If you could have only 1 UWA

Glen Barrington wrote:

Albert Valentino wrote:

Huge difference between the two. Fast vs slower, prime vs zoom. I’m a zoom man myself and I also want a lens that is filter friendly for shooting things like water at long shutter speeds. So I went with the PL 8-18 and love it. I had to wait a year for the first sale, $200 off. Glad I did. It was a nice upgrade from my Oly 9-18 😃

Could you expand a bit on why it was a nice upgrade? I have the DSLR version of the 9-18, but will likely replace it with a native m43s lens.

First, it is wider and as with most ultra wide zooms we tend to use the wide end more. Converse is true with long zooms, they tend to get used more at the long end. Do not think of it as simply 1mm wider, think in terms if FOV and it is 9/8 percent wider which is noticeable. Second, the Oly 9-18 is pretty sharp at the wide end but just okay at the long end. PL is sharp across the range. Third, the Oly is slower and needs to be stopped down to get the edges sharp. So if you want sharp edges at 12mm you need to shoot at f/5.6. Lastly, I love to make sunstars when conditions are right and the Oly 9-18 renders terrible sunstars, not worth even trying. So in summary, the PL is faster, sharper across the range and edges, wider, and renders good sunstars. Laowa 7.5 prime does even better at sunstars.

Here is a thread I posted few weeks ago showing the PL 8-18 in NY city, 10 shots in the first post and a few more added in later posts. Many are at 8mm, and several are stopped way down to render sunstars, which softens a bit but that is the trade off. Judge for yourself, a picture worth a 1,000 words 😃

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4452931