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Olympus E 9-18mm f 4.0-5.6 Zuiko Lens for Olympus Digital SLR Cameras

Olympus E 9-18mm f 4.0-5.6 Zuiko Lens for Olympus Digital SLR Cameras by Olympus List Price: $699.99 $429.00 At Amazon on 11-21-2011.

Compatible with all 4/3 cameras Includes 9?18mm 18?36mm 35mm film equivalent zoom, lens hood, front & rear lens caps, user registration & user manual OLYMPUS 261058 Zuiko Digital 9–18mm f/4.0–5.6 ED Lens Pros: Very Small, Very Light, fits easily in a jacket pocket Ultra-wide angle is very useful Image stabilization available on-camera Noticeably better construction than my other Olympus standard grade lenses Wide filter ring prevents vignetting (use just one filter) Good image quality, except for: Cons: Barrel distortion at wide end (correctable in Photoshop) Last few pixels not quite as "sharp" as center Practice required to keep horizon level, not create weird perspective Construction not as good as Olympus "pro" lenses There are wider lenses for other brands (that weigh 2x more... hehehe.) There are better ultrawide zoom lenses (in the $1500 range... haHaHA!) My stuff for reference: E-410, 9-18mm, 25mm pancake, 35mm macro, 40-150mm (small), 14-54mm, 70-300mm (14-42mm and 18-180mm lenses sold) I bought the Olympus system to get great image quality at a small size and price, I wouldn't have if not for rumors of this lens. When it was announced it seemed better than I hoped! I bought it early for a trip to China (I normally wait for the price to drop), it is a good thing I did, because I used the 9-18mm about 70% of the time! I also took the 14-54mm and the 40-150mm kit lens, thus making a small, quality, versatile package that I always carried in my pockets and hand/neck. The 9-18 is ideal for travel, it fits in a pocket or can be carried attached to your camera all day and not be tiring. More importantly, when you get to touristy places, you can stand very close to your subject (if you don't mind the perspective), thus you will be in other people's photos, rather than them being in yours! Plus, there are a surprising number of subjects that can only be photographed whole or with no obstructions with an ultra-wide angle lens. Great for "spy" pictures of people who think you are pointing the camera somewhere else. And, you can lower shutter speeds to 1/20s and still have sharp pictures, a huge benefit for cameras with no IS. Imagine what it would be like on a camera with IS! Image quality is good, but there is noticeable barrel distortion towards 9mm. Otherwise I would say IQ is between the 14-54 and 40-150, but closer to the 14-54. Lens flare was not a big problem for me, but more than my 14-54 (and I like placing the sun in the frame). Keeping the lens clean helps a lot with flare. Contrast (something I like) is much better than the 40-150, but not as good as the 14-54mm. Chromatic aberration happens, and is slightly worse towards the edges, but is not too bad. Sharpness I am less attuned to because all Olympus lenses are sharp and I rarely view the corners of my pictures full size, but it is sharp from f/4 to ~f/10, about/nearly as good as the 14-54mm. The 14-54 seems to experience less corner variation from f/2.8 to f/8 than this lens from f/4 to f/8, but this is a very minor consideration. Other thoughts: construction quality is better than my other Olympus standard grade lenses, including texturing on the whole exterior and a less plasticky sound when you hit the limits of the zoom range. Zoom travel is very short and is of the out-in-out variety. I now think my 14-54mm is too big, and got the 25mm pancake to anchor the gap between the 9-18mm and 40-150mm. With the 9-18mm, 40-150mm and any of the <Olympus 14-54mm, Sigma f/2.8 18-50mm, Olympus 25mm pancake, or Sigma 30mm Back To Top Olympus E 9-18mm f 4.0-5.6 Zuiko Lens for Olympus Digital SLR Cameras Available from Amazon Price: $429.00 Updated on 11-21-2011.

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