Zuiko Digital 9-18 sample image comparisons

[Four Thirds User editorial team]

We have some sample images from the new Olympus Zuiko Digital 9-18mm f/4-5.6 super wide angle zoom lens for Four Thirds system cameras, compared with other key wide angle lenses.

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[yyshiu]

Hi Ian

Noted your 7-14mm photo samples at full aperture shows obvious corner softness at wide open from 7 and 9mm. The left side cars and the left side house both showed softness. I have a 7-14mm and I can say that my copy will not show such similar corner softness and in fact, corner and centre performance at 7mm wide open are both sharp without need to stop down to get futher sharpness.

Similar corner softness however would happen if the focus stops beyond infinity mark which is quite common at 7mm where I found the focus sensor could not differentiate infinity and beyond infinity situation, thus it always stops at a point beyond infinity and hence the corner will become soft. I used MF for this lens to set it at infinity mark at 7mm-9mm range. Starting from 9mm, it will get correct focus using AF.

But judging from your 9mm sample for the 7-14mm, it seems that it might be more of this lens copy problem. You might verfiy it by borrowing another 7-14mm lens copy.

As noted from the 9-18mm sample, I would say that it is worth to have this compact lens judging from its wide open performance. The CA for 9-18mm is a little bit stronger than 7-14mm however.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by yyshiu

Hi Ian

Noted your 7-14mm photo samples at full aperture shows obvious corner softness at wide open from 7 and 9mm. The left side cars and the left side house both showed softness. I have a 7-14mm and I can say that my copy will not show such similar corner softness and in fact, corner and centre performance at 7mm wide open are both sharp without need to stop down to get futher sharpness.

Similar corner softness however would happen if the focus stops beyond infinity mark which is quite common at 7mm where I found the focus sensor could not differentiate infinity and beyond infinity situation, thus it always stops at a point beyond infinity and hence the corner will become soft. I used MF for this lens to set it at infinity mark at 7mm-9mm range. Starting from 9mm, it will get correct focus using AF.

But judging from your 9mm sample for the 7-14mm, it seems that it might be more of this lens copy problem. You might verfiy it by borrowing another 7-14mm lens copy.

As noted from the 9-18mm sample, I would say that it is worth to have this compact lens judging from its wide open performance. The CA for 9-18mm is a little bit stronger than 7-14mm however.

Thanks for the observation - you could be right. The lens has been used by many people and it's been all around the world. When I get the chance I will get it serviced.

All focusing was done using magnified Live view in manual mode.

Ian

[bitslizer]

What's the focus point on all the pix?

Seems the 9-18 shows sharper image than the 7-14, which is not quite what I expected, almost seem the 7-14 is slightly out of focus, but then you mention its done by manual focus via live view

[Ian]

Focus was on the centre point, the balconies on the modern houses. To be exact, to the right of the magnified centre section. At f/8 there should be no focus issues at all.

Ian

[cluso]

Ian, thanks for the comparison. I am surprised that the image quality of the 7-14 is not better than this. I had a more detailed look at the 9-18 and find it ok, but there is room for improvement. If you look here:

http://www.dslr-forum.de/showpost.ph...0&postcount=39

there is definite corner softness even at f8, which I found gives the sharpest results at my L1. The overall contrast and sharpness is ok, but compared to the Nikon lens (and camera, of course), it's definitely not state-of-the-art. Can you confirm this for your lens? Especially the left side of the image is poorer than the right side.

In comparison with the Nikon lens I'd expect the 7-14 to give similar results.

Best,
cluso

[Ian]

Originally Posted by cluso

Ian, thanks for the comparison. I am surprised that the image quality of the 7-14 is not better than this. I had a more detailed look at the 9-18 and find it ok, but there is room for improvement. If you look here:

http://www.dslr-forum.de/showpost.ph...0&postcount=39

there is definite corner softness even at f8, which I found gives the sharpest results at my L1. The overall contrast and sharpness is ok, but compared to the Nikon lens (and camera, of course), it's definitely not state-of-the-art. Can you confirm this for your lens? Especially the left side of the image is poorer than the right side.

In comparison with the Nikon lens I'd expect the 7-14 to give similar results.

Best,
cluso

Thanks, I will get my lens checked.

Ian