What I’m about to say has been said many times in the thirty-seven years since EF lenses were introduced. It doesn’t matter how good a lens is if the camera can’t focus it properly.

The 50mm Summilux-SL is capable of phenomenal image quality. But while the SL2’s usually dodgy eye AF works beautifully with the lens at near distances, spot and field are horrendous at any distance over 20 meters and can easily miss inside that range. Today the setup missed critical focus on three single-shot opportunities.

The really interesting thing is that iAF works better than AF-C on moving subjects, but seldom does justice to AF lenses unless the subject is really slow-moving. Bottom line: something’s gotta give.

Which has had me reading about the S5II, whose AF is supposedly much better than DFD, but still not as good as Canon and Sony (according to the “experts”). Although I’m in an area with very favorable pricing on Lumix bodies, adding a camera body while I’m on the road with two already is just not practical.

But neither is it acceptable to continue to miss shots with a “reference standard” lens. As I said, something’s gotta give. Trouble is, it’ll probably take a while . . .

SL2/Lumix S 20-60mm . . .