Robin Wong (Click here) tested the new 7-14mm PRO lens:
For Micro Four Third shooters, rejoice, the ultra wide angle Olympus M.Zuiko 7-14mm F2.8 PRO lens is indeed a stellar performer. The lens delivers sharp images, with plenty of detail resolving power. All technical flaws you can think of about a wide angle lens are well controlled and suppressed. There really is nothing much to not like about this lens. If you need a high performing ultra wide angle lens, there is currently no better option than this M.Zuiko 7-14mm F2.8 PRO lens.
Alessandro Carpentiero (Click here) had the chance to test both new PRO lenses. About the 7-14mm lens he writes:
- Incredible build quality
- The lens is very linear with a basically absent distortion: lines are very straight, making it THE lens for architectures, interiors, ecc. It does tend to stretch a bit the edges, but that’s part of the game.
- Razor sharp: seriously. I dare you to find a 14mm 2.8 lens with these edges.
- Chromatic phenomenon: Chromatic aberration is very well controlled thanks to 3 Super ED lenses, 1 ED lens and 2 EDA lenses, while the ZERO (Zuiko Extra-Low Reflective Optical), while Coating aids in minimizing ghosting.
- Interesting bokeh: I know, wide-angle lenses are not famous (nor bought) for their bokeh, but I believe this can be an “extra bonus” for this lens. The minimum focusing distance is just 7.5cm (you really gotta be careful not to touch the subject with the lens aspherical lens) and you can have very interesting results.
And about the 8mm he writes:
- Incredible build quality. Yes, Olympus is doing a really great job with its PRO lenses. The building quality is wonderful for all of them.
- The lens distortion is very much present but well, it’s the main feature of this lens.
- It looks sharp also at f/1.8.
- Chromatic aberration was a little visible at f/1.8, but easily fixable with one click in Camera Raw.
- Bokeh: the minimum working distance is just 2.5cm (really really close). This makes it interesting for creative uses.
Plenty of image samples can be seen on Alessandro Carpentiero website.
New Olympus stuff preorder links:
7-14mm f/2.8 PRO lens: Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, GetOlympus, WexUK, AmazonUK, AmazonDE,
8mm f/1.8 PRO lens: Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, GetOlympus, WexUK, AmazonUK, AmazonDE,
Titanium E-M5II: Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, GetOlympus, WexUK.
Accessories:
7-14mm Olympus LC-79 Lens Cap at BHphoto.
Olympus PPO-EP02 Dome Port for 8mm at BHphoto.
Olympus PPZR-EP05 Focus Gear for 8mm at BHphoto.
Olympus POSR-EP10 UW Anti-Reflecting Ring for 8mm at BHphoto.
82 Responses
The 7-14 seems to be more than good. I’m afraid I am beginning to develop a taste for it.
It is, I so want it! Finally a nice super-wide on m43!
Let me take the first shot before the trolls did…Robin Wong is an Olympus employee, he’s biased in blah blah blah
Admin likes Sony, Mod uses Olypus…
he has to. he needs to keep his job. everything anything olympus is heavenly godly to him.
Are the photos he takes biased? As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
really? What about him mentioning big flaw with lens cap? More or less my expectation of this lens based on already existing 12-40 and 40-150.
He has a disclaimer and everybody knows it. Take that into account. And yes, I still believe that there are honest people out there, no paranoia I mean. The pics at least are not fake… so far.
Admin, you need to edit the link to Alessandro Carpentiero’s website
The Holy Trinity is here!!!
F/2.8 UWA PRO grade zoom. Whoa!
Bokeh in the lightbulb shot is mesmerising!
Thanks for improving my non native English vocabulary
< This has revealed step-by-step how to follow this diet to see these amazing results. He has laid out every food you need to include in your diet, and when you need to eat them. The diet is incredibly simple to follow, with very little effort involved. If you are looking to lose weight fast, This is definitely something you should consider. Thanks to the report that helped me. May this FREE Report help you also
http://www.reuters.com./repo
I always confuse Robin Wong with the bit douchy guy who does these street shooting reviews. Probably because I think “Wong -> Asian”.
Hahah! Are you talking about Kai?
Yeah Narretz is “wong” hahaha
The thing I like about Olympus is – once they decide to produce a lens they also make sure it’s pretty high grade. Kudos to them.
like the body cap lenses and the 17mm/f2.8
17mm f/2.8 is far better that many believes and are capable to handle it. It is sharp and small without vignetting etc.
And the body cap lenses are not even Zuiko branded as they are not optically so great. But check what robin wong has done with 9mm f/8 BCL and br amazed!
Body cap is not even marketed as lens. Considering it’s a body cap, it takes pretty good pictures.
For the 7-14 lens, what is the min focusing distance? Robin says 20cm but Alessandro says its 7.5cm! I sure hope its 7.5cm!
it’s probably 20 cm from the mount (which is usually the distance that’s given) and 7,5 from the front element. (7,5 from the mount wouldn’t make sense as the lens is longer than that.)
that explains it. thanks!
Exactly as Anton say 😉 Sorry for not being clear; I believe the 7.5cm I said is referring to the distance from the front element (not the sensor). But trust me, you can get very close 😀
Focus distance is always measured from the focus plane, in other words, from the sensor to the object.
Never from the mount. Take your camera in hand and look carefully around top plate, viewfinder etc. You can find from there a small marking where line goes trought the circle. That is the sensor/film distance aka image plane. From there the every focus distance is metered.
Exactly, thanks for the clarification Moe. I’ve update my article in order to make this point clear.
Have a nice day!
Finally the holy twonity of zooms 7-14 PRO and 40-150 PRO. Now I need PRO primes to fill the gap in between the zooms, and they need to be FAST! 17 and 45mm would be a good start..
42,5mm 1.2 not fast enough for you? I agree about the 17mm.
42,5mm 1.2 is fast enough.. 45 and 75 will do until I know what the Oly PRO primes will be.
12, 25 and 50mm f1 lenses. Probably to be released with the E-M1 II
Oh, so only a year???
F1 Pro lenses are rumoured to be on their way.
What about the 14-42mm PRO?
The normal range is for primes only! I zoom with my feet.
You can’t zoom with feet, because you chance perspective that way. Zoom only crops the view.
And 12-40mm PRO beats primes in sharpness and usability.
Ok, I “zoom” with my feet…12-40 is not for me as I prefer primes. Having a 17 or 25 lens mounted a few steps makes a huge difference on the final picture, in UWA and Tele, a few steps doesnt make a difference, so I find the zoom useful.
Robin who???
There’s a link.
Olympus employee since about 3 years ago.
He does a lot of micro 43 reviews. I believe he is an employee of Olympus as well
Why does everyone sya I believe or think.
It’s very clear Robin is associated with Olympus, he unmistakenly says so on his website, Unlike many other reviewers he makes it clear.
But photo’s can’t be biased and tell the whole story, Up to now it seems the 7-14mm is a very good piece of gear, worth every penny!!! And compared to the Pana 7-14mm F4, which I have, very cheap. I think Panasonic will reduce the price of it’s wideangle zoom very soon.
Marco should be happy, except for the waiting bit.
🙂 I am indeed. I wish I could have it right now though.
Luckily I’m shooting film lately, therefore I don’t suffer from GAS too much: I keep it at bay buying some rolls of Ilford film 🙂
Same here, a dose of Kodak Ektar keep GAS away.
I need a Lee filters adapter… please
I guess it doesn’t matter to me since I’m not in the market for a $1000+ lens, but it seems odd that Olympus did not consider any kind of filter attachment, especially with the popularity of long exposure landscape shots.
It was known not to be possible. 9mm is requirement to ger filters.
And you anyways use filter plates like Cokin or Lee for those.
The filter rear holder wouldnt work as it compromises weather sealing and you dont want to start cleaning two inner lenses at rear.
MFD for the 7-14mm and the 8mm are 20cm and 12cm respectively listed on The Olympus website. MWD should be from the front lens element to to subject so I guess that’s where the reviewers are getting their numbers?
It’s sensor to subject.
In other words, what you want is the minimum Working Distance from the front lens element.
The 7-14 lens is as quoted. “Close-up shooting of 20cm from the imaging sensor and 7.5cm* from the end of the lens is now possible. You can experience brilliant macro shooting with background expression unique to wide-angle lenses.” http://www.olympus.com.au/Products/Interchangeable-Lens-Cameras/M-Zuiko-Digital/M-ZUIKO-PRO/M-ZUIKO-DIGITAL-ED-7-14mm-F2-8-PRO/Features
And the 8mm is 120mm closest focussing distance (from sensor) with a lens length of 80mm it becomes rather close to the end of the lens. No minimum working distance appears to be given. http://www.olympus.com.au/Products/Interchangeable-Lens-Cameras/M-Zuiko-Digital/M-ZUIKO-PRO/M-ZUIKO-DIGITAL-ED-8mm-F1-8-Fisheye-PRO/Specifications
How it is possible that people doesnt know what Close-Up and Macro means?
Macro is when subject has 1:1 magnification on sensor, in m4/3 cameras it means subject fills the frame when subject size is max 17.3x13mm sized.
Close-Up is from anything smaller magnification up to normal ranges.
These new lenses are capable only to around 0.1x magnification and doesnt reach 1.0 required magnification.
Funky flare in the first pic. The rest look very promising. Not enough varied scenarios to really tell what it can do. My only reservation has nothing to do with the lens. For wide work, the more resolution often produces better prints. You’re locked into M43 with this guy and 16MP- the 40MP shot is limited. We’re talking big boy money for this little lens. It’s not a knock on the lens however. I can’t wait to try it out as well as the 40-150. This stuff is really tempting me away from my other gear. I just don’t want any regrets down the road. So far though, I have none. Very promising lens here.
One other thing…and I know this is nit picky…why the 7 blades? They did the same thing on the 40-150. Throw the extra two blades in there for crying out loud. I’m sure it’s do to wanting to drive consumers further toward portrait lens options (product distinction) but it’s annoying.
The thing is, MP and IQ will continue to increase on on platforms to the point where Full Frame today will likely be looked at as Medium Format is looked at: Better than anything else in terms of IQ, but not worth the hassle/investment except for a select few professionals.
The one thing that is likely to not change is the size of the lenses for each sensor size. This is the long game with m43’s and smaller systems. For many of us, m43’s already offers the IQ needed to make the swtich, for others it might take another 5+ years to reach that level of objective IQ. One thing is for certain, the lenses that are good on this system will remain good and small compared to other systems.
I switch out a lot of my gear often. Not so with the M43 gear- it stays. It’s the most well rounded system on the market IMO…all things considered. I just hope we get a bit more native resolution out of it and a bit more DR at some point. It doesn’t always matter, but I like the idea of being able to move upstream at some point the more I invest.
IQ will forever be increasing on all these systems. If you are happy with m43’s today, you’ll likely be happy with it in the future with new sensor tech.
My point exactly:”Make it good enough!”
I disagree. I’m still disappointed that my E-M1 files have noise at base ISO 200. And I don’t want to invest in a system now just to wait around and get good IQ in 5 years. Maybe it will go down that way, maybe it won’t. I will see then.
In the meantime I prefer M43 for convenience, for example in combination with a GM5 you get a spectacularly small package. But for anything IQ, I prefer an A7 with Loxias hands down.
What do you disagree with what I said?
Will tech continue to move the objective IQ slider for all systems? Yes.
Will there be diminishing returns on practical IQ with larger format systems? There already is (see Medium Format vs. Full Frame).
Are there people that are content with m43’s today? Yes.
Is it possible that future sensor technology can move others to m43’s or smaller sensor tech tomorrow? Yes.
That’s my set up right now. A7 and EP5…I have an A77II as well. No loxia yet:(
I have the same two cameras, and use Oly manual lenses, both PEN-F and OM system. Do you have straight forward preferences? Btw, are you the guy with the OM 35-80mm 1:2.8?
Well I think you are overreacting. The noise is nowhere to be seen in any print from the system.
How big prints do your customers order? Or how big are their screens and with what resolution? The few 4k screens available are even insufficient!
In fact talk about noise of todays camera’s are only relevant when high ISO’s are used. At the low ISO settings I could even use a 1″ camera professionally!!!
Glad to have such a jubilant – and impartial – expert’s voice right from the start!
While the lens indeed seems to be excellent, but given that only the short summary was posted, it needs to be pointed out that these remarks are based on only out-of-camera jpgs with auto-corrections for CA and distortion applied in-camera. If it was RAW, we’d probably have a different picture.
Interesting point. Arguably, if the in body jpegs comes out so clean, the default correction from Aperture, LL or any decent post process software will properly cook RAW files in a breeze.
Looking at the corners, I wouldn’t call them that clean. In some pictures they look quite stretched and less sharp — to me it looks like heavy correction was applied. So that’s why I’d have preferred to see some raws as well, then we can judge if the 7 mm corners are worth it, or just stick with 8-9 mm for better corner performance.
/ Although it’s not likely that I will buy it anyway. I’m fine with the 9-18 for now, even that is hard to use well, let alone even wider.
Nice lense, with the 12~40 PRO, 40~150 PRO and this one, you cover almost every shooting case, just missing a macro PRO lense 🙂
Pro just means weather/dust sealed(and included lens hood). the 60mm macro is also weather sealed, so just as Pro.
There is nothing missing in terms of quality about the 60mm, but I would lile to see a 100+mm macro.
Pro also apparently means all-metal body, so that throws out the 60mm macro.
Except that the Pro lenses aren’t all metal. They are a combination of metal and plastic(they would be much to heavy if only metal is used).
The only reason the 60mm is no Pro series, is that it’s just not. It also has a different design, but it’s up to the standard in terms of IQ. The 12-50 obviously is not.
Totally agree 🙂 3 lenses, and you’re covered 😀
How cool is it that they provide a model for you to try the lenses on 😉
I was quite pleased by it 😀
instead of Alesandro …they should give the lens to Marco Sartori…he would make a review with super pictures ..like Robin !
Hello Tomas, Olympus didn’t give me the lenses to test. I just went to the Olympus Day to test them 😉 Of course I would have taken way better pictures if I would have the chance to have the lenses for at least some hours and not just staying in one street 😉
ah ok …thats another story then and thumbs up for you were initiative and share your short experience with the lens! ..have a nice day !
No worries 🙂 I know everybody (me included) are craving for these new lenses so much, so that’s why I went to the event 🙂 Of course I would have loved to have it for some time to wander around Milano and take some proper shots…maybe next time 😀
Thanks and have a nice day too!
I have been holding off my urges to go to the m43 system, but Olympus keeps coming out with these excellent lenses, making their system really hard to resist. I’m still putting the sony a9 or a99ii on the top of my want list. But if sony keeps delaying that camera, I might just drop that whole thing and go all in with the Olympus m43 system. Please don’t tempt me anymore, Olympus, my resistance is wearing thin.
If I were you I would just go for it 😀 You’ll be very much satisfied by it, and most importantly, you’ll start enjoying photography even more!
Glad to help 🙂
Grazie!!
Olympus reviews Olympus it’s great!!!!!!!11!!1
I wish I’d work for Olympus 😛