Rolf Dergham

The Panasonic 20mm f1.7 is really a great lens but it has somewhat of a split personality, I just wish it would have decent manual focus control, faster and quieter auto-focus and none of that horrible banding on Olympus.

I've been doing some research on the topic. I also hate this "feature". They should concentrate on making better and more stable interfaces instead of such "features". I am not sure, but it seems to me (after tesnting it) that Panasonic bodies have a more "linear" focus-by-wire ratio. I could not find any confirmation online, though. Olympus and Sony, unfortunately, definitely use variable focus rates by default. Yet some Olympus lenses have a linear mode where you can have something which mimicks traditional manual focus, even with hard stops. They're the more expensive lenses though. Why should I have to pay premium and limit myself to these lenses just to avoid the crap that they created in the first place. Focus by wire can be useful. For example, it would be great to have a button that you can press for "precision focus" adjustements, and keep a linear ratio otherwise. In other words it can be useful to change the focus ratio, but not automatically and all over the place like it is done now. For now the only real solution is proper manual focus lenses. They're a pleasure to use in comparison.