Olympus 9-18mm lens

[Mikerocks]

I am thinking about investing in one of these lenses for landscape shots after being dissuaded from upgrading my E-500. Has anyone out there got/used one? Is it worth the money or does it just become gadget bag ballast, only to be taken out very occasionally? I would be interested to know what you think about it.

Mike

[Bone_Idle]

I love the lens.

On a recent trip to Latvia I wanted to travel light, so took my E-420 with the 9-18mm and the 25mm pancake. Appart from one night out I use the 9-18mm exclusively.

I quite often have it on my E-420 and even if I take my E-3 and 12-60mm on an outting I find that the 9-18mm goes along in preference to my 70-300mm a lot of the time.

I like the unusual perspectives I can get with it plus the zoom range means it's not soley an ultra wide lens, it's pretty versatile.

If you use a 14-** lens you could check your most popular focal lengths (there is a free tool but I can't remember it's name) and if the majority fall between, say, 14 and 20mm then you will use the 9-18mm a great deal I suspect.

[Still_Togging_Along]

I think Olympus have a 'winner' here, as it covers from the semi-wide to fairly extreme range of a 62 to 100 degrees angle of view. If you really want to go wider, there's the 7-14mm, but that's almost 3 times the price, a hell of a lot heavier and you can't fit filters to it. True, there is some barrel distortion at 9mm, but unless you are going to be taking images that require a lens that offers 114 degress angle of view, the money saved will buy a Zukio teleconverter, very useful with the airline luggage limits. Another point is that for 12-18mm of it's range, and the money saved is also enough to Olympus's most powerful FL50 flashguns too!

[Mikerocks]

Thanks for your comments. I ordered one yesterday, I can't wait for the courier to show up with it tomorrow so that I can while away the weekend having a play with it

Mike

[Bone_Idle]

Thanks for your comments. I ordered one yesterday, I can't wait for the courier to show up with it tomorrow so that I can while away the weekend having a play with it

Mike

I don't think you'll be dissapointed!