Somehow I got lucky and got this lens fast, while it seems it's much delayed for others.
I had its predecessor, the 14-140mm F:4.0 lens. I really liked it. Before, I'd used a Nikon 10X zoom and a Pentax 10X zoom. Those are both good lens-makers, so I was disappointed that the Nikkor was soft in the edges at the long end, and the Pentax was really blurred in the edges at the short end. And I was very pleased that this Pana lens didn't have any such obvious flaws. Obviously a 10X zoom is not quite as sharp as the best prime lenses, but I'm always pleased with my results and would not hesitate to use them in exhibitions. It has great contrast and color rendition, and the sharpness leaves nothing to be desired in my view.
The new version (F:3.5) in short: It's a centimeter shorter, a bit slimmer, a bit faster, and *40% lighter*! And it keeps the same image quality. This is almost miraculous.
In other words, put it on a good, recent Micro-Four-Thirds camera (I have both Panasonic and Olympus (including the OM-D), currently I use the E-PL5 most, and you have a very light-weight, but still really high-quality kit, with a zoom range which covers everything I normally encounter, and which is very fast reacting for street-photography. (The touch-to-focus-and-shoot is great for this.) (Oh, and the E-PL5 has beautiful quality even at ISO 6,400!)
For an all-round, compact, flexible kit, I think you'll be hard pressed to find anything better than this.
(Tip: if you use it on an Olympus camera, for this lens, turn off the in-body IS and use the OIS on the lens. At least this is best with the E-PL5, it's possible the 5-way IS of the OM-D and E-P5 is better at handling this long zoom range.)
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