Olympus Zuiko 7-14mm f/4 Reviews

I purchased this lens from B&H in the Spring of 2007. The lens came with a $75 rebate which was supposed to be honored within three month from the date of purchase. Seven months later, and after having mailed one complaint letter to the General Manager of Olympus, I still haven't received the promised rebate.

The rebate aside, after three months of using this lens, I noticed that the lens mount felt wiggly, so I sent it back to Olympus for repair. When the lens came back, the rubber gasket around the lens mount was loose! I sent it back again, and a couple of weeks later, the lens came back and the first thing I noticed was that the zoom ring was sticking every so often at the 8mm mark and at the 12mm mark respectively. The zoom ring also made a very damp 'click' sound when passing though the 8mm mark. I had to send the lens back, again. Currently I'm still waiting to see how it will come back this time. In either case, this is a great lens if you can get your hands on a good copy. If not, Lo' and behold!

I am pleased to say that I have not had any problems with the build quality of this lens. On being handed the lens, my first impressions were how heavy and bulky it was in comparison to my E-1!

The front element is covered by a really substantial and deep lens-cap, mainly because the petal-shaped hood is non- detatchable, and actually offers some protection to the highly curved front element. My only reservation is that the cap is a slip-on fit, when some form of clip or bayonet 'lock' would be quite a useful feature.

Because of the extreme curvature of the front element, it is not possible to fit any filters on this lens. I do wonder, because of the extensive 'baffling' which surrounds the rear element, if at some time in the future, Olympus will develop some way of fitting filters on here?

This is a lens for two-handed use, and whilst it is bulky, the size and weight I think, works in it's favour. The DOF button is in a bit of a cramped position, but that is mainly because it doesn't protrude enough above the body (especially when using gloves) and is more of a body design issue.

Optically, this lens is excellent and very well corrected especially in respect to the low levels of variation exposure levels between the centre and edge of the frame. I would guess this variation is about .6 > 1 F-stop. Just how Olympus has managed to compute an optic to this tolerance, amazes me.

I am aware that the lens does carry out some in-lens processing on the image, (Because of inbuilt firmware) but when you consider that the 12mm Ultron (RF) prime really needs to be fitted with a Heliopan filter to correct it's 1.5 to 2 f-stop exposure variation across the image, which means the effective working apeture is reduced to f11.

I hear people grumble about the price of this optic, but considering it's an F4.o and still one of the widest zoom lenses anyone makes, it's price is wholly justified.

In short, this is an optic which deserves to be far more highly regarded than it currently is. I have heard that N&C die-hards have been known to go out and buy into the 4/3rds DSLR system, just so they can use this outstanding optic!