Do other G6 owners find the long end of the zoom a bit soft?

I've owned the G6 for about 8 months, now, and it seems the images are not as crisp at the long end of the zoom. This isn't a big surprise as most zooms are not sharp across their entire range and, naturally, we all tend to shoot at wider apertures with the telephoto end more than we should or try to hand-hold the cam when the shutter speed is too slow.

How about IS in the next G-series camera? Woot.

Anyone else notice this with their G6?

Yes, image is soft at upper corners and towards telephoto end. At F5.6 it’s OK. On dpreview.com forums many users reported similar, therefore I believe that all G6s have the same problem.

Seems to make sense. I try to use f/5.0 for all my shooting, being smack-dab in the middle of the aperture range. Of course, I often need to use wider apertures for certain situations.

Its well documented that every camera has sweet spot and it just so happens that on the G6 its at about F5.6. Shooting near or at this aperture setting will always provide best results (eg for minimum abberations, purple fringing, maximum sharpness).

I have to admit i still find F2.0 for telephoto sharp quite sharp.

f/2.0 is almost a necessity in many situations for my shooting. One of the big reasons for opting for the G6 over a smaller compact is the fast lens. I used to own the Konica Hexar that featured a fixed 35mm f/2 lens, and I became dependent on it. I, too, find the short end of the G6's lens to be very sharp at almost any f/stop.

Too bad the camera didn't go a bit wider and still had that fast aperture. I have been toying with the idea of the WA converter, but it's kind of a large honker and I can't use the shade with it.