I have had this lens for several years, and have taken it all around the world and taken 10's of thousands of pictures with good luck. When I started using this for eBay images the lens was OK but required a ton of light to allow proper focus and the long focal length required I use a tripod even at 100 or 125th of a second to get a sharp image.

lots of noise unless you have light, light, light, then still needs touch up,

Good lens for its specs, olympus needs to rethink its lens diversity and quality and get rid of its lowerend and reset the price for upper end and high quality lenses.

telephoto shooting catches edge of lens hood in photos

quite a bit of grain when shooting in smaller aperatures even when have low ISO

if you like macro, don't even think this lens can get you that

a good combo of the 14-42 and 40-150 lenses if you get tired of switching them on the camera body (like i did)

This lens is a big upgrade over the two kit lenses. The focal length is great and keeps you from having to change between lenses often. Good focus time and sharp images as long as you have enough light. If you don't want to carry multiple lenses, this is perfect.

Not as contrasty or sharp as the higher end lenses but it is still a great all-purpose lens.