When I bought my PMW-F3 in March 2011 Sony said they would be releasing a 17mm-50mm which would work with the Zoom rocker. Where is it? I believe Sigma was making the actual lens.

It ended up being an 18mm to 252mm lens. The Sony SCL-Z18X140.

No when I went to the Sony Power point launch in NYC on 42nd Street AMC theater of the PMW-F3 in April 2010 they had 3 zoom lens they were going to provide. Super wide angle Zoom, Super wide range zoom and the 17-50 auto. Everyone was there from Sony.

Just get the RED 17-50 T3. Great lens for the money and the F3 zoom rocker isn't usable as it is anyway!
(wrong position and useless speed control)

Yeah, the rocker control on the camera body when you have a 2.5kg of lens sticking forwards of the camera body doesn't really work.

Don't waste $6k on the Red zoom as it's soft. While not as well built, a Nikon 17-55 f/2.8 for $1600 is a better lens : contrast and sharpness.

I disagree. I think that RED lens is great I have never noticed any softness. plus you don't need to fiddle with an adapter that you need for the nikon.

Must say my RED 17-50 seems tack sharp to me as well?
(Plus, the 4 inch minimum focus is also incredibly useful)

Yeah, my experience with pretty much all the Red lenses is that they're plenty sharp. There's other issues from model to model, but soft has never been an issue for me, and I've intercut them with Optimos.

My first thought is that maybe Richard used one that got knocked around. All it takes is one bad hit in the right way and a zoom can go soft.