Customers Review Amazon Product

wider is better
This is a lens that is light, smooth, sharp, and can open doors in your
photography if you've never had ultra wide lens before. You probably need to have a history of liking wide angle views, if you find your eye
concentrating mostly on telephoto shots, you may not get into the wide
angle world. If you like to be creative, capture images that you cannot
get with the "standard" wide, normal, and telephoto lens, then go for it.

Remember it may be difficult to use a polarizer filter on this lens without getting uneven blue sky effects. I bought a Nikon Slim polarizer
11 filter which I still use but mostly for helping to saturate colors and
take away glare in certain shots.

This probably is not an all-round lens for most people as the 14-54 lens
is more versatile. But it will inspire you to try new ideas, new angles
of view, and perhaps produce some of your all time favorite shots. By the
way, I'm not an expert on the "color rendition" of lens, but I've taken
some of my pictures, expecially with the polarizer, have great and deep
colors.

an important focal range well served
This lens is physically just a little bigger than the 2 kit lenses. The front element, with a 72mm filter size, is the thing that sticks out compared to the kits.

It is Japan-made, not Chinese, which generally represents a higher quality even though it is in the same "Standard" range as the kits. It is nicely finished, with the same textured black paint as the E-510 camera body. The attachment base is metal, rather than the plastic of the kit lenses.

Olympus controls the size and cost by staying within the not-particularly-fast f/4.0-5.6, but overall this is a very reasonable compromise.

For image quality, it sets a high standard. It is superior to the quite satisfactory kit lenses.

The prospective buyer now has several compelling options in the wide zoom range. Which one is selected depends very much on your "lens plan" as you develop your system.

The 11-22mm is just a little more expensive, and has a little extra speed, and is in the "High Grade" series so has even better image quality. For me, compared to the 9-18, the loss of some angle was more important than the gain in speed and image quality. The 7-14mm is much more expensive, and is part of the "Super High Grade" series. As such, it does not really compete with this 9-18 (at least not within my budget). Unfortunately, Olympus does not offer a prime ultra-wide, other than the 8mm fisheye which is really a fixed-length special-effect lens rather than a prime.

I would be even happier if this lens was offered as a High Grade lens for a couple hundred extra dollars, but as it stands, it is a very much appreciated addition to my system.

Good enough for me
As an amateur I almost never buy digital camera equipment new, but this was an exception. This lens seems to always be in rather short supply and to tell the truth, I just got tired of waiting for one to show up on the used market. Amazon had the best pricing of any reliable supplier that I had found on this lens, and in order to complete my modest system before Christmas vacation I made the purchase.
Compared to my 14-54 & 50-200 this lens physically seems a bit lightweight in its construction to me. I wouldn't call it flimsy, but its obvious that the build quality is not on the same level as the higher grade weather sealed lenses. I don't feel, at least in my case, that this will be a particular disadvantage if reasonable care is used in handling it.
I use the lens on an E1 body and I see no apparent distinction between the quality of the images taken with this lens and the others that I own. I installed a protective u.v. filter on this lens and i've seen no signs of vignetting on the shots that i've taken. There is some distortion at the wide end, but not enough to bother me. Overall I'm happy with the purchase.

4/3 system
I'm from the 35mm film generation and I'm so glad I chose the four thirds system when I decided to upgrade to digital. My Lumix has now 3 lenses from 3 different brands and this Olympus lens is absolutely incredible for this price and versatility. This is the equivalent of an 18mm in the 35mm format, plenty for day to day wide angle use, and I'm already planning my next vacation around this marvel.

A great small lens!
Pros:
Very Small, Very Light, fits easily in a jacket pocket
Ultra-wide angle is very useful
Image stabilization available on-camera
Slightly better construction than my other Olympus standard grade lenses
Wide filter ring prevents vignetting (use just one filter)
Good image quality, especially at f/8, except for:

Cons:
Barrel distortion at wide end (correctable in Photoshop)
Practice required to keep horizon level, not create weird perspective
Construction not as good as Olympus "pro" lenses
There are wider lenses for other brands (that weigh 2x more... hehehe.)
There are better ultrawide zoom lenses (in the 00 range... haHaHA!)

My stuff for reference: E-410, 9-18mm, 14-42mm, 14-54mm, 40-150mm (small), 18-180mm, 70-300mm

I bought the Olympus system to get great image quality at a small size and price, I wouldn't have if not for rumors of this lens. When it was announced it seemed better than I hoped! I bought it early for a trip to China (I normally wait for the price to drop), it is a good thing I did, because I used the 9-18mm about 70% of the time! I also took the 14-54mm and the 40-150mm kit lens, thus making a small, quality, versatile package that I always carried in my pockets and hand/neck.

The 9-18 is ideal for travel, it fits in a pocket or can be carried attached to your camera all day and not be tiring. More importantly, when you get to touristy places, you can stand very close to your subject (if you don't mind the perspective), thus you will be in other people's photos, rather than them being in yours! Plus, there are a surprising number of subjects that can only be photographed whole or with no obstructions with an ultra-wide angle lens. Great for "spy" pictures of people who think you are pointing the camera somewhere else. And, you can lower shutter speeds to 1/20s and still have sharp pictures, a huge benefit for cameras with no IS. I could even show blurred motion in runners and cyclists hand held, so imagine what it would be like on a camera with IS!

Image quality is good, but there is noticeable barrel distortion towards 9mm. Otherwise I would say IQ is between the 14-54 and 40-150, but closer to the 14-54. Lens flare was not a big problem for me, but more than my 14-54 (and I like placing the sun in the frame). Keeping the lens clean helps a lot with flare. Contrast (something I like) is much better than the 40-150, but not as good as the 14-54mm. Sharpness I am less attuned to because all Olympus lenses are good and I rarely view my pictures full size, but it is very good at f/8 (f/8 is quite a bit better than f/4, the variation is more than the 14-54 varies between f/2.8 and f/8 I believe). Chromatic aberration happens, and is slightly worse towards the edges, but is not too bad.

Other thoughts: construction quality is better than my other Olympus standard grade lenses, including texturing on the whole exterior and a less plasticky sound when you hit the limits of the zoom range. Zoom travel is very short and is of the out-in-out variety. I now think my 14-54mm is too big, and am considering the 25mm pancake or the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 to anchor the gap between the 9-18mm and 40-150mm. With the 9-18mm, 40-150mm and any of the you will have a small yet extraordinary setup with the E-420 or E-520. Alternatively, use the 9-18 and 70-300 for wildlife/landcapes. You will see many tourists walking past with a Nikon D300 or Canon 50D and a large lens, that weigh more than your camera and three lenses together despite having less zoom and smaller aperture. You will wonder what delusion they are under that they think they are making better pictures (of the same thing)!