The first image seems a bit cleaner with respect to rendering textures with the intense reds here. If you look carefully at the top two red leaves on the front branch the texture of the leaf seems to almost go into red saturation blowout and the textures around the veins in the leaf aren't as clear as with the first image. The reds seem more controlled by the rendering in the first one.
I didn’t see much difference either. With pixel shift you get 16 stops of DR and more detail. Helpful with large prints and, hopefully with cropping. With 300+kB web images, I don’t see it. I’m pleased with the new lense.
There is an issue with Uploading Photos (attachjments). I am not sure what the problem is, and I am looking into it. You can still try to Create your Threads and Upload your Photos, but it is hanging up during the Upload.