Olympus Zuiko 7-14 1st Look
by Ted Krohn
Today I picked up my Olympus Zuiko 7-14mm f2.8 Pro. The sharpness is stunning and while I am not an expert on lens design, etc., Olympus once again has created a winner! In case you want to share them with your readers, I am attaching some pictures I took this afternoon of flowers in our garden. I am stunned at how close this lens allowed me to get to the flowers (7.9 inches although it seemed closer).
To some degree even a more pleasing rendition of close-ups than my dedicated Olympus 60mm macro lens. Also, in addition to the focus ring that can be snapped back to allow manual focusing, another neat feature on this lens is an elongated button (L-FN) on the upper left side of the lens that allows autofocus to be locked when you depress it. A somewhat heavy Dude of a lens with all that glass, but what a jewel of a performer!
You can order this lens from B&H Photo HERE.
At 7mm
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At 14mm
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At 14mm
Where did you pick up the lens? everywhere it seems to show not yet released.
I bought mine via Jessops in England, it was not an off the shelf item, (like the original 7-14mm) and neither of these or the Lumix version I have seen displayed in a dealer’s window – yet. There are a fair number of the online big photo dealers here advertising this lens. I actually placed the order on a Monday, and it arrived in-store 2 days later, on the Wednesday!
I had ordered the day after Olympus announced it from a local photo store (ACE in northern Virginia) and received it when other customers received either this lens or the also newly released 8mm lens. This was now two weeks ago. I too noticed that neither B&H nor Amazon listed either lens as being available yet – maybe too many preorders?
First of all, I always attach the lens to bodies I own (E-M1 and E-M5) and then via the USB cable, run Olympus’s Updater app and register the lens as well.. I am also using a genuine MMF-3 4/3rds to m4/3rds adaptor, rather than a ‘copy’ of this … as I gather Olly optics have in-lens firmware chips. If there are any firmware updates available, these are also uploaded. Regarding these two lenses, the f2.8 version focusses marginally faster in low-light conditions. The newer coatings, and changes in the optical design used, mean images are very slightly better corrected at the edges of the frame. I found very occasionally, that the focussing got caught out, (situation where you have to cope with excessive contrast?) but certainly better focussing than I’ve found when using lenses like Voigtlander’s FF 12mm f5.6 manual lens on a 35mm camera. Considering my original lens is now 10 years old, (!!!) I find I have to enlarge images on both lenses by 400% to spot the differences.
As for handling side of things, whilst the original looks a monster in comparison to the new one, if you ‘cup’ the lens in the palm of your left hand, rather than just holding both sides of the camera body when using in AF or manually focussing, it’s extra weight and bulk, isn’t as big an issue as you may think it is. The main reason I upgraded mine, was purely because I’m disabled and the reduction in weight, (because lugging around a number of lenses impacts on my balance a lot) is a very important issue to me. If I wasn’t disabled, having seen the results of both lenses, I’d just stick with the original, as it is still, an absolutely superb lens!
Thanks for getting back.
Sam: Thanks for interesting comments. I had the wonderful, small Lumix 7-14mm f4 lens That I had bought in ’09 or ’10. But in an epic flood in Jamestown, Colorado, in Sep ’13, I lost about $15K worth of camera equipment (but fortunately, had my RX-1 on me in a plastic Baggie) when the vacation rental house was flooded and partially swept away (we were rescued and flown out in an Army Chinook helo). Three months later my camera bag was found a mile or so downstream (I had a waterproofed business card tag on it). The only lens still in the bag was the Lumix. Alas, the ultra-fine river sand totally penetrated the inside of the lens. I keep it on a shelf as a memento.
You’ve beaten me to being the first person posting images from this lens! I’ve also owned the original 4/3rds version, since 2005, (Yes, that date IS correct!) and intend submitting to Steve, comparison images from both, if he’s interested. So far, I’d say the f2.8 version is marginally better sharpness-wise across the width of the image, and the more modern coatings, reduce and control the flare (you’ll always get with any lens this wide) a bit better. Both absolutely stunning optics, Olympus has definitely delivered the goods yet again!
@Sam. A question for you. I have the original 4/3 lens also. How did you find the new one compared to the original lens with my EM-1. My challenges has been its size making it somewhat unwieldy and sometimes it does not focus fast enough. Wondering if you have similar experience and how do you compare it with new micro 4/3 version on those aspects. thanks
More photos / samples pls. You’re not limited to 36 shots are you?
Thanks! Up to now I’ve never been an all out fan of really wide-angle lenses, but this lens has changed my mind. It challenges me to look at everything from a different perspective. I plan to go to the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum (near Dulles Airport outside DC) next week and maybe Steve Huff and his great website will do a follow-up posting.
I do like the rendition in these photos very much. This lens is very promising. Thank you. 🙂
Outstanding photos!
What beautiful colors.