This is very light lens which makes it nice as a carry aroung provided you are limiting you shooting to the range of the lens. However, combined with Oly 14-42 or 40-150 it makes a compelling light field combination especially with the new Oly E-P1 using the 4/3 to M4/3 adapter. This is a great Ultra Wide lens for the 4/3 system at a bargain price. DPReview tested this lens and rated it Highly Recommended which matches my personal results.

Olympus 9-18: Please check the status of a lens - HELP! Olympus 9-18: Please check the status of a lens - HELP!

For this review, we used the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm f4-5.6 lens on a Panasonic G1 Micro Four Thirds camera. The product shots were taken with a Lumix G 20mm f1.7 lens and a Rokinon D900AFZ TTL flash. Tech Specs Though Panasonic hasn’t stated one way or the other, the Leica behaves much like a parfocal lens in that the focus point doesn’t change when you zoom in and out which is useful for video work. 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''). The lens is compatible with regular four-thirds camera bodies via an adapter. This lens isn't a "constant" lens, in that as you increase the focal length, the maximum aperture size decreases, though the minimum aperture size remains the same. The following table reflects the changes as you zoom: Focal lengthA wide-angle lens will always be susceptible to flare - especially when used without a hood - , and the Olympus M:ZUIKO Digital 9-18mm f/4-5.6 is no exception. If you include the sun - or any other strong light source - in the frame, you will likely see a number of ghosts as well as a bit of veiling. Those looking for a compact ultra-wide angle lens for a Micro Four Thirds system camera can't go far wrong with this lens. It does have some weaknesses, but so long as you are aware of these this lens is more than capable of delivering very good quality results. This mirrors how I usually set my wide angle scenes. I typically use hyperfocal distance, or focus on something midway through the scene, set to F/7.1 and use a self timer. Note close corner focus would be different if I focused closer, or if I used a deeper F-stop. Again, I shot these how I typically work, so that’s what we see. Thanks, I had the 9-18mm for my OM-D but sold it once I got the 12-35mm. It just wasn’t wide enough for me, plus the extra width gained (9mm vs 12mm) seemed rather soft and I usually ended up cropping some of it away. Some raw converters - such as Raw Therapee - can show you the uncorrected image which, in the case of this particular lens, tends to have a lot more distortion to it, at least at the 9mm setting.

Just posted! Olympus 9-18mm lens review Just posted! Olympus 9-18mm lens review

The only focal length the two lenses don’t share is 8mm, which is only available on the Leica lens. The good news is that the performance remains excellent at this value with sharpness peaking at around f/5.6. Both the Panasonic Leica 8-18mm f/2.8-4.0 and Olympus M.Zuiko 9-18mm f/4.0-5.6 are variable aperture wide-angle zooms. The former has an equivalent range of 16-35mm in 35mm terms whereas the latter has a slightly more restricted range of 18-35mm in 35mm terms.At a normal viewing size, the color fringing in the first image would hardly be noticeable. I did not take pictures of branches against the bright sky–those would probably have evoked even stronger fringing. But under most conditions, the fringing is manageable in post processing. Distortion