Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'll keep this concise. Where I'm coming from: I bought the Panasonic GF1 for its form factor. I was tired of lugging my full SLR rig around (which I still have). I have been remarkably pleased with the image quality the GF1 has when paired with 20mm f/1.7. I really wanted to like this lens. Why I bought this lens: I thought I could make the GF1 become my all round camera. I thought this lens could create a nice rangefinder type feeling like the Leica's. I could tote it around in a small bag and potentially travel with it. Conclusion: The lens is a full mismatch for the GF1. All of the GF1's shortcomings come to light and many of the benefits disappear. Issues: 1. Weight- The lens is much heavier than I thought it would be. With the short camera body and the long lens, the camera felt "uncomfortable" in the hand. Holding the camera steady is much more of a chore than on other SLR's because your eye isn't giving another point of support. It's like shooting an SLR with one hand. This issue is exacerbated when shooting long. The weight forces the camera to droop downward when hanging around your neck. 2. Diameter/Size- The diameter of the lens barrel is also much thicker than I thought it would be. With the lens on, the GF1 immediately lost all of its nimbleness. Instead of a rangefinder type camera that I wanted, the lens made the GF1 become the bulky SLR I was trying to avoid. The lens size also makes the camera look awkward on the GF1. This lens is probably much better suited with G1. 3. Focus issues- Shooting indoors is very unpleasant. The lens hunts for focus even in a well lit room. This is exacerbated by the f/4.0-5.8 aperture. I hesitate to say it's not suited to be used indoors at all. Granted all these are not due to the lens but I don't have the same issues with the 20mm f/1.7. 4. Aperture- This lens is dark. The f/4.0 max aperture may be tolerable but it seems it gets to f/5.8 pretty quickly as you zoom out. Indoors, you need to crank up the ISO to 1600 to get a reasonable shot. However, for some reason, the camera forces the user to select any ISO below 400... annoying. 5. Sharpness- I use a 18-200mm on my other SLR (decline to state which). The 14-140mm sharpness is inferior to the 18-200mm on my other camera. You almost might as well use a point and shoot (ugh). 6. Focus ring & zoom ring placement gets difficult to use. You can probably get accustom to this. But, it didn't work for me. 7. Manual focus almost impossible without a tripod. Working with the screen to zoom in on anything above 50mm seemed almost impossible. This is only an issue because I wanted to get around the autofocus hunting. What is it good for: 1. Outdoor shots. 2. Probably matched well with the G1. It should be a good walkabout lens. 3. A person who doesn't have an alternate SLR.