Falloff of illumination towards the corners is well controlled for a fast aperture standard lens. At f/1.8 the comers are 1.21 stops darker than the centre of the image and stopping down to f/5.6 results in visually uniform illumination across the frame. But when you consider that it is a wider focal length, then you’ll get less bokeh at a given aperture, correct? Yes, but we didn’t find this to be a really big damper on the images that we created. 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. As of January 29, 2014. Shortest distance between the mount and the front end of the lens, when retracted. The 8-25mm F4.0 Pro delivers impressive sharpness in the center of the frame, even when shooting wide-open. Stopping down to F6.3 does improve center sharpness ever so slightly, but it's honestly difficult to notice the difference even when you're looking for it.

One other thing that is visible from these crops is the relatively higher level of vignetting on the Olympus. While both lenses are notably darker in the corners wide open, the Panasonic eliminates most of that corner shading by f/1.8, while the Olympus has to be stopped down much further to bring the vignetting to negligible territory. 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 So which 25mm prime lens should you get? I own the Olympus 25mm and have played with the Panasonic for a bit, so here are a few thoughts. Panasonic

The Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital 25mm f/1.8 lens takes small 46mm filters, and comes with a standard Micro Four Thirds mount that is, thankfully, made of metal. This is good news given that the lens construction is predominantly plastic. Olympus does not claim any sort of weather resistance for this lens, and indeed you cannot see a rubber seal around the mount. 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. Pure RAW score:This table shows the performance of this lens when the file is stored in the camera as a RAW file. This score approaches the intrinsic quality of the combination of lens and test camera. If you make use of Photoshop, Lightroom or SilkyPix for converting RAW files, then the RAW scores for chromatic aberration and distortion are the same as the jpg scores.

Despite a very solid, all-metal construction which would satisfy professional photographers, the 8-25mm tips the scales at just 411g (14.5oz). That gives it just enough heft to balance nicely without being front-heavy both on more compact bodies like the E-M1 III and larger ones like the E-M1X. Are you a Micro Four Thirds shooter who wants a 50mm-equivalent portrait lens with a very fast aperture? OK. Do you want it to be extremely sharp wide-open? Great, then this new Olympus 25mm ƒ/1.8 is the lens for you! Our tests show this lens produces exceedingly sharp images, even at ƒ/1.8, and all the way into the corners.Sharpness.BOTH of these lenses can render a super sharp image. BOTH have slightly different color and contrast signatures though. I would say that the Olympus is just as sharp as the Panasonic..well, 99.5% as sharp when both lenses are shot at 1.8. I’d say the Panasonic has a little bit better Micro Contrast though as when looking at some real world street shooting files on my 27″ display I see it. This is a sign of a very good lens, and is one area where Leica excels with their uber expensive lenses. For example, the Leica 50 Summicron f/2 has amazing micro contrast and one of my all time favorite Leica lenses for the M system ( or Sony A7). The Panasonic 25 1.4 is a Leica/Panasonic collaboration so it shares some of that Leica magic. I used to think it did not but it does indeed though not to the level of true Leica glass. The difference is not huge between the Panasonic and Olympus by any means but you can see it when pixel peeping. So because of this, For overall performance and sharpness, the Panasonic wins. Olympus OMD EM1– The company’s current flagship OMD camera is also the one that it will focus fastest with as well have the best image quality with. Autofocus is swift, silent and dead on. Noting moves externally and I think it's nice that the lens shares a 46mm filter thread with some other lenses for the system.

See the full size files below from each lens at apertures from 1.4 to 1.8 to 5.6..the Panasonic does not appear to be any sharper than the Olympus here: As for me I do like the Weather sealing and yes the Manual Focus is a dream to use, for a while I thought it was real manual focus as it is just like my Voigtlander 17.5mm. I cant believe its Focus by Wire. I am finding I am using the manual focus now more often because the AF cannot be trusted at such thin DOF especially with faces that are not front on where it cannot obtain EYE focus, not ony my lowly Em 5 MK 1 with its large focus box. A deep circular hood is supplied with this lens, which does a reasonable job of shading the lens from extraneous light that may cause issues with loss of contrast or flare. Even without the hood in place, this lens is very resistant to flare and contrast levels hold up well when shooting into the light. Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc. In the M.ZUIKO Digital 25mm f/1.8, Olympus employed an iris diaphragm with seven rounded blades, which has resulted in quite nice bokeh, at least in our opinion. However, recognising that bokeh evaluation is subjective, we have provided a few examples for your perusal.In short, I don't feel the need to stop the lens down for better image quality. When you do stop it down one or two notches, sharpness and contrast get slightly better. Again, I think it's perfectly fine at f/1.8.