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Olympus 11-22mm f/2.8-3.5

Description

ePhotoZine review
Imaging Resource review
LensTip review

Eddie's take on it

The Olympus 11-22mm f/2.8-3.5 was one of the first lenses released by Olympus, way back in 2004.

Because the 11mm wide end is so close to the 12mm wide end of the famous Olympus 12-60mm High Grade standard zoom, this lens is a forgotten child of Four Thirds, and if you have the 12-60mm, there is no real reason to buy this lens.

If, however, you don't have the 12-60mm, the reasons to buy this are

• Price. This is one of the, if not THE cheapest High Grade lenses you can buy. Probably the best bang for your buck in the whole Four Thirds system. I got mine for under $100.
• Does not have the complex mustache distortion of the 12-60mm lens at widest zoom setting.
• There are lens combinations where this lens makes a lot of sense. If you are carrying around an Olympus 40-150mm f/4-5.6, Olympus 35-100mm f/2, Olympus 50mm f/2 or Olympus 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5, you may not need the longer focal length range of the 12-60mm lens, and may want to opt for something cheaper.

If you have the 14-54mm lens and you feel like you need something wider, I don't recommend buying this. I recommend either selling it and going for the 12-60mm which will give you virtually the same lens range, or go for the 9-18mm as a much more extreme wide angle.

If you didn't want to shell out $1700 for the Olympus 7-14mm f/4, this was the only Olympus lens going wider than 14mm for several years, all the way until 2007 when the 12-60mm was released. This means there are plenty of them to go around, and they are quite cheap on ebay. Is it going to become a collectable? I would say, given that this is one of Olympus' first digital lenses, and given the weird, non-standard focal lengths, it is likely that in the future this is going to be a collectable.