Olympus ZD 7-14mm f/4 lens

see also:

• Olympus Four Thirds dSLR system
• Four Thirds lenses
• Micro Four Thirds system
• super wide angle lenses
• Olympus mZD 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO lens
• Official Olympus website: Olympus ZD 7-14mm f/4 digital

• rectilinear ultra-wide angle zoom with field of view as for 14-28mm in 35mm terms
• minimal barrel/pincushion distortion, almost zero at 10mm focal length.
• very sharp;
• performs best at f/5.6-f/8.
• this lens is so good & allows unique creative opportunities, I just had to get one :)
• perfect for indoor work
• seems to have an inbuilt polariser-like effect on blue sky - perhaps the Brewster effect?
• a little purple fringing wide open outdoors at 7mm in high contrast situations at the periphery.
• flare spots if you allow light sources to hit its convex outer lens.
• now that Olympus are selling their brilliant Olympus mZD 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO lens, this Four Thirds lens is likely to find little use EXCEPT if one can add in a ND 100 or ND 400 filter inside a Four Thirds to Micro Four Thirds adapter which would allow bright sunlight long exposures which would give it a potential significant advantage over the new lens
  • hopefully some enterprising company will make such an adapter with in-built ND400 filter
  • in the interim, it may be possible to cut a Cokin ND100 P155 filter (if you can find one as it seems Cokin may not be selling them anymore) to fit suggly inside the odd-shaped interior of an Olympus or Panasonic adapter without having any light leak.
    • see http://www.instructables.com/id/Mod-a-Cokin-P007-to-fit-into-a-screw-in-filter/ for ideas.

• Olympus Four Thirds dSLR system lens mount
• Super Pro designation
• weatherproofed
• rectilinear 7-14mm zoom = 14-28mm lens on a full frame
• f/4-f/22
• 18 Elements in 12 Groups, including ED Glass Aspherical Lens, ED Lens and Super ED Lenses
• close focus 0.25m = 0.11x macro
• at 7mm focal length and focus at 1m, at f/4 aperture, all should be in focus from 0.54m to infinity
• at 14mm focal length and focus at 3m, at f/4 aperture, all should be in focus from 1.55m to infinity
• convex front lens means filters are not possible
• lovely metal lens cap which slides on LC-87 (87mm)
• 87mm x 120mm
• 780g
• compatible with teleconverters
• RRP $2599 but now sells for $1799

• see my photos using the 7-14mm:
  • using the Olympus E510
  • using the Panasonic GH-1
  • on Flickr

• Wrotniak's review
• biofos.com review
• SLRgear.com review
• users on forum
  • the ZD 7-14mm thrashes ANY Canon wide angle lens including their 14mm L lens for sharp, distortion-free images across the frame