Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18 mm F4.0-5.6 Lens, Wide Angle Zoom, Suitable for All MFT Cameras (Olympus OM-D & PEN Models, Panasonic G-Series), Black

Product Information

And just for fun, here is a corner crop of 7mm wide open compared to 9mm wide open. Basically both lenses wide open at their widest focal length. 7mm vs 9mm Top Left Corner Wide Open The Olympus 9-18 mm is equipped with multiple coatings on all lens elements and exhibits very little about radiation. Even a street lamp in a night scene did not ghosting on and a slight degree of over-radiation. In the same situation is much more expensive Panasonic 7-14 mm or ghosting, It actually has pronounced chromatic aberrations, but these are effectively removed in the raw processing. For me, it appears that at the longer end of the focal range it gets a bit soft, but I from 12mm on I use the 12-40mm anyway. So for me it is just a super-wide alternative that sits in a small corner of my bag in case that 12mm is not wide enough. And in this sense, the 7-14 could not be a replacement, despite the more useful focal range. But as always: That lens that you have at hand when you need it, is the best lens!

Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm 1:4-5.6 review

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. I have owned 2 copies of that lens- the 1st had the soft corners an Flare and ghosting are a fact of life on any wide angle lens due to the bulbous front element. The key to keeping flare to a minimum is to avoid strong sources of light whenever possible and to use a lens hood if one is available.The lens's optical formula is clearly strongly related to that of its Four Thirds cousin, the Zuiko Digital 9-18mm F4-5.6, which we reviewed (and liked) in February 2009. If anything, though, it's even more exotic - the 12 element, 8 group design now utilizes two dual-surface aspheric elements to form the front cell, and Extraordinary Dispersion (ED) and High Refractive (HR) glass elements are employed to combat chromatic aberration. The focusing is internal, and takes a leaf out of Panasonic's book by using a single element for maximum speed; it's also designed to provide silent operation for movie recording. Especially at the smaller focal lengths, the corner sharpness remains behind the centre sharpness. This lens, like the Olympus 45 mm 1.8, is an inexpensive lens that offers first class optical performance: a very high resolution, low distortion and low vignetting. Chromatic aberration visible at 100% cropping, which you can easily correct afterwards, is the only disadvantage when you evaluate it's optical performance. Enjoy the impeccable optical quality inherent in all ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses with this bright model: 13 lens elements in nine groups, including one aspherical ED lens and two aspherical elements award the ED 9-18mm 1:4.0-5.6 (18-36mm) * with a pronounced advantage over the competition. Coupled with the ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 18-180mm 1:3.5-6.3 (36-360mm) * lens, this affordable combination provides you with an incredible 9-180mm range (18-360mm) * for unparalleled versatility. A minimum focusing distance of 25cm round out this 2x-zoom model’s list of convenient attributes. The Panasonic 7-14mm's flare problem is pretty severe, thanks to its bulbous glass front element. Due to the way it's designed, it catches light from sources that aren't even in the frame, leaving ugly purple and green flare streaking across your subject. Occasionally flare can add a fun look to a shot, but with this lens you're likely to get that effect more often than you'd like. With its flat front element, the Olympus lens shows impressive flare resistance. We didn't observe any notable flare in the field, though when playing with our studio lights we did succeed in producing some bright purple flare when our bright lab lights were just outside the frame. The similarities between the Leica 8-18mm and the Olympus 9-18mm start and finish with their near-identical zoom range and centre sharpness. Everything else, from their build quality to their aperture range, is quite different.

Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital ED 9-18mm f/4-5.6 Review

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. Both the Panasonic Leica 8-18mm f/2.8-4.0 and Olympus M.Zuiko 9-18mm f/4.0-5.6 are variable aperture wide-angle zooms. The former has an equivalent range of 16-35mm in 35mm terms whereas the latter has a slightly more restricted range of 18-35mm in 35mm terms.

Olympus and Panasonic bodies - as well as most raw converters - correct geometric distortion automatically. Even the live image seen on the LCD screen or through the electronic viewfinder - if your camera has one - is auto-corrected for distortion. In the case of the 9-18mm Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital lens, the correction is highly successful, with only a minimum of "residual" barrel distortion seen in photos taken at a focal length of 9mm.

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm f/4-5.6 Review

Thank you for this review. Of all my Olympus lenses this is my favourite. It is superior to the Pro zoom precisely because it is smaller and lighter! A lens which weighs 3 times as much and is 3 times as big defeats the purpose of M43. The only concern is it is f4.0 minimum so requires higher ISO in low light setting and/or an external flash to prevent a shadow from the lens. The internal flash on any of the Oly 4xx, 5xx, or 6xx cameras is too low and results in a shadow at the widest setting (i.e. 9 mm). The lens is designed for the four-thirds sensor system, meaning it will provide an effective field of view of 18-36mm (a 2x ''crop factor''). The lens is compatible with regular four-thirds camera bodies via an adapter. This lens isn't a "constant" lens, in that as you increase the focal length, the maximum aperture size decreases, though the minimum aperture size remains the same. The following table reflects the changes as you zoom: Focal length 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.

The Micro Four Thirds system utilises software to correct certain types of lens aberrations including distortion. These correction parameters are encoded into the RAW file, so it is unlikely you’ll notice any of the lens’ native distortion as long as you use a popular RAW converter such as Adobe Lightroom that is capable of converting the files correctly. Note that these corrections are also applied in-camera to the JPGs. Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc. In the M.ZUIKO Digital ED 9-18mm f/4-5.6, Olympus employed an iris diaphragm with rounded aperture blades for a pleasing bokeh, but it was only partially successful - as seen in the examples below. 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. I have two other lenses that function great so it's probably not a camera issue, but I desperately need this lens as my only wide angle lens.