I bought this lens to use with the OM-D EM5 Mk II. I took with me to Europe, looking for a versatile and compact lens that would allow me to travel light. The pros: This lens is incredibly fast to focus, compact, excellent color reproduction. I was able to get some beautiful shots. Paired with the em5-II, I was especially pleased the low-light performance, the combo of a f1.8 aperture, relatively short focal length, paired with the great Olympus camera stabilization, this lens allowed me to walk around at night and get great images, really capturing that european city romance, only with available light.
The cons: This lens is a touch soft throughout the aperture range. It's sharp enough for pleasing results, but not tack-sharp as I would expect. The close focus capabilities aren't amazing either. Also, I had a gripe with the the manual focus experience. The lens has a manual focus clutch, allowing the user to pull-back the focus ring, revealing a focus distance scale and engaging a more dampened twist. The promise is a classic street-shooting experience. It's sounds like an awesome feature, but it does not feel as easy or as pleasurable to use as a classic manual-focus prime. There were some technical quirks that really brought down the experience too, when switching to manual mode via the clutch mechanism, certain settings would turn off or would not engage, including manual focus assists. With such a technologically capable mirrorless system, it's quite disappointing that the clutch is handicapped by software quirks. In contrast, on the Sony system, manual focus is a breeze using a simple adapter with and a vintage lens, and the assists easily help you nail the focus. I think some of these could be addressed by a much needed software update. Overall, the MF was bit of a frustrating experience, and I found myself keeping the lens mostly in auto-focus.
I found the 35mm-equivalent focal length versatile, but also a little awkward. This is not the fault of this particular lens, but just a warning to photographers who might not regularly shoot at this focal length. I often wished I had touch more width for landscapes and tight city-shooting, and a touch more reach for portraits and environmental details.
I was able to get some truly great images with the em5-mkII paired with this lens. Even the JPEGs are just excellent, with very nice color, and a pleasing histogram where contrast can be easily adjusted for more punch. If you know that you like the 35mm equivalent focal length, and you are invested in the Olympus system, then it may be a good option for you.
The issue is, the lens is significantly overpriced, especially considering one of it's coolest promised features does not live up to the hype. Overall the 17mm 1.8 is compact, versatile, and well-crafted, but I'm not sure that it is right for everyone. 5 stars would have meant: this lens is an essential buy. 4 stars would have meant "I really liked it, and don't regret buying it". 3 stars means "I liked it, but I would also consider other options"
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