Totally different. 12mm cannot do what 9mm can do no matter how many steps you move backward. The entire aesthetics of the picture is different. But from my experience, 12mm is already quite hard to handle for beginners. They are more comfortable with 14-20mm. So it will be wiser to move to ultra wide after one is comfortable with 12mm. You can only do well with 9mm after you can do well with 12mm. 9-18mm will open up a lot of possibilities. If i can only carry 2 lenses they would be Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 and Olympus 9-18mm. I will not hesitate to leave my tele and primes at home because as I said, you cannot do what 9mm can do at 12mm.

around $335. Same filter size with my 12mm

Not announced yet. RM1,000 to RM1,100 I think.

Full frame magical focal length are

24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm and 135mm.

WIth this Lens, Olympus will have, in full frame terms,

24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 90mm and 150mm. [except 150mm, all are tiny]

Very very close!

Pananonic? HMMM

28mm, 30mm, 40mm, 50mm (big), 85mm (HUGE)

I really don't understand what's in their mind.

Went to shoot Thaipusam last week