The bigger question is, are we mentally prepared to withstand the onslaught of howls of righteous indignation, squeals of despair, & fits of temper & tantrums that occur EVERY SINGLE TIME a new lens is released?
Oh woe is me, mine's soft in one corner. Mine's soft in 2 corners. Mine's soft in all 4 corners. Mine's decentered. Mine won't focus on a barn door. It's disgraceful, I paid all this money, I've tried & returned 14 different copies of this lens, and NONE are any good. NONE I tell you. Panasonic should be hung, shot, hung again & then beheaded for such p!ss poor QA. Do they even have QA in place? I can buy a full frame camera that's smaller, cheaper & lighter than this overpriced piece of garbage. My $100 kit zoom takes twice as sharp pictures as that.
I can't wait.
There are two (perceived vs other mfrs) problems with m43 lenses. In my opinion, a lot of the crying and online temper tantrums are from people who are new to photography and don't have experience playing the lens game.
Specifically with m43:
1) No adjustability; what you get is what you get. paying over 1,000 euros/USD for a lens carries with it an expectation that you're getting something above consumer grade hardware. If it's decentered or you've got a lame corner, likely you're going to have to find a different copy, either by warranty or buying another one.
Counterpoint: unless spending the big bucks for pro stuff, most of Canikon's lineup is not adjustable, either. They will service a defective lens usually by sending you a different one.
Counterpoint #2: some lenses don't hold adjustments very well. When dealing with expensive, low production volume exotic glass, a drop probably means sending it back for another adjustment. By fixing the elements in place, consumer grade lenses can take a lot more abuse.
2) high production variances. It seems like you have to order 3 or 4 lenses from different places and test each, then keep the best one. Same as it ever was.
Counterpoint: This occurs with all lens manufacturers. Some are better than others, and a lot of white labeling is going on so consumers can't always know what glass is made by whom. Sigma and Tamaron have, historically, horrendous records with production variance. It happens also with Zeiss and Leica, they are not immune.
Counterpoint #2: the reality is that small defects don't matter for most consumers. If you're not using a lens for professional / paid work, likely the variance is acceptable for the vast majority of our photographs, especially as apertures widen up.
Repair:
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There are no shortage of horror stories for lens repair in Nikon and Canon centers, but you can get lenses repaired pretty easily and fixed if they're suddenly blurry after a drop for a modest (to original purchase price) cost.
Olympus specifically has a "pro service" plan that you can enroll for and covers the entirety of the M.Zuiko line, not just "pro" lenses. I don't have any idea how well the service works but it seems as good on paper as the others. Personally I don't care if the lens is repaired or replaced and inside of 12 months is plenty of time to spot a defect and send it in. They also have a pretty liberal 6 month warranty extension available that looks well worth it.
I don't know if Panasonic has the same service plan as Olympus. It's something I'd like to learn more about before making a significant investment.
