olympus 9-18 mm lens

[Newair]

Hello, does anyone have this new wide angle lens or examples of photos taken with it. I want an extreme wide angle lens and this is pretty attractive considering it is substantially cheaper than all others. Thanks

[ronners]

Hi Alan,

Two potential red flags here -

1. 9mm widest angle? What camera is this suitable for? You'll be in a whole world of distortion here, compounded by the fact it's a zoom - which will also hurt the image quality
2. "Substantially cheaper than all others". Run away.

I admit to having not used it or sourced any reviews, but the signs aren't good.

Ron.

[firestingerii]

Hi,

Pretty attractive thought on the 9mm lens. Another thing to consider is that this is an Olympus lens. Depending on your camera, if this is for a full frame Olympus DSLR then you get the full frame crop of 9mm on that lens.

If your camera is a 4/3 [which Olympus is known for], you will have to consider tha crop factor of your camera which means that if you have a 9mm wide angle lens with a 1.6x crop factor, your photos end up getting the effect of a 14.4mm wide angle lens. Your 9mm wide angle lens is still unable to achieve that effect of a 9mm on a full frame.

[ben4321]

Oh dear, there seems to be some confusion in the replies here!

Just to clarify - Olympus doesn't make a full-frame DSLR.
The 4/3 crop factor is 2x, so the 9-18mm zoom will be equivalent in angle of view to a 18-36mm zoom on a 35mm film or full-frame DSLR - a very useful range.

I have no first-hand experience of the Olympus 4/3 system, but their lenses do have an excellent reputation.

Cheers,
Ben

[skiprennell]

Hi Alan,

You'll take great shots with the Olympus lens. Many posts are unfamilar with Olympus system lens and their extremely high quality glass. Do the research and you'll find that all Olympus lens generally exceed Canon and Nikon for image quality. Olympus uses a FULL FRAME 4/3rds format while Canon and Nikon use the 35mm format. Using the term full frame is misleading as Olympus uses a totally different format. I have been a photographer for over 35 years. Back in the day most wedding photograpy was done using either medium format or larger. Along came groundbreakers using 35mm format and they were told their format was too small and not full frame. Here we go again. So unless you purchase high end Canon and Nikon bodies you won't get a full frame 35mm format. However, with Olympus you'll get a full frame 4/3rds format with all of their SLRs. True a 4/3rds sensor is smaller than Canon or Nikon 35mm based bodies, but Olympus make the better lens overall. There is more to great photos than sensor size or format. Composition and a cheap camera will always save the day for any good photographer. I own Nikon film and Olympus E-3 and will soon post some jaw dropping photos taken through China and Africa and in harsh weather. The Olympus E-3 body is weather tight and not afraid of rain or dust. I would suggest that you not try to mate an Olympus lens to anything other than an Olympus SLR body as you'll only compromise the end product.