As discussed in yesterday's PAD, I didn't get home until after 22:00 last night as result of which, I was working from home today. That narrowed the list of possible subjects, but this one is worth discussing anyway.

As regular viewers may know, I have the Olympus 12 to 40 mm and 40 to 150 mm f/2.8 Pro lenses. Both are very good lenses, both are solid and rugged and in the case of the 40 to 150 mm, not exceptionally light though in both cases they are substantially lighter and smaller than their APS-C or full frame equivalents. However 12 mm (equivalent to 24 mm full frame) is not exceptionally wide, which is very limiting for indoor shots. Olympus has recently released another Pro lens, the 7 to 14 mm f/2.8. By all accounts this is a very fine lens, delivering very sharp results. However it is far from cheap lens and the thing that annoys me about it greatly more than anything else is that it does not accommodate filters. Not even a protective filter, and that is a hell of a risk with a lens that costs over a grand.

Later this year I shall be going far, far away. This will be an expensive trip, and the money to splash out on new lenses is not there. Okay, I could find it if I absolutely had to, but would rather not. More importantly, weight will be an issue. The 7 to 14 is not a light lens either and while extra width will be needed from time to time, it's questionable whether it will be needed often enough to justify lugging around three relatively heavy pro series lenses.

I learnt long ago that compromising on price alone is sometimes false economy when dealing with photographic equipment. However compromising based on conflicting operational needs (AS WELL AS price) is another matter.

I therefore decided to buy the older 9 to 18 mm f/4 lens that we see here. It's not as fast as the f/2.8 7 to 14 mm, you can bet that the image quality won't be in the same league either, but based on shots that I've seen from other users, it will be more than good enough. More importantly, it's very small and very light and therefore gives me extra width functionality while costing me very little carrying capacity. And, of course, it cost me a very great deal less than the 7 to 14 would have, especially with discounts in the post-Christmas sales.

I'm sure that shots from it, and not just of it, will appear in this gallery in due course.