Thanks for your input, Daniel. What's your take on the DO's lack of sharpness being primarily due to low acutance rather than low resolution (and the implication that unlike poor resolution, poor acutance can be corrected in post)? Looking at Bryan's ISO 12233 crops, even the solid black areas of the chart are relatively gray, i.e. poor contrast).


Quote Originally Posted by Daniel Browning
the DO only makes sense for circumstances when a few inches of length and a few ounces of weight are more important than money and image quality

That comes pretty close to my situation, with the caveat that the DO also has substantially better build quality than the non-DO (I really hate a focus ring that moves during AF, to name one example). If I want the best IQ in a similar zoom range, the 70-200 II does the trick. Really, I'm trying to save the most on size (weight is less important) without sacrificing too much IQ.