Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm f/4-5.6 Review

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm f/4-5.6 Handling and features

Weighing only 155g and being only 49.5mm long when collapsed, this lens is incredibly compact for the range it offers. The lens body is constructed from high quality plastics and the lens mount is made of metal. It makes a great compact combination with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3 body used for testing, and would suit more compact bodies from the Micro Four Thirds range equally well.

As this lens sports a collapsible design, opening the lens virtually doubles it's length. Once extended the zoom ring is limited to the zoom range unless a switch on the side is activated, then the lens can be collapsed again for compact storage. As focusing is performed internally the 52mm filter thread does not rotate during use, making this lens ideal for use with graduated and polarising filters.  Focus speeds are very quick and the manual focus ring offers is well damped, which makes applying fine adjustments fairly straightforward.

A strange quirk on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3 used for testing is that the lens cannot be focused all the way to infinity in manual focus mode. As this lens provides extensive depth of field, even at maximum aperture, then this shouldn't be an issue in practice. The lens has a silent focusing motor and is labelled as one of Olympus' MSC lenses, suitable for movies and stills. The minimum focus distance of 25cm allows reasonably close up images to be taken and is great for shooting in claustrophobic conditions.

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