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wide lens from Olympus

Hi everyone, I would like to ask you for opinion about previous generation lens from Olympus 11-22 f2.8-3.5. Do you have any experience with this one? I am considering wide angle lens 9-18 f4-5,6 (with cash back promo) or second hand 11-22. Unfortunately series PRO is out my budget. Would be nice to hear your opinion about this 2 or maybe something else? (I use:E-M5MK2 +17mm1.8 and 45mm1.8)

33 comments

Rafał Czesc :) Proponuje Ci niesamowity i niezastąpiony a co najwazniejsze super dobry optycznie, dosyc jasny i przede wszystkim tani. Lumix 14mm 2.5 :) uzywka za około 650 zł :)

Magda Korzewska Dzięki Rafał, ale 14mm to trochę dla mnie za mało.

Ian Prince I'm in the same shoes as you Magda. I'll get the 7-14 (which I love) one day, but in the meantime I'm probably going to get the 9-18. Not as wide or as bright as the 7-14, but smaller , lighter...and much less expensive :)

Ian Prince Oh, I've also considered the 7.5mm Rokinon/Samyang, but I prefer a rectilinear field of view, and I think I'd find de-fishing one-step too many in post-production.

Magda Korzewska Next week I will have in my hands the older one 11-22. It is much brighter than 9-18. I think I will go for this one. I saw many positive opinion about it. If it is in good conditions, than I will buy second hand for reasonable money. Have you ever seen it @Ian ?

Ian Prince It's an interesting choice, especially as I could use it on my E-450 without the adapter :) But I already have the 12-50 M.Zuiko (which I really quite like), and am looking for something wider than 11mm. Looking forward to seeing how you like the 11-22 when you have it.

Ian Prince I ordered the 9-18 today :) It won't be as great as the 7-14 of course, but I think I'll enjoy using it all the same :)

Grace Would love to hear how you like the 9-18!

Magda Korzewska I did some research and find Samyang 10mm f2.8. This might be also option for me as I am used to prime lenses. Looking forward to hear your opinion. I still have some time to decide as I "need" it for spring holiday.

Ian Prince Mmm, interesting lens. Even heavier than the 7-14 though....

Grace I like my 12mm f2.0 olympus, though sometimes (like last night) I wish for it to be wider..

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Magda Korzewska @Ian and I found one more: Panasonic 7-14 f4 It is quite pricey but not as much as Oly. Samyang is only manual, so not for me.

Ian Prince Another interesting alternative. Price-wise it seems to be half way between the 9-18 and the 7-14 so not really a "cheap" lens. As it's not an Olympus lens I think you might have to work harder correcting the barrel distortion. So at that price, you might also want to consider the 8mm/f1.8 Zuiko, almost the same price as the Panasonic 7-14, and gain over two stops. Of course, if you want a rectilinear photo you'll have to de-fish and lose some of the wide-angle and sharpness. I guess lens designers can't overcome the physics of optics, i.e. a rectilinear ultra-wide lens is going to be big and expensive (the Panasonic 7-14/f4), and even more so if you want a wide aperture (the Olympus 7-14/f2.8).

Magda Korzewska @Ian thank you so much for sharing your opinion and knowledge. I am not into fish eye too much so definitely I have less choice. To be honest for Panasonic I got very good offer from my customer (I work in consumer electronic sector) and this one will be cheaper for me than fe Zuiko 12mm f2.0 and almost half price of Zuiko 7-14 f2.8. This is the reason I think this might be a good option for me. On the other hand using Zuiko on minimum 9mm is the same aperture as Panasonic and 30% less expensive. Do you think difference from 7 to 9 mm is worth to pay some more? I am also much into fixed minimum aperture lens (I tried to use my kit lens for Pen5 and it was annoying).

Ian Prince Well 7mm is certainly different than 9mm if you're into ultra-wide. How much different I'm going to find out with my 9-18 that is due to arrive. I've looked at a few photos of the Panasonic and it seems that you'd have to correct the barrel distortion at 7mm, especially if attached to an Olympus body, something you don't really need to do with the Zuikos. The other good thing about the 9-18, beside it costing considerably less, is its small size and weight. Which is what shooting a 365 project with an Olympus is all about... Happy to help :)

Magda Korzewska I think I will ask you in a couple of days/weeks how you like the 9-18. As I am not so familiar with post processing I need simple solutions. Thanks again for your time and advice.

Ian Prince My pleasure. I'll let you know how I get on with the 9-18.

Satoshi T About Samyang 10mm f2.8: It is Full manual focus and manual aperture lens. No electronic connection. So you must set distance and aperture fully manually. IS in camera does not recognize focal length of lens, so you must set focal length to effect IS. Aperture value didn't record to Exif, so you need to write Aperture value on your notepad. ... Although it is really inconvenant like this, @egzist and other manual lens users are doing it :)

Ian Prince Day 1: "The pier #3". Maybe I should write a review comparing the 7-14 with the 9-18.... ;)

Kazzi do it, Ian! :)

Magda Korzewska Yes Satoshi, this is something I found out and abosolutyely this is not for me. I need AF lens, as I do not trust my sight.

Magda Korzewska Yes please do. Actualy you promised one when posting great reveiw of OMD.

Ian Prince Ok, let me get a bit further than just 3 days of use. That said, so far so good :)

Magda Korzewska take your time ;-)

Satoshi T 7mm can make picture taking advantage of powerfulness of wide angle without a filter. On the other hand, 9mm is an ordinary wide angle, but it has a merit useing a filter. Thank you @Ian !

Magda Korzewska After I have seen pictures from @Kazzi I realized that Panasonic offers cash back promo so .. here is my first picture taken "Sopot railway station"

Grace now I'm tempted... but I want a zoom too...

Kazzi There is a reason why people call yellow-system's (f/2.8) 14-24, 24-70 and 70-200 FF lenses "The Holy Trinity" ;)

VIVID EXPOSURE I have a 12-24mm Tokina an an 11-16mm Canon, 8-15mm Canon and an regular kit lens 18-55 lens all for my Canon Rebel T5, to complete my wide angle kit, I have no idea if olympus makes any of those!!

Magda Korzewska Nice collection, lucky you :)

VIVID EXPOSURE Haha, not really, I got them used some even had dirt inside the lens but I got them cleaned!! Cheaper than what I could've bought them for!!

Kazzi I wanted to see how this talk develops and it went quite a good way.
One lens not mentioned: Samyang(/Rokinon/Falcon) 12mm f/2 manual focus. Rectalinear, really good optically (since it's made for APS sensors, m43 uses only the center).
My types for You would be (in order):
Panas 7-14/4 ("Lens stealer")
Oly 9-18 (I should have it for my Iceland trip next week- it might not be the sharpest or brighter lens there is, but it's small, lightweight and quite pleasant)
Samyang 12/2

I've got some files from that Panasonic 7-14 and it seems to have much less barrel distorsion than I thought (or was worried). Want some, @Magda?
Oh, I'm sure You do. Catch! (all files JPG+RAW and a rar archive) drive.google.com/drive/folders...

For me 11-22 is worth buying only for much less than 1000zł (250$), 4/3-m4/3 adapter included. First, it's not so wide (22mm means 89 degree field of view), second - on the edge of a frame it requires closing it to f/4.5 to get really sharp images. Of course, it's f/2.8-3.5 aperture is tempting, but remember the third - it's an quite old, bright, wide angle lens lens designed for four thirds DSLRs (whoa!), so it'll be quite big and heavy (it's bigger and heavier than 12-40 pro: 75x92.5 vs 70x84mm and 100g more in weight).
While great optics remains great optics for years, all those UHR, ED etc. glass (that gets popular, so is produced more widely=gets cheaper) makes it easier to construct those lenses smaller and even better.

You'll see it yourself next week, but I'm quite sure what Your opinion will be already.

Magda Korzewska @Kazzi thanks a lot. I read your comment in the train yesterday and decided no to try 11-22. At the moment I do not know what to do, but still have some time before my spring holidays for which I would love to have wide angle. My choice now is much narrow, what is good. I will have a look at your pictures from Panasonic later on. Thanks for sharing.