Table of Contents
Olympus mZD 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO lens
see also:
- my blog posts:
introduction
- officially announced May 2015 with release date for June 2015
- pro super wide angle zoom lens designed for Micro Four Thirds system
specs
- eq. to 14-28mm on 35mm full frame
- f/2.8 aperture
- weathersealed in 11 areas
- ZERO coating
- does not accept any lens filters although third party adapters (see below) may allow 150mm filters
- 14 elements in 11 groups, the lens contains two Aspherical ED elements, one DSA element, one Aspherical element, three Super ED elements, one ED element and two HR elements
- silent AF
- MF ring has the same pull back for analog control rather than just focus by wire mode as with some of their other lenses including the Olympus mZD 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro weatherproof lens
- 'L-Fn' button which can be customized with 17 possible functions
- 105.8mm long x 78.9mm diam and 534g
- much smaller, lighter and much less expensive than the fantastic Olympus ZD 7-14mm f/4 lens for Olympus Four Thirds dSLR system thanks to the shorter flange distance allowing a total re-design of the optics
- it is about the same size as the Olympus mZD 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro weatherproof lens and the Olympus m.ZD 75mm f/1.8 lens, and 2 of these lenses conveniently fit snuggly in a Lowepro Adventura SH 100 II camera bag (although this bag is a touch too small for an E-M1 + 12-40mm lens), if you are like me and carries your equipment in a normal type backpack
- $US1299
filter holders
- you can't just hand hold a ND gradient filter in front of the lens as there are large light leaks which allow reflections from the filter
-
- filter holder for 150x150mm filters $US120
- Haida 10-stop ND3,0 1000x 150x150mm filter EUR 105 (need to use a gasket to stop light leaks)
- Haida 0.9x ND grad 150x150mm filter $US101
- the SLOT 100mm Lee filter holder using 3D printing:
-
compared to the Panasonic Leica DG 8-18mm f/2.8-4.0 lens
- the Panasonic lens offers some important advantages:
- lighter (315g vs 534g)
- smaller (88mm long instead of 105.8mm), although when you add the lens hood, they look much the same
- able to use 67mm standard filters so much more useful for landscape photography
- great for ND400 10 stop long exposure flowing water shots
- can use a Lee Seven5 filter holder and two ND filters without significant additional vignetting
- longer reach making it more useful for street photography and travel as it gets to the equivalent field of view of a full frame 35mm lens which is much favored by many street photographers
- the Olympus lens though offers:
- wider aperture at all zoom levels - thus better for low light work
- wider field of view reaching to full frame equivalent of 14mm - which sometimes you just need this much, especially for creative photography, and even in landscape work!
- closer focus of 20cm instead of 23cm
- a manual focus clutch
- significantly sharper at wide apertures
- sunstars at f/22 are sharper and more attractive spikes
compared to the Olympus ZD 7-14mm f/4 Super High Grade Four Thirds lens
- 1 stop faster than the Four Thirds lens – that is – it lets in TWICE as much light thereby allowing lower ISO to be used in low light, but even with this extra stop of aperture it is a welcome compact size
- shorter: 105.8mm long instead of 120mm
- smaller: 78.9mm diameter instead of 87mm
- much lighter: 534g instead of 780g
- close focus reduced to 20cm and a working distance of 7.5cm (the close focus of the Four Thirds lens was 25cm from sensor)
- new ZERO nanocoating to further reduce flare
- new manual focus clutch to switch into “analog” manual focus mode with distance scale instead of the default focus by wire mechanism
- new L-Fn button which can be assigned to any of 17 functions on the Olympus OM-D cameras
- AF is now silent and optimised for CDAF live view and videos
- new optical design appears to have much more distortion and curvature of field than the Four Thirds lens
- perhaps best of all is it is around HALF the price at $US1299
compared to the Canon EF 14mm f/2.8 L II prime lens
- despite the Olympus lens is a f/2.8 zoom, it is:
- lighter at 524g instead of 654g
- longer at 106mm vs 94mm
- much more affordable at $A1499 compared to $A2659
- far more versatile as it can zoom to 28mm in full frame terms
- much sharper wide open edge-to-edge (see charts below)
- much less CA
- much less distortion 1.7% compared to 3.7% barrel distortion
- much less vignetting wide open 1.5EV vs 2.65EV
- 7 blades not 6 blades
- has much nicer star shapes for astrophotographic landscapes of the Milky Way as it has less coma aberration
- has image stabiliser of 5 stops allowing hand held shots at 1-2 seconds courtesy of the Olympus cameras (the Canon has no IS)
- has eye detection autofocus for portraits
- has fast, silent AF for movies
- why would anyone buy the Canon 14mm lens then?
- if you already have a Canon full frame dSLR with 50mp and you shoot landscapes on a tripod at f/8 then it may have a use (although for static scenes, the new Olympus cameras can shoot 40mp HiRes shots with less moire on a tripod)
- one could argue you can get 2 stops better ISO on full frame, but with this lens you need to stop it down 2 stops to get close the the sharpness of the Olympus lens, so that argument generally won't hold much
- otherwise see your mental health therapist
From ePhotozine.com's reviews (not totally comparable given different sensor sizes):
| Olympus mZD 7-14mm at 7mm | Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II | |
|---|---|---|
| sharpness |  |  |
| chromatic aberration |  |  |
| coma and star shapes (courtesy of Lenstip.com) | N/A as yet |  |
compared to the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II pro zoom lens
- despite the Olympus lens can go wider to 14mm, it is:
- lighter at 524g instead of 640g
- shorter at 106mm vs 112mm
- closer focus at 20cm instead of 28cm
- more affordable at $A1499 compared to $A1899
- far more versatile as it can zoom out to 14mm in full frame terms
- much sharper wide open edge-to-edge (see charts below)
- much less CA
- much less distortion at widest zoom 1.7% compared to 7.4% barrel distortion!!
- much less vignetting wide open 1.5EV vs 1.9EV
- both have 7 blades
- has much nicer star shapes for astrophotographic landscapes of the Milky Way as it has less coma aberration
- has image stabiliser of 5 stops allowing hand held shots at 1-2 seconds courtesy of the Olympus cameras (the Canon has no IS)
- has eye detection autofocus for portraits
- has fast, silent AF for movies
- why would anyone buy the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 lens then?
- if you already have a Canon full frame dSLR with 50mp and you shoot landscapes on a tripod at f/8 then it may have a use, however, the Canon 16-35mm f/4 lens is a far better lens (although for static scenes, the new Olympus cameras can shoot 40mp HiRes shots with less moire on a tripod)
- one could argue you can get 2 stops better ISO on full frame, but with this lens you need to stop it down 2 stops to get close the the sharpness of the Olympus lens, so that argument generally won't hold much
- otherwise see your mental health therapist
From ePhotozine.com's reviews (not totally comparable given different sensor sizes):
| Olympus mZD 7-14mm at 7mm | Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II at 16mm | |
|---|---|---|
| sharpness |  |  |
| chromatic aberration | |  |
compared to the Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L pro zoom lens
- despite the Olympus lens can go wider to 14mm, it is:
- lighter at 524g instead of 600g
- similar length at 106mm vs 103mm
- closer focus at 20cm instead of 28cm
- more affordable at $A1499 compared to $A
- far more versatile as it can zoom out to 14mm in full frame terms
- perhaps similar sharpness wide open edge-to-edge (see charts below)
- perhaps similar CA
- much less distortion at widest zoom 1.7% compared to 4.3% wavy barrel distortion!!
- much less vignetting wide open 1.5EV vs 2EV
- both have 7 blades
- both have reasonably nice star shapes for astrophotographic landscapes of the Milky Way
- both have image stabiliser
- has eye detection autofocus for portraits
- has fast, silent AF for movies
- why would anyone buy the Canon 16-35mm f/4lens then?
- this is perhaps the best wide angle zoom for Canon full frame cameras and if you own a Canon full frame, this is the one to get, but there are no real advantages over the 7-14mm and of course it does not go as wide
From ePhotozine.com's reviews (not totally comparable given different sensor sizes):
| Olympus mZD 7-14mm at 7mm | Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L at 16mm | |
|---|---|---|
| sharpness | |  |
| chromatic aberration | |  |
compared to the Nikon AF-S 14-28mm f/2.8G pro zoom lens
- the Nikon AF-S 14-28mm f/2.8G lens is generally regarded as the best ultra-wide zoom lens for full frame, so much so, that even many Canon users go to the trouble of using it (although now they have the Canon 16-35mm f/4L IS lens which is superb)
- let's see how the Olympus lens compares, it is:
- much lighter at 524g instead of 970g
- much shorter at 106mm vs 132mm
- focuses closer 20cm vs 28cm
- more affordable at $A1499 compared to $A2797
- sharper wide open edge-to-edge (see charts below)
- marginally less CA
- much less distortion at widest zoom 1.7% compared to 7.4% barrel distortion!!
- much less vignetting wide open 1.5EV vs 2EV
- 7 blades not 9 blades
- has much nicer star shapes for astrophotographic landscapes of the Milky Way as it has less coma aberration
- has image stabiliser of 5 stops allowing hand held shots at 1-2 seconds courtesy of the Olympus cameras (the Canon has no IS)
- has eye detection autofocus for portraits
- has fast, silent AF for movies
- why would anyone buy the Nikon 14-24mm lens then?
- if you already have a Nikon full frame dSLR with 35mp and you shoot landscapes or studio fashion on a tripod at f/8 then it may have a use (although for static scenes, the new Olympus cameras can shoot 40mp HiRes shots with less moire on a tripod, although a little less dynamic range)
- one could argue you can get 2 stops better ISO on full frame, but with this lens you need to stop it down 2 stops to get close to the corner sharpness of the Olympus lens, so that argument generally won't hold much
- you may get better sun stars with its 9 blades
- otherwise see your mental health therapist
From ePhotozine.com's reviews (not totally comparable given different sensor sizes, and note the scales are different):
| Olympus mZD 7-14mm at 7mm | Nikon AF-S 14-28mm f/2.8G at 14mm | |
|---|---|---|
| sharpness | |  |
| chromatic aberration | |  |
reviews
-
- amongst the sharpest ultra wide angle lens out there
- very sharp wide open corner-to-corner
- nice star shapes should make it good for Milky Way astroscapes
- minimal, nearly non-existent wide angle flaws - minimal CA, flare, no obvious barrel or pincushion distortion
- surprisingly good close up shooting
- lens cap can fall off in the camera bag with potential for damage to front lens element
- can be hand held to 1-2secs with OM-D cameras
-
- extremely sharp wide open at 7mm where it is sharpest
- excellent sharpness wide open at 10mm but a touch sharper at f/4
- sharpest at f/4-f/5.6 at 14mm
- very minimal CA
- vignetting 1.5EV wide open at 7mm and 1.3EV at 14mm; minimal at f/5.6
- can be prone to flare from direct sunlight
- 1.73% barrel distortion at 7mm which reduces to 0.61% at 14mm but these are further corrected in-camera
- excellent lens
-
- 1.3% barrel distortion at 7mm corrected in-camera, 7% uncorrected RAW
- 1.2EV vignetting at 7mm uncorrected RAW
- outstanding centre sharpness wide open and good to very good corners
- minimal CA
- substantial field of curvature at 7mm can be an issue, and is much more so than with the Panasonic 7-14mm f/4 ultrawide zoom lens
- “surprisingly flare-resistant (relative to others in this class)”
- “In terms of build quality, the Olympus is up there with the very best and it's a joy to use in the real life”