The Olympus 9-18mm, in contrast, doesn't include a hood but shows impressive flare resistance in the field. Its headline feature is undoubtedly its miniscule size - it adopts the same collapsing design as Olympus's Micro Four Thirds 14-42mm kit zoom to realize dimensions of just 2.

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

The effect is certainly noticeable in any shot where there is a solid-colored background, which will be just about any shot taken outdoors at 7mm. Of course, the best Micro Four Thirds lenses all fit and work on MFT cameras from all manufacturers –thanks to the fact that it is an open mount, so anybody can develop optics (or indeed cameras) for it.

Its 24-80mm effective zoom range is just a tad longer than the 'standard' 24-70mm on other cameras, and its optical performance is consistent right across the zoom range. Another bonus is that the 2x crop factor of the MFT format effectively boosts the maximum magnification factor from 1:1 to 2:1, or double life-size. Both of these lenses open up to f/4 at their wide ends, but neither can manage much in the way of background blur. 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. this lens’ autofocus felt lightning quick, although I am sure it would focus even quicker on a current MFT body as compared to my old Panasonic G1.

Olympus Wide Angle Zooms 9-18 vs 7-14 Review Part 3 Olympus Wide Angle Zooms 9-18 vs 7-14 Review Part 3

Even allowing for all that, though, this lens's size, light weight and ultra-wide angle of view make it a unique proposition for travel photography and interiors, and dated as it might look, there's still nothing like it today.

Digital Camera World is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Not sure if you found it, but the 9-11 has its own Flickr group - with 1,360 members and almost 20,000 pictures in the pool - here.

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

Also, stopping down will improve things, and there’s really no reason not to use this lens at f/8 all the time. The excellent quality of the weather-sealed construction is a credit to OM’s line-up of Premium lenses, and the smart focus distance/magnification indicator is a bonus. version) should be compatible with the PEN series of camera, and while we've tested it, you'll have to use your imagination on our test graph to compare its performance with the Olympus 9-18mm.

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. As for manual focusing, we found that the Leica’s ring was somewhat easier to use and provided better resistance than that of the Olympus. In terms of optical performance, this lens is approximately equal to the much more expensive Panasonic 7-14 mm, as shown by our test.

Olympus 9-18, but: Micro Four Thirds Had decided on the Olympus 9-18, but: Micro Four Thirds

But as a matter of fact, we never managed to procure a review unit when the lens first was released. 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''). Set to a focal length of 9 mm, the Olympus 9-18 mm delivers an impressive viewing angle of 100 degrees.We’ve taken 100% crops from the center, corner, and edges of the frame to compare relative sharpness and chromatic aberrations. My technique is as such…camera is an E-M1 v1 with an RRS L bracket mounted on a Feisol Elite tripod with no leg extensions open. Usually Micro Four Thirds bodies correct for vignetting (along with distortion and in some cases CA) in the JPEG conversion process, but it appears that the falloff this lens produces is too extreme to be fully corrected in software. Really, you can't go wrong with either of these lenses; just be sure to assess your needs before plunking down the cash.