I got a great buy on an Olympus E3 (on eBay) and a 12/60 SWD zoom. Beautifully built and
handles nicely...BUT...autofocus images are not sharp. I have also acquired a 50/2 macro and a 50/200 SWD...autofocus images not sharp. All of these lenses have received very positive reviews regarding sharpness...
I shut off the AF and went to manual focusing only...50-200 SWD now very sharp...not quite up to my 180 Nikkor or the 80-200, but side by side 11x17s require real close viewing to see the Nikon lenses are sharper. The 50 macro on MF is now very good, but the 55/2.8 micro-nikkor is much better. The 12/60 (supposedly the best, sharpest of its genre) is somewhat better at MF, but my MF Nikkors in these focal length ranges have a decided edge.
So...what's the story? Is this a firmware issue? Did I get a couple of mediocre lenses? Am I expecting more out of the lenses than the Olympus engineers could engender? I could take the 50/200 SWD anywhere and be confident of very good results...the other two?
Make sure you have firmware 1.4, but the E-3 has known QC issues with regards to AF accuracy. Some bodies are good, some are quite poor.
As to the lenses, they should be quite sharp, all three are notable performers. Try them in manual with Live View using magnification, it's much better than the viewfinder on the E-3 (which may be slightly out of calibration in your case).
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