding gear instead of adding to it and I'm currently down to eight cameras (Almost minimalist!!) Its a difficult task because I never want to sell anything, but I'm getting there, slowly I admit, and things are going off to new owners. The plan is to get down to four cameras maximum and ideally three if I can persuade myself to do it. I wonder if anyone else puts cameras on ebay hoping they don't sell??
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