Bought this lens as it was the fastest 4/3 system zoom lens at the time (April 2010). Extremely satisfied with it! Kudos to Panasonic management for choosing to partner with the best expertise around. Performance: - Zoom & Aperture: Great zoom versatility, but having experienced the very fast 20mm/1.7 pancake lens (with my gf1), it makes me miss a larger aperture once in a while. But then, in day time walking around, it gives me great freedom to zoom into favorite compositions. Actually wider than the 20mm prime for landscape shots. The maximum aperture runs up automatically from 3.5 (at 14mm=28mm equiv) to 5.6 (at 150mm=300mm equiv) easily noticeable when in Aperture mode. - Stunningly sharp: Living 7 blocks away from the Chrysler building, when playing with some zoom shots, I discovered I could distinguish individual bricks and slabs on the facade when zooming in all the way. Again STUNNING sharpness. - The image stabilizer called MEGA OIS does its job, but I try to stay away from low light & shutter speed situations with this lens. It will still be useful to practice steady hand shots, especially since this lens is very heavy. In my case I'll be buying a x-pod to increase versatility at slow shutter speeds. Generally wise to try and lean against anything solid and to use a viewfinder so that you can press the heavy camera-lens combination against your face for minimal stability. - Out of focus areas look nice, although it is more difficult to use DOF as a creative element with this lens. Haven't experimented enough with the DOF program setting of the camera. Usage: - Very silent: Neither the focus nor the MEGA OIS makes notice-able noise so this lens is superb for video recordings as well. - Build: The build of the lens feels very solid and very comfortable as you would expect of a Leica lens or any lens in price range. Perfect if it wasn't for creep: All the way in (at 14mm) the lens has (too) little resistance to creep. Once the zoom setting is over the slightest mechanical bump at 14mm, my lens WILL slowly creep out to 150mm. - Transport: Using a belt suspended bottle cage (LowePro) combined with the camera's shoulder strap protects against creep and more importantly from the heavy camera-lens combination to sway into anything harmful. The LowePro bottle cage is also a great way to have this lens, including its hood, on standby when you're using your prime lens. - 4/3 system-wise this lens works flawless. Particularly since image's orig

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