Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm f/4-5.6 Lens
UPC's:
MPN's:
Panny 7-14mm or Oly 9-18mm?
Probably everyone is wondering the same thing as I did: The Panny 7-14mm, or Olympus m.zukio 9-18mm? So I bought both. While testing showed in daylight they are about the same, low light was interesting. First the size. When you see these diminuitive lenses, you may think, I spent how much for this?? But this is one of a few cases where less really IS more. The Oly lens is about the size of a small jar of baby food, the Panny is probably a about ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
My new favorite m43 lens
This lens has exceeded my expectations. Based on some internet review sites, you might expect this lens to be horribly blurry. But my experience has been the opposite. This is the sharpest m43 lens I own at the focal lengths between 12 and 18mm, when stopped down appropriately. At the widest angles, there is a little more lateral CA and a little more corner softness, but the corners degrade in sharpness in a manner that doesn't call attention to ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Needs a Lens Hood
I use this lens with my Panasonic GH2. With the 2x crop factor this lens behaves like a 18-36mm. I went with this lens instead of the Lumix Vario 7-14mm because this lens allows the use of filters. I needed the ability to use ND filters and Polar filters. This lens is perfect for outdoor landscape photography. This lens is not good for indoor photography or for shooting buildings/people. It has a lot of barrel distortion at the edges which makes ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
A Very Useful, Portable Lens
I bought this lens for use on my Panasonic GF-1 to cover wider angles below the 14mm (28mm Full Frame equivalent)available on the kit lens. Its main intended use was as a very portable travel Wideangle. It has rapidly become my favourite micro 4/3 lens and now spends more time on the camera than either the 14-45 or 14-140. The 18-36mm FF equivalent covers my most used range, output (sharpness, colours, contrast) is great, and for daylight hand he... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Sharp.
Reading the online reviews and resolutions tests, you'd expect to see liquid images in the corner, but it's actually not too bad. I'd call it near-even performance, in that you don't look at the corners and think you should just crop them off. It's just difficult to compose something where the center and the corner are both in focus, so test with just the corner in focus, and you'll see. I find it to be a more-than-adequate substitute for super-w... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Great, tiny super-wide
I love this super-wide lens. It's much more usable than the Panasonic 7-14mm: no huge, bulbous front element, and much smaller and more portable, with a more useful zoom range. Even though it's 9mm narrower, it's still plenty wide and distorts like an ultrawide should. Optically, this lens is also quite decent. I hear it's not quite as sharp as the Panasonic but still more than good enough. (You won't notice anyway.) The zoom ring is also nicely ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
nice zoom range
A good lens. I love the zoom range. In prior experience with film, I never had wider than 24mm, which I liked very much, and I always missed that focal length with digital zooms typically stopping at 28mm equivalent. Now I find that I'm using the wide end of this zoom more than anything. I have used it mainly for videos. Whatever distortion there is does not pose a problem. The zoom ring is slightly too stiff/rough for video, so far; maybe it wil... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Very pleased
I bought this lens primarily to take real estate photos. I am not a professional photographer, but have a friend in Real Estate and he asked if I could take pictures for him, since his camera was unable to do justice to the houses and the space in each room. I use this both with my panasonic gf1 and panasonic g1 and get great results from each. Barrel distortion is noticeable, of course, at 9mm (18mm equivalent), but easily corrected for in softw... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Essential for traveling, fantastic lens
This is a great lens for traveling and especially with the GF1 for the whole compact package.The wide-angle is fantastic; sharp and focuses quite fast. I also have the 20mm pancake, but I have this lens mounted most of the time. Its also great for video as the wide-angle hides a lot of the focus searching and hand-holding vibration (which is otherwise very apparent if you use the 20mm pancake lens with big apertures), and of course, it grabs the ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Soft, and it stopped working
I'm recently making the move from my Canon to lighter weight M4/3. So far happy with my first Olympus the em 5 mkII - quite a camera. I'm used to wide angle lenses being high contrast and really SHARP - the Canon 10-22 EFS (NOT an L series - the Oly 'pro' equivalent) is tack sharp as an example. This 9-18 is disappointing. Soft - clearly not tack sharp and you'll notice this if you enlarge/crop at all. I was still a bit undecided and then it malf... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Most versatile wide angle zoom for m4/3
I love how the Olympus m4/3 camera's are very infrared friendly making it quite easy to get some false color or monochrome near infrared photographs Since I most often take false color IR landscapes, I opted for this lens for its' versatility with focal length range, size and filter-ability as opposed to say the Lumix Vario 7-14 which was bigger, a more limited focal length, and would be a bit more complicated to use filters with The only apprehe... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Good compact lens
This is a very compact wide angle lens. It is light, collapses into a small volume, and seems to be made of durable materials. It also takes 52mm filters which are small and relatively inexpensive (some wide zooms lenses can't be used with filters). When I checked it on my Olympus M10 I found the optical quality to be very good, with only a little softness in the extreme corners at the widest angle and at the wide aperature. Otherwise it is very ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Sweet little lens
Ultra-wide angle zoom lenses can cost a bundle and they are big! This is the most affordable and the smallest one in the Micro 4/3 system. Olympus made a very wise choice in making the zoom range from 9-18mm instead of 7-14. Those 2 extra millimiters actually would have made the lens much larger. And Olympus slowed the lens down to f/4-5.6. Certainly NOT a fast lens, BUT what you get is a true ULTRA-wide zoom that weighs less than 6 ouces and col... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Should be zero stars for this lens
This Olympus lens does not autofocus on my (or my friend's) Panasonic G2 camera. I've sent it twice to Olympus for service. I have been told by Olympus service that the lens autofocuses on an Olympus camera, and that an Olympus lens can be guaranteed to work only on an Olympus camera. I've checked with both Olympus and Panasonic. Neither service department will service a lens/camera combination made by different manufacturers. What have I learned... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
The broader view...
It's great to be able to add wide angle versatility to the micro 4-3rds package. I love the size of the lens and the way it collapses when not in use; that adds a great deal to the portability. There's nothing to gripe about regarding the image quality, either. It might not be the fastest lens in the world, but there aren't too many times that I find myself wanting to shoot wide angle in low light situations. The ability to add filters is a major... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
My new day lens
I own the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens and the 14-45mm that shipped with my GF1. Since I bought the 9-18mm Olympus lens I use it as my day lens, and the 20mm at night or when I need nice bokeh or really sharp images. The wide angle is very useful, I'm doing more star trail photography and this lens is what I needed. It's very light and small, even though it's collapsible it's ready to use in an instant. I did not expect or care for it to be sharp at all in the corners and it isn't, but I wish it was a bit sharper in the center. Maybe I just got used to the 20mm.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
great potential
when I tried out this lens in a camera store in California, it seemed fabulous -- exactly what I needed for my Black Magic Pocket. However, when the same lens arrived from B&H warehouse (a few days before I had to go on a long voyage), the zoom was not smooth, there was a nasty bump (always at the same place) in the action. I've returned the lens and will buy another (once I'm back in the states) but only if I am allowed try it out -- and, by that, I mean if I am able to test the actual merchandise first before plopping down the cash...
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Outstanding quality for micro 4/3 line..
I love this lens on the Olympus E-P2. The wide end is great for landscapes and the other end is a decent walk-around focal length. Sharpness is quite good and chromatic aberration is minimal. There is a bit of distortion in the peripheral on the wide end, but its correctable. This lens is FAR higher quality, in my opinion, than the kit lens (14-42mm). Also, the front element does not rotate during focus, so it's usable with a circ polarizer. The small size is another major plus for this lens. I'm VERY pleased with this purchase.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Great
I use this lens as my general walk-around lens on a Panasonic GF-1 in stead of the usual kit lens. I purchased this lens refurbished from B&H. It arrived in great condition, and unlike some negative reviews elsewhere, I found my copy pin sharp. Build quality is good, and I expect many years of good use. Only small issue is that the lens extends forward about twice its length when in use, and it causes the built-in flash of the Panasonic GF-1 to cast a shadow on the subject. A separate flash has to be used with this lens.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Amazing compact lens
To me, it belongs to the compact holy binity (the other one being the Pany 35-100 f/4-5.6). They cover an incredible range (the missing 19-34mm range you cover by walking a little bit or getting a zoom pancake) and weight less than 150g each. Can you have it in any other system? I hope Olympus and Panasonic dont forget the main strength of this system. Negatives: The silver accent at the bottom; The cosmetic (and optional) hood. Hint: the alternative LH-55C for the 12-50mm is more useful and doesnt vignette; The price.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
4.3 rating from 53 reviewers correct
Most important thing is the lens gives excellent results, sharp and good color from a 1/2 pound compact lens. Images from 1st 12 shots still good with 10x enlargement! This means it can be your everyday lens (and it is now on my M10) because you can crop image of a far off object if you don't have time to change to a telephoto. Not perfect but better than missing the shot.I would rate this lens as 5 star if price was$ and a lens hood was included. Chinzy of Olympus to not throw in $10 worth of plastic for a $$lens.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Excellent super wide angle lens
I bought this lens to use on an Olympus E-P2 and Panasonic G-3. It works perfectly on both cameras. The lens is well-built and takes sharp pictures with good color. The zoom range is perfect for my needs...super wide to nearly normal. I also like the size of the lens; its not too long, wide or heavy. I like being able to add a UV filter to protect the lens, which some other wide angle lenses can't accept. This has been an excellent addition to my photo gear. I definitely recommend.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
A nice compact wide-angle lens
This is a remarkably compact super wide. It's just slightly longer, but has a smaller diameter than the 14-42 e-p2 kit lens. Combined with the kit lens, this wide angle makes the perfect traveling outfit. This lens is very sharp; and so far I have found the auto-focus to be fast and reliable. The only complaint is that, for the price, Olympus does not include a lens hood. And further, the lens hood is hard to find. I finally ordered one from the Olympus web site.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
small wonder
I've only had a chance to do a short test run with the lens, but it seems to focus quickly and accruately. That and good sharpness are what i primarily am interested in. It isn't the smallest lens I own, but it it certainly light! The build quiality seem good, but I would still hate to drop it as it is plastic. Considering the price, I'd say it's a great choice for four thirds photographers that are looking for a good, versitile wide angle lens to use outdoors.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
