Olympus ZD 7-14mm coverage, taken with Olympus E-410

The Four Thirds standard effectively multiplies the focal length of all lenses by two times, so the ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 7-14mm offers a coverage equivalent to 14-28mm on a 35mm or full frame system. Even considering the two-times factor, that's pretty wide-angle by any standard, and as mentioned earlier, Olympus claims it's the World's widest digital zoom lens.

To illustrate this coverage in practice we shot the same scene with the 7-14mm and the latest 14-42mm ZUIKO DIGITAL kit lens within moments of each other using an Olympus E-410; the camera was mounted on a tripod to ensure a consistent position.

Below are the results from the 7-14mm ZUIKO DIGITAL lens, and even before comparing them against anything else, the wide end of the zoom clearly shows a massive field being captured. This provides wonderfully creative opportunities, whether capturing enormous landscapes or exploiting the 10cm closest focusing distance to get right up to your subject. When zoomed-out, you can enjoy enormous depths of field even with relatively wide-open apertures, and the coverage is also handy when you simply can't step back any further.

While this wide-end is obviously quite extreme, zooming-in to the 'long' end delivers more typical wide-angle coverage, including the popular equivalent focal lengths of 24 and 28mm; this makes it a flexible focal range for wide-angle fans.

Olympus ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 7-14mm 1:4.0 coverage
7-14mm at 7mm, f8 (14mm equivalent)		7-14mm at 14mm, f8 (28mm equivalent)

Below are the results from the 14-42mm ZUIKO DIGITAL kit lens, clearly illustrating the differences in coverage between this standard 3x optical zoom and the specialist 7-14mm model.

Olympus ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm ED 1:3.5-5.6 coverage
14-42mm at 14mm, f8 (28mm equivalent)		14-42mm at 42mm, f8 (84mm equivalent)