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Matthew Richards is a photographer and journalist who has spent years using and reviewing all manner of photo gear. He is Digital Camera World's principal lens reviewer – and has tested more primes and zooms than most people have had hot dinners! Steve, did you happen to notice whether the Olympus suffers from ghosting flare at all? I get plenty of nasty purple flare with my Panasonic 25/1.4 on the E-M5 when shooting wide open at night, especially when bright light sources are included in the frame. While I prefer the rendering of the Panasonic, if the Olympus resists ghosting better then it really might be worth switching.
Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 25 mm F1.8 Lens, Fast Fixed Focal
With the Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital 25mm f/1.8 wide open, you can see some light fall-off in the corners, but it’s not too excessive, as you can see in the macro example below. Stopping down to f/4 cures this problem almost entirely. Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8 sample (Image credit: Alis Volat) Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8: Specifications As focusing is performed internally the 46mm filter thread does not rotate, which makes this lens ideal for use with graduated and polarising filters. The manual focusing ring is nicely damped, which makes applying adjustments a pleasure. The minimum focus distance is 25cm, which is ideal for close ups, or shooting in claustrophobic environments. A hood is provided with the lens, which is attached via the bayonet fitting hidden under the 'decoration ring' on the front of the lens barrel. This means you can keep your lens looking smart, even if you don't want to take the hood with you, if that's important to you, of course. I would be curious if you had an opinion about color. I’ve done some testing lately just to compare how the major MFT lenses produce color and I’ve found I tend to prefer the color of the Panasonic Leica branded lenses. The M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8 is almost indistinguishable from its "longer" cousin (45mm f/1.8). This is good news because the build quality is on similarly high level. The small and light weight lens body looks like high-quality metal but it is actually made of plastic parts based on a metal mount. A barrel-shaped lens hood is included.To me, it seems practically perfect but there are always some sort of flaws, and with a 62mm filter size, it’s rather big compared to these two.
Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8 review | Digital Camera World
Good review and fine comparison. I mostly use the 17mm 1.8 as a walk-around for my street photography, however, I’ve been on the fence too… and settling for the 25mm 1.8. I think mostly it is about size for me. I was also leaning towards the 25mm Pana/Leica 1.4 — but the size of the Oly is swaying me, not to mention it is also half the price of the Pana.I would agree with you if this were a ‘lens test.’ But it’s not…it’s a review of the lens. As I say in the beginning ” I review products on how they act for me as a photographic tool in real-world shooting.” That means I use the lens and make images how I would with any of my own gear. I care how a lens works under those constraints…how it reacts to processing, how it holds up under regular conditions. I am not posting 100% crops of the corners after correction…I’m not posting 100% of anything. Image samples give you a look at how the lens performs in my hands, with my typical processing routine. I did do a comparison with this lens against the Panasonic 25mm last week, and in that article, I have 100% unaltered crops straight from RAW conversion with no manipulation. At the end of the day though, a 25mm acts like a 50mm for focal length/magnification so this is what you are going to see when looking through your viewfinder. It will not be like when you put a 24mm on your full frame camera, but like when you put a 50mm on your full frame camera except for the Depth of Field control. Basically, on Micro 4/3 we are magnifying that 25mm to give us a 50mm field of view. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. The Olympus 25mm ƒ/1.8 lens has a close focusing distance of 9.4 in. (24cm) with a maximum magnification of 0.12x (1:8.3 ratio), and as such, doesn't provide overly good macro performance. The first immediately noticeable thing about the focus of this lens is the high, very regular sharpness. The sharpness in the in the center is actually equal to the sharpness in the corners – from full aperture on. That is a very good performance and increases the usability of this lens. Many other lenses at full opening have clearly softer corners. Where sharpness is concerned, you’re completely free to choose any aperture between f/1.8 and f/11. The amount of sharpening is partly a matter of personal taste. For my taste, standard jpg files of the Olympus OM-D E-M10 are slightly too sharpened. But there are many photographers who will find that really beautiful. Examine the image below at 100%, and form your own opinion.
Olympus 25mm f/1.8 M.Zuiko Digital - Digital Cameras, Digital
I don’t think there’s a big difference between a Panasonic or an Olympus camera mounted with these lenses. Of course there will be Panasonic bodies applying some corrections to Panasonic lenses (and viceversa) but it’s something you can do in Lightroom as well.
Ease of Use
Being such a small lens, it feels excellent and well balanced on any of the Micro Four Thirds cameras, as you would expect -- from the small GX1 test camera we use in the lab to larger cameras like the Olympus E-M1. The compact design makes it an excellent walk-around, every day lens that's great for portraits and low-light shooting, as well as general purpose photography.
Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8 - Review / Test Report - OpticalLimits Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8 - Review / Test Report - OpticalLimits
I use an OMD EM5 and think it works great with Panasonic lenses (why do people say Panny are they trying to be cool?). Manual focusing is possible in a focus-by-wire fashion, although there are no hard stops at either end of the range. This should not put you off using it as it feels pretty natural in use, and actually enables the camera to display a magnified view of the subject automatically, or to use focus peaking if available on the camera body. The focus ring is quite generously sized given the overall dimensions of the lens. Chromatic Aberrations I go in phases between the 35mm and 50mm being my #1 fave to shoot with and these days it is 35 all the way, so when out shooting with this 25 (50mm equiv) I was once again having to get used to shooting this focal length. After a solid few days of shooting with it daily I remember what it is that makes it my #2 favorite focal length! It has the perfect mix of sharpness and shallow DOF possibilities. While this is indeed a true 25mm lens, and we will get 25mm DOF from the lens, the focal length appears as a 50mm. So imagine the Olympus 25mm as a 50mm with 25mm Depth of Field and “Bokeh”. Due to the shorter focal length we will not get subject isolation as we will get on a real 50mm. It will give us 25mm DOF and isolation and yes, f 1.8 is a true f/1.8. Just on a 25mm lens.There is a light amount of chromatic aberration seen at all apertures, but it's mostly only noticeable in the corners and only in areas of high contrast. The effect is a light magenta fringing, and it's probably only visible by viewing 100% crops. Overall, it's very minor -- averaging around 300ths of a percent of frame height -- and something a little post-processing would clear up easily. If you go by Lenstip’s MTF (they have well done tests), once you get to f2, the Panasonic is sharper in the center. By 2.8-4.0, the Panasonic is sharper in both the center and edges. By f/4, the Pany’s edges nearly reach 70 lpm, close the the max center resolution of the Olympus lens. And with that said, we’re happy that the focusing isn’t only accurate but fast. If you’re shooting portraits, the OMD system’s face detection is also a major help in getting something accurate–providing it really detects the face correctly. Image Quality Model: Jesse Philbin
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