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| 9-18mm at 9mm on Lumix G85, hand held. The sky was very clear with direct sun above and behind the mangroves. Some lenses would be unable to delineate the thousands of leaves each reflecting sunlight. But the 9-18 manages well holding detail everywhere. |
The Micro Four Thirds system started in 2008 with cameras and lenses from Panasonic (Lumix) and Olympus.
Since then a total of more than 90 lenses for the M43 system have been released, from Panasonic, Olympus, Leica, Laowa, Sigma, Kowa, Cosina, Rokinon, 7 Artisans, Opteka and Tokina.
B&H in New York lists 13 super-wide and ultra-wide lenses available for the M43 system: 4 zooms, 3 rectilinear primes and 6 fisheyes. None of these has lens IS so they are best used on a body with IBIS.
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| This is a heavy crop of the right mid section of the photo above showing the ability of the lens to hold detail in this difficult subject. |
The zooms are:
* Olympus M.Zuiko 7-14mm f2.8. This is the largest and most expensive of the group with the highest specification. The front element is dome type.
* Pana-Leica 8-18mm f2.8-4. This one is not quite as wide or expensive and the aperture is not constant but a standard 67mm filter can be fitted.
* Panasonic Lumix 7-14mm f4. This was introduced early in the history of the M43 system and is still available new. The front element is dome type. This is still a very good choice for an ultrawide zoom at a lower price/size/aperture point than the M.Zuiko f2.8.
* The subject of this post, the M. Zuiko ED 9-18mm f4.0-5.6 was released in 2010.
I think it is one of the best expressions of the original concept of the M43 system.
This was and I hope still is (although recent products make one wonder), for a camera/lens system which is small, light and moderately priced yet capable of making excellent pictures.
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| Hand held Good detail, good highlight and shadow rendition, good rendition of details into the corners. It would be hard to improve on this with any camera system or lens. |
The M.Zuiko 9-18mm is the smallest, lightest and least expensive of the super wide zooms by a considerable margin.
The dimensions are diameter: 55mm length: 50mm bare, 60mm with front and rear caps, mass: 165 grams with caps.
The lens accepts a standard 52mm screw in filter.
It is remarkably diminutive for a superwide zoom and small enough to slip into a pocket or otherwise vacant corner of a small camera bag. It uses a collapsing barrel design to reduce size when not in use.
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| Everything looks sharp and clear here, hand held. |
I wanted a compact, not-too-expensive ultrawide for the occasional times when I want to make a picture for which my usual lenses are not wide enough.
The M.Zuiko 9-18mm appeared to fit this bill so I bought one when it was on special.
I have to say some of the published reviews of this lens made me wonder if I was wasting my money.
I also noted some disparaging remarks about the lens on user forums.
Like all the other super/ultra wide M43 lenses the 9-18mm lacks an image stabiliser so is best used on a body with in-body-stabiliser [IBIS].
I have been using the Lumix G85 which has proven to be a good match for the lens. This camera also has a fully articulated monitor which makes it easy to check pictures in landscape or portrait orientation for accurate vertical/horizontal alignment.
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| Hand held at 9mm |
Construction The mount is metal but the rest of the housing appears to be lightweight plastic. There is nothing wrong with this but I have seen reports that the twist-to-extend mechanism could be susceptible to failure. Whether this is true or not it would seem prudent to treat such a lightweight construction carefully. It would not be the first choice for professional or hire use.
Unusually the lens barrel extends most at the wide end and least at the long end.
Zoom and manual focus actions are smooth.
No lens hood is supplied in the box.
Resolution/sharpness My copy is very sharp in a large central circle, decently sharp at the edges and soft in the extreme corners. In the majority of photos this softness will not be evident or at least not problematic for the integrity of the image.
The best aperture for sharpness appears to be about 2/3 stop less than the maximum available at each focal length.
Looking at many photos taken in different situations I have been impressed by the sharpness and clarity of the images.
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| Hand held, high subject brightness range |
Flare Ultrawides can be prone to flare but the 9-18mm is not.
Local contrast is excellent. The lens can clearly resolve high contrast edge details with no smearing or local flare.
It is possible to induce veiling flare with the sun or other bright light source at or near the frame edge but this is true of almost any lens.
Distortion On the Lumix G85 there is mild barrel distortion at the wide end. This is even in curvature so is easily corrected for architectural work in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom.
Color fringing can be seen in some high contrast situations towards the corners but generally fringing is not an issue.
Focussing One of the few potentially problematic issues I encountered with this lens is a tendency to misfocus when the AF area is placed over a part of the subject with multiple small specular highlights. I found it desirable to move the AF area off such subject elements for reliable focussing.
Close ups The lens will focus very close if desired, close enough for flowers certainly.
Low light One of the downsides of the diminutive size of this lens is the relatively small aperture. This is no problem outdoors or in well lit interiors but limits hand held use in dimly lit situations. This will not be an issue if the camera is on a tripod as is often the case for architectural work.
The other issue is that the range of useful lens apertures is restricted. Best sharpness is around f5-f7.1 and diffraction starts to impair resolution after about f8-f11.
Conclusion The M.Zuiko 9-18mm lens is better than its reputation might suggest.
Within its focal length and aperture range it can be used to make excellent photos capable of great enlargement.
I recommend this lens for the enthusiast Micro Four Thirds user who has occasional need of a superwide zoom.
Alternatives The other three zooms are larger and more expensive.
Most of the primes are fisheyes which have their uses but are not suitable if you want a rectilinear representation of the subject.
I have seen several positive reviews of the Venus Optics Laowa 7.5mm f2. This is very compact, rectilinear and can take a 46mm standard screw in filter, although there may be corner clipping unless the filter is very thin.
Overall sharpness is reported to be very high particularly in a large central circle of the frame.
Focus and aperture selection are fully manual. There are no electrical contacts.
It is a bit more expensive than the M.Zuiko 9-18mm.
But worth consideration I think.