Olympus 7-14mm f/2.8 Pro Lens Review: A hefty price tag, but a fantastic ultra-wide zoom nonetheless

posted Wednesday, December 2, 2015 at 3:53 PM EDT

Little by little Olympus adds to their impressive "Zuiko Pro" line of high-end lenses, this time around with an ultra-wide and bright 7-14mm f/2.8 Zuiko Pro lens. Announced as a development project all the way back in February 2014, the 7-14mm lens just now made its way into customers hands this past summer. And, at last, we were finally able to get our hands on one recently and give it the proper SLRgear review treatment.

Coming on the heels of the very well-regarded 12-40mm f/2.8 and 40-150mm f/2.8 lenses, the next f/2.8 lens in Olympus' professional lens family offers a nice ultra-wide 14-28mm-equivalent zoom range -- perfect for expansive landscapes, artitectural photography and night time photography. Though rather pricey at a list of $1,300, the 7-14mm shares a similar design and weather-sealed construction to other Zuiko Pro lenses; it feels very well-built and altogether rock-solid.

Olympus E-M10 II: 7mm, f/5, 1/80s, ISO 640, -0.3EV
[Image as been edited. Click for original version.]

On the performance front, it's another excellent showing for the folks from Olympus. Center sharpness is fantastic at all focal lengths, even at f/2.8, and AF performance is very nimble. Wide-open corner sharpness and CA control (in the corners) leaves us a little disappointed, though for such a wide, bright lens, this is not all that surprising.

For all the detail, head over to SLRgear for our full Olympus 7-14mm f/2.8 Pro Review, which includes our full testing results, sample lab images as well as detailed product information and handling notes. For a selection of real-world gallery photos, Dave Pardue took the lens out for a spin with the Olympus E-M10 II, so check the Gallery page for a few sample images (scroll down to the bottom of the thumbnail table). Our lens technician Rob Murray also shot a batch of images with our Panasonic GX1 MFT testing camera, which can all be viewed over on our Flickr page.