Finally, at 18mm, sharpness in the centre of the frame remains excellent at maximum aperture and just like at 14mm, clarity towards the edges of the frame falls behind somewhat, achieving fairly good levels. Stopping down to f/8 improves clarity towards the edges of the frame to good levels at this focal length. Manual focusing is possible in a focus-by-wire fashion. This should not put you off using it as it feels pretty natural in use, and actually enables the camera to display a magnified view of the subject automatically, i.e. without your having to press a dedicated button or enter the menu. The ridged focus ring is slim, but is adequate for the job.

Olympus 9-18, Good or bad? - Digital Photography Review Olympus 9-18, Good or bad? - Digital Photography Review

Secondly, this lens is small and light, which makes it ideally suited for long walks. In conjunction with a small camera like the Panasonic G1, carrying it in your hand all day is no issue whatsoever. So all things considered, the M.Zuiko 9-18mm f4-5.6 is still your best bet if you want a small and light super wide-angle lens for your Micro Four Thirds system that offers you more flexibility than a prime lens such as the M.Zuiko 12mm f2. And compared to the Panasonic 7-14mm f4, the M.Zuiko 9-18 is still a bargain. Additional Image Samples At 9mm, this lens is capable of producing images with excellent resolution at moderate apertures. Wide open, the lens performs acceptably, but stopping down to f/8 produces images with excellent centre sharpness. Unfortunately the resolution towards the edge of the frame never exceeds good on our scale, and it just reaches this level at f/8. The 9-18mm was one of the first lenses that I added to my Olympus bag and I would still buy it. At the time when DPReview still reviewed mft lenses, they called it an "engineering masterpiece" and that's really a valid description. Its wide enough, though 7-14 was wide, insanely wide, this in my opinion is mostly what I needed, there were very few times (less thab 5%), when I missed the wider coverage. The Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital ED 9-18mm f/4-5.6 lens takes regular 52mm filters and features a bayonet mount for the separately sold LH-55B square-cut lens hood (which was not provided to us for this test).Here is an image I shot with the 9-18mm at 9mm. I also had a ND filter to slow the shutter down. There is a center crop and a corner crop. 9mm Scene 9mm Center 9mm Corner Fully stopped-down, the lens provides average performance - 3-5 blur units at 9mm, but improving as it's zoomed in towards 18mm, where it shows around 3 blur units on average. The large, bulbous front element of the Panasonic lens creates distracting purple flare, despite the built-in petal lens hood.

Panasonic 7-14mm vs Olympus 9-18mm - Admiring Light Panasonic 7-14mm vs Olympus 9-18mm - Admiring Light

The lens is nicely balanced with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 and focusing is fast, quiet and accurate. The silent internal focusing mechanism moves only one lens element, and is ideal for filming. Image stabilization This is very light lens which makes it nice as a carry aroung provided you are limiting you shooting to the range of the lens. However, combined with Oly 14-42 or 40-150 it makes a compelling light field combination especially with the new Oly E-P1 using the 4/3 to M4/3 adapter. It’s not an exaggeration to say that all three of these lenses are extremely sharp, particularly in the center. The resolution of the 9-18mm falls off a little more toward the extreme edges and corners, but even there it’s a very strong performer. Somewhat surprisingly, the Panasonic 7-14mm shows more CA toward the midway point and edge of the frame, but it's sharper at the edges and corners than either Olympus lens.When the lens is zoomed to 14mm, the quality across the frame improves at wider apertures. f/8 will still yield the best overall quality with excellent sharpness in the centre, and very good levels of resolution towards the edges. By 18mm the performance of this lens still holds up well with the best sharpness in the centre being achieved at f/8, but with the highest quality across the frame yielded at f/11. Before we begin this comparison, it is important to keep in mind that we are dealing with two very different lenses with equally different target audiences. Whereas the Leica is a premium product with a price tag and build quality to match, the Olympus is not only the least expensive wide-angle zoom for the system but also the most compact. E-510 and the newly announced E-520 - makes capturing amazing, blur-free images possible even without a tripod. Olympus now offers two super-wide-angle zoom lenses (9-18mm affordable consumer lens and 7-14mm splash-proof lens for the pro photographer) that feature both a focal distance equivalent to less than 20mm on a 35mm camera and image stabilization. E-System owners also realize the benefits of Live View, which makes it possible to shoot from unique perspectives that are difficult with an optical viewfinder alone, including over a crowd or at ground-level to catch a toddler's first steps. Great review and some lovely pictures! Picture #11 (or thereabouts) with the mirrored cityscape is just surreal. (The last review was also very informative and similarly nicely illustrated.)

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm f4-5.6 Lens - Wex Photo Video

I have been using mine for couple ofonths and have really enjoyed using it. For me I am pleased that I brought it. I also own the 7-14/2.8 and really didn't love it. At the mean time, the Olympus M.Zuiko 9-18mm is a great option for ultra wide angle photography for Micro Four Thirds users. Do you own one? What are your experiences using this lens? Do share your thoughts! Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or green fringes along contrasty edges, are a problem with this lens, although you may be able to reduce them in post-processing. Focusing through filters is a little easier with f/2.8 aperture vs f/4. With a 10 stop ND it is sometimes difficult to frame/reframe the shot and focus with a filter in place. Yes, I can unscrew or slide the filters out of the way each time but that is another chance to drop or scratch a filter or twist the lens/camera out of position.The focusing ring of the lens is an ndented ribbed plastic just 3/16 inch wide. The ring uses a ''fly-by-wire'' system to achieve manual focus results, and the E-P1 provides some interesting manual focus functionality. When you turn the focus ring with the MF assist option on, the camera brings up a magnified center view to allow you to precisely focus. The ring will turn forever, as there are no hard or soft stops in the focus ring, and there's no way to know how many ''degrees'' of turning action are available. The fly-by-wire operation does allow for an interesting option: you can set the focus ring direction to either left or right, from the camera's menu. This is a great Ultra Wide lens for the 4/3 system at a bargain price. DPReview tested this lens and rated it Highly Recommended which matches my personal results. Now why people take so many great images with it? well it's so small it's owners will bring it everywhere creating that wide FoV for interesting images. Tony, so great to see the comparison! Any thoughts about flare? I have the 9-18mm, and I’m having trouble with flare around windows with my interior shots using available light (no flash) and HDR. I was wondering if the 7-14mm controlled flare better under these circumstances? Thanks again! The 8-25 f/4 suits my purpose perfectly--I wanted to leave my 12-40 on a copy stand camera and my 12-100f4 on a video rig, and wanted something wider than 12 mm, so the 8-25, 40-150, and 150-400 on a 1X have me covered, and I have 17 and 45 mm 1.2 primes for low light when needed....

Olympus 9-18mm M. photos on Flickr | Flickr Olympus 9-18mm M. photos on Flickr | Flickr

Do you use the lens often in 5 years? Such as use the lens for 50K shots? and zoom in and out a lot, etc. The 7-14/2.8 has plenty of sharpness and micro-contrast. Image quality is excellent. The reasons it never became a beloved lens that earned a place in my bag are the following reasons: Get the latest photography news straight to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter. Newsletter Signup I used the M.Zuiko 9-18 with a polarizer filter attached most of the time, but in the few situations where I did not use it, my impression was that the lens renders colors slightly muted and a tad to the coolish side. Of course, this is all relative when you shoot raw files and tweak the colors during post-processing. In general, less saturated colors give more leeway for post-processing. Conclusions

Corner shading isn't really an issue with this lens, with image corners exposing a quarter-stop darker than the center of the image at all focal lengths and apertures, with one exception; used at 9mm and ƒ/4, the corners are a half-stop darker than the center. Lens configuration: 15 elements in 10 groups (3 aspherical lenses, 2 ED lenses, 1 aspherical ED lens, 1 UHR lens) It takes filter so add on a small UV filter (Hoya HD Pro UV is my choice) and you are safe with the glass. I lost the lens cap (at western wall), so UV filter is all I am having on it now. Actually its good in a way, I dont have to keep worrying about removing and placing cap, all the time now. Note that for the crops below, I only included the most interesting examples. Both lenses perform best between f/4 and f/5.6 through most of the zoom range and start to suffer from diffraction past f/8. Reference image The Leica is the only one to feature an AF/MF switch on the side of the barrel. To switch between AF and MF on the Olympus, you must enter the camera menu.