Having taken a few shots by now with the 45-200, I have not found as some have stated that the IQ falls off towards full zoom --perhaps this was an issue with earlier copies of the lens (think this has been mentioned elsewhere). It seems to me in fact to have similar characteristics to the 14-45 overall --not as striking as the 20mm for instance but perfectly competent. There is sometimes more lateral CA but this is usually easily corrected. I'm curious whether anyone has had unsharp images which are certainly not caused by camera shake. I've had the odd suspicious one where I thought the focus had simply missed but as there was no sharp point visible, I'm rather doubting it. And MF is pretty good if necessary. Those who don't like the lens,is it simply because the OIS isn't as good as expected -- I would say at full zoom you need 1/200 to be safe handheld or are there specific IQ issues? Certainly I have found that mode 1 OIS is better than mode 2 for this lens and of course you must wait until the image is completely still in the EVF if possible, otherwise it will be shaken! David
There seems to be such a tremendously varying user experience from this lens that it's really hard to say for certain if there's a bad batch, the lenses are just bad, or if there's user error. If you've got a good copy and are happy with the results, then good on ya! You've got a very good value lens. As for poor results being from camera shake, it's possible. I think people generally overestimate how much IS is going to help them and expect bloody miracles. If you think you have a bad lens, put it on a tripod/monopod and try again. If it's still not performing, then you can blame the lens or the camera or the combination. If it starts performing, then it's just the user expecting too much gain from IS. Just my 2c!
