Back about 25 years ago photography was a hobby, but also photo equipment. I would buy, trade, sell, etc. One day I had a bunch of equipment on a table and a gentleman came along and looked at an assortment of lenses, of which there were some Olympus lenses. He related this story to me: For years he had worked as an engineer for GE. They were just developing circuit boards and the way they did that was to take a photograph and somehow use the negative to etch the boards. He said they tested the lenses of all the major camera companies and found Olympus lenses to resolve the best. Despite this they ended up going with Nikon -- the reason -- the Olympus bodies weren't as rigid and the thin-metal back of the OM series of cameras allowed the film plate to move 1/2500th of an inch and that wasn't critical enough. The film plate on the Nikon was rock solid though. I've always considered Olympus lenses equal to any on the market including the elite group you listed above. I've wished they would go into making 3rd party lenses for other companies like Contax is doing to some extent.