Well, this happened.
Don’t say I cannot take a hint!
Reviews are interesting, but lets assume that different copies and different testing procedures may throw up inconsistencies. According to one reviewer, the Sirui is the better lens optically, but since then I have found several that contradict that, one offering a very handy direct comparison of footage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKdFwreVyN4.
The Sirui 16 T1.2 has proven too hard to find at a decent price (over $600au). I could wait, but with my video “breaking through” lately and my vision becoming more focussed, filling this last hole has become a priority, especialy as I have embraced the GH5s with no stabiliser except rig weight.
Every time I searched for the Sirui, the Hope popped up and Sirui right now just seems to be too hard to source. The logic of matching my 24mm Sirui with a 16 is sound and the 16 seems to be one of their best, but the further logic of a small set of Hope lenses and the Sirui 24 kept just for very low light is also sound.
The slower Hope is possibly less versatile, but the reality is the Sirui super light focus pull is possibly too light and the extra speed I will rarely use, combined with a $200 price difference (only here in Australia it seems), means the Hope was re-ordered.
The 16/25/50 Hope series come in at 32/50/100 on most MFT cameras, but on my GH5s become a 28/45/90 near perfect combo backed up by the 24 Sirui (48/43) for speed and the Vision 12 (24/21) for wide.
I also have of course a raft of AF glass, but my direction is to force a clear divide between stills and video with the “catch all” G9II as the AF exception, the rest of my video being mostly MF cine glass.
For $456au, half paid for by cancelling some pre-ordered games (funny how work blunts that flame), seems like a logical move, over $600 not so much.