Hi HillTop1, that's good news, I might get a free lens if everybody say that!!! :D I don't know if they are still in back orders. But I would say it takes around 1 month to get the lens after you order it directly from the manufacturer.

@stonebat: Thanks, there was no color correction applied in post. Only a denoiser filter (starting at the starbucks section)

@Crazypete: Thanks, the fireworks looks really good with this lens (it actually looks pretty good without camera as well). The music is from ewan dobson. It's a great lens. It's a good addition to my voigtlander 25mm

Sorry, forgot to share my first opportunity to use this lens: it's exactl(e)ly what I thought - bitchy, flary lens with a personality :) I could have gotten an Oly 9-18 for much better results, but I was selfish. All in all, a great lens for the price!

@jo447 The ending to your video is particularly terrific - the fireworks look spectacular and the way the light reflects off of the people in the scene... I really liked it. What was the music?

Now that I have the lens again with all elements intact, I'm looking for the right 58-77mm step up ring to use for filters..anyone have suggestions and what they're using?

@Ptchaw Re: distortion see Seb Farges video above.. the tilts at 0:44-0:47.. You won't notice anything wierd on a still because there are no points of reference! If you think about how extreme the OLY distortion is (uncorrected) it is not hard to understand why these things happen, and why the SLR Magic would be easier to try and correct in post.

On the OLY, extremes resolution is 30-20% lower than centre (30 wide open up to ) from wide open up to 5.6, when it starts to even out slightly more. Extremes and border resolution is pretty similar for this lens - troughout - the only exception is wide open when the extremes suffer quite a bit more than border resolution. On the SLR Magic, extremes resolution is 40-30% lower than centre in the extremes (40 wide open up to f4) whereas border resolution is in-between 5-10% of centre sharpness troughout the entire range. If you crop the image (to 2.35:1 for instance), you will loose the extremes alltogether.

The differences in construction is clear - slr magic sacrifice a lot in the corners and little in the borders whereas OLY sacrifice borders and corners troughout for centre sharpness - where you get about a 5% increase in resolution compared to the SLR Magic. I would hardly make that out to be such a massive difference as you describe. (tack sharp vs. super soft out wide)

I'd avoid both in instances where I want things (in focus) happening in left and right edges of the frame.

Then you talk about how you cannot shoot the SLR magic wide open.. well - the OLY starts from f2 not f1.6. Stopping down a faster lens to avoid flares cannot really be a problem in comparison to a slower lens - unless you need to stop down a lot - which you don't! It evens up already at f2-f2.8!

How these two work for stills photography is a different matter alltogether.

@Ptchaw, not true! The image looks wierd, the software compensation is not the same as the image created by optics.. Panning / movement at the edges of the frame looks bad as a result. You can't correct a fisheye lens without some wierd stuff starting to happen, for instance.

Don't use the SLR magic if you want to put sharp / highly detailed objects in corners. Don't use either of them. Use a 25-50mm (50-100 ff equivalent) lens and step back instead.

Flaring is virtually non-existent on the SLR magic unless wide open. And it's indeed a matter of personal preference.

@Ptchaw I think the barrel distortion of the OLY looks more unnatural (at least in video) than the slr magic, that is the point I'm making. I have not tried to correct either of them in post so I can't say how that works out for either of them (video footage) as I have not tried.. Distortion is to be expected on such a wide lens even if there are aspherical (correcting) elements in it. Soft is a relative term that is only fit to describe your own tastes..

In terms of resolving power, the slr magic is very OK for such a wide lens. I would certainly not descibe it as soft, when stopped down to f2.8 or so..

Off the cuff I think the slr magic seems the current bargain (if you can deal with the hassle) in this focal length.

here you can get the facts:

OLY distortion: http://www.photozone.de/olympus--four-thirds-lens-tests/673-oly12f2?start=1 (hover on the image to see the raw, uncorrected image)

SLR Magic distortion: http://www.photozone.de/olympus--four-thirds-lens-tests/685-slrmagic_12_16?start=1

And you can easily see that the difference in resolving power between the two isn't massive. A slight edge for the OLY.

@RRRR Anyone who says they prefer barrel distortion or softness over sharper, rectilinear lenses is lying to themselves. A lens with no distortion is the most 'natural'. If you want to loose resolution, gaussian blur to your hearts content.

Mine came in as well. Even a couple of days earlier than promised. Here's a couple of pics (GH2). Only the trees had a bit of Photoshop treatment. Didn't take any representative video's with it yet. Working on that tomorrow.

I like.

It seems i totally forgot to post this video sample in this thread! I posted it in the driftwood thread since I was mainly testing the patch but it's also a nice lens test ;)