The 9-18mm, the widest affordable lens
on the market
With some comparisons with the 7-14mm
(This article or similar will be in the January 4/3 Photographer issue)
(Note the 9-18mm has been raised to show the front element detail between the 2 lenses)
The new 9-18mm is now beginning to ship
from Olympus America, and has promised to fill a very important hole in the 4/3
lens line up. For many years within the only all digital SLR system we have had
only the choices of the 7-14mm or the 11-22mm lenses. However, this fall
Olympus has released the 9-18mm. I had the lens for 1 month to play with and
use and I must say for what the lens is, it is quite impressive.
Overall, the 9-18mm has brought to the
4/3 system a small relatively inexpensive Ultra Wide Angle (UWA) lens. When the
7-14mm was released it was stated as a fact by many speculators that the 4/3
standard could not produce a UWA lens that was compact, as the sensor size
would not allow it. To me at that point, I thought that it was pure myth, and
with the release of this lens I once again was proven correct. In all manners
of speaking in real life the little brother of the 7-14mm feels to be half the
size and weight of the 7-14mm lens.
(Click on any photo to open a larger version and explanation)
Build
The 9-18mm is categorized in the same
standard lens class as the 14-42mm, 40-150mm, 70-300mm. All of these
"standard grade" lenses are relatively inexpensive, and affordable to
most users. The image quality from these lenses, is on the other hand quite
acceptable, and in many ways rival more expensive lenses from other companies.
However, there seems to be a myth that they are as good as the much more
expensive and higher quality lenses, such as comparing the 9-18mm to the 7-14mm. That is totally false, and once again
erroneous thinking.
The 9-18mm does have a rear metal
flange which in my opinion is important. In reality it adds very little weight, but greatly enhances the life span
of the lenses. Many of the other Standard grade lenses are in fact missing this
metal flange which is understandable, but I don't see how it cuts cost by much
in the design of these lenses. The lens is not weather sealed with gaskets like
its big brother, but neither are any of the other standard grade lenses from
Olympus, or any other manufacturer for that matter.
The only thing which seems to show this
lens as being large is when you place the hood onto the lens, which connects
into the 72mm filter of the lens, and when the hood is off the lens it can even
slide over the top of the 7-14mm. Olympus has really over done their lens hoods
of late. The 50-200mm, and 35-100mm are 2 prime examples. They may be extremely functional, but
to find a bag on the market which properly holds these lenses can be tough at
times. These well over built lens hoods do protect from nearly all lens flares,
and on the 50-200 and 35-100 they allow you to easily adjust a polarizer,
unlike any other lens that I have used. When all is said and done, I personally
prefer this batch of over built hoods.
The lens when zoomed does not zoom
internally like the 7-14mm lens does, but in all reality the amount of zooming
is not tremendous on the lens because it is bidirectional. The lens is smallest
around the 11mm mark, and then extends out towards both directions of zoom. So
this external zoom should not matter about image quality, but just a note on
how it is designed.
Lastly, the one area that did bother me
with this lens was when I manually focused the lens, the focus by wire method
was not smooth as the other lenses that I have used in the past. However,
except for when manually focusing for its price point and usage the 9-18mm lens
performs exceptionally.
In Usage
The 9-18mm does have some great
advantages in my opinion over the 7-14mm, the 2 biggest are 1) it can take
filters, and 2) it does not have nearly the amount of lens flares that the
7-14mm does, because the front element is much better protected, and it is not
nearly as convex as the 7-14mm front element. I personally do not use nearly the amount of filters any
longer that I used to use in film days. However, I do still very regularly use a polarizer in much of my shooting.
So to have the ability to use a polarizer would probably be a bad idea on a
landscape. It is very appropriate,
when attempting to remove glare off subjects such as windows, or water.
  
I have to admit, I spent a lot of time
with this lens at 9mm, where it both offers the most unique perspective, and
also the most problematic areas. At 9mm I had a very difficult time attempting
to get square to my subjects and the result is quite a bit of distortion. This
lens also has much more distortion than the 7-14mm at 9mm, but that should be
expected.
The only major area of weakness in my
opinion is corner details. In the middle the lens is quite sharp, but by the
time you get to the outer edges you will began to notice some lack of
sharpness, as well as distortion from the images. In my opinion with all lenses
at this point you will notice some of these issues, and it is still quite
acceptable.
The images below should be viewed at 100%
  
  
Concluding thoughts
In reality the 9-18mm is a very high
performing lens for its class. It
is not a perfect lens, but for a UWA lens I believe that it performs
exceptionally well. I have no hesitations for purchasing. It depends on your
needs. I do not think that I would
use this as a landscape lens because for most of those types of situations it
would simply be too wide. As well
as if you needed a wider than standard lens, I personally believe it is better
to use a tripod and stitch pictures together in photoshop so that you do not
end up with too much sky. If you need a ultra wide angle for close quarters,
interior shots, and those types of situations, I think that it would be a fine
choice.
    
    
Many more pictures in the gallery.
Adantages of each lens -
7-14mm Advantages
Sharper from edge to edge
Much less distortion at 9mm
Weather sealed
Constant aperture
Widest rectangular lens I have ever used and/or owned
9-18mm Advantages
Much cheaper
Much smaller and lighter
Ability to use filters (no Vignetting from even the B&W polarizer I tried)
Very wide lens 9-18mm
Less lens flares / Chromatic Aberrations |
