Kickass Glass – Olympus 25mm f1.8 Review by Blunty
15mm F1.7 Review at Mu-43 and at Lenstip.
Panasonic GH4 Underwater Camera Review at Backscatter.
Two Largely Forgotten But Great Features of the Olympus E-M1 and E-M5 (Thewanderinglensman).
Sony A7s vs GH4 at Spanish DSLRmagazine.
Panasonic to Attend PhotoLive (Photogrpahyblog).
Olympus 25mm Lens Review by Josh McLeod.
Damian: “I am a professional photographer from Spain who as the Olympus em5 equipment and EM10. As you will see I also do photography and social reportage, although my specialty is documentary: Http://adft.es and http://adft.es/tinoypatri”
Kevin: “I just wanted to take a moment and share our fresh content with you shot primarily on the GH4. My studio and I are big followers of your site and thought this video might be a nice representation of what the GH4 can do for your “Bit of Everything” posts. The video is a look at Cancun Mexico in stunning UHD https://vimeo.com/102690909“
36 Responses
When is it coming with the em10 kit?
Seriously. An E-M10/25mm combo for $850 would sell like hotcakes.
Thanks Nate for the ‘gushing’. It just might be another lens on my wishlist.
Wow, that Blunty video played like a Olympus infomercial. Better than the P/L25mm because of value? -PffFfTt! Yeah, okay. This isn’t a $150.00 nifty fifty we’re talking about!
I knew he was a Olympus fanboy, but… Man.
“This isn’t a $150.00 nifty fifty we’re talking about!”
That’s true because the old lenses of that value would have been manual focus whereas this is a nice fast AFing lens & sharp across it, wide open. I don’t think those old lenses at that value would fit the description of this Oly 25.
The going price is AU$449 at DigiDirect (where Blunty is) & others can be priced lower like Cambuy for AU$409 (I like competition 😉 ) which makes it a nicely priced prime lens.
What you have is a lens that is sharper in the corners than the PL25 though not quite as sharp in the center for $200 less. You could get this lens and a Sigma 60mm for the price of the PL 25. I like the PL25’s rendering… I just don’t think its worth that much more money than this.
Always hating Oly users uh? 🙂
Blunty says the Oly 25mm has a better value thanks to its price. And that’s true. Now it’s up to you and your money to decide wether to buy one or the other (or going Fuji as you do).
I already own the PanaLeica so I don’t need the cheap plastic Olympus 25mm, but if I had to replace it, and I could buy a metal version of Oly 25mm, I would do it.
I have the P/L 25mm as well. And let’s be honest, neither one is really inexpensive. But if I had to do it again, i would still go for the P/L 25mm. It’s a better lens.
And if I just wanted something cheaper, I would just be better off sticking to my FF Canon and the 50mm 1.4. It’s only $399
How’s sharpness on that Canon lens? 😉
Don’t do embarrassing questions to a fanboy.
How is the PL25 better? As far as sharpness goes, I didn’t find a meaningful difference between the two, it’s a toss-up. The only thing going for PL25 is the f/1.4 maximum aperture, but you also get loads of CA and more vignetting. The Oly has a more pleasing tonal response, but I admit this is up to my personal taste than anything else.
Don’t get me wrong, the PL25 is a fine lens, but saying that it is outright better than the Oly needs to be backed up by something more than 2/3 stop wider max aperture. Maybe it is better for some individual purposes, put to say it is better overall is not true. There are things that the Oly does much better, i.e. much less CA, better handling on smaller camera bodies and faster focusing.
I tend to agree. Each lens has its strength, but sharpness is excellent on both. I ended up with the Oly 25 because it makes much more sense on a GM1.
you put the PL25 on a 16mp m43 and it dies…
– corner sharpness
– abberations land
– can’t shoot a sharp photo without closing down to f2.8
– Only saving grace is the unrivalled bokeh it produces, no lens in m43 can top that, aside from the recent nocticron 42.5 🙂
” can’t shoot a sharp photo without closing down to f2.8″
i love people who buy fast lenses and use it mainly stopped down.
It makes them look cool to own “fake” fast lenses :p
“Cheap plastic” is not a fair description IMO. The PL25 is made from very similar plastic. At one point I owned both lenses and I didn’t see any quality difference as far as the body construction is concerned. To me both of these lenses have a higher quality look and feel than any plastic body lenses from Canonikon. YMMV. I ended up selling the PL25, as the Oly is a much better fit with the EM-10 size and weight wise, it focuses noticeably faster and it doesn’t suffer from CA nearly as much.
It’s a real description: Oly 45mm plastic really sucks. I use my gear with care and it got scratched after just one week of normal use.
PL25 has a higher quality plastic.
It felt on the ground and bounced on rocks for 4 meters and barely got a mark on the barrel.
If I compare the two lenses side by side, the PL looks much newer than the Oly45, while being two years older (and more used).
this is prob the reason why the zuiko 45 is cheap. And less dramatic when you get a scratch on lower budget stuff.
True, but I don’t accept to have a lens loosing its coating just by using it with care. It’s still a mistery to me how it could happen, since at time I used to keep it on my camera or inside my Wotancraft bag, away from bumps.
I’m sure this “issue” is less noticeable on the black version.
i only had a problem with losing that dam ring which covers the hood connect part..i used silver lens first later the black one..but the e-m5 managed to show signs of wear while the lens still in prime condition. I do wonder if anyone had same problem as i had sometimes, the aperture lockup, which was solved by a power reset
I’ve had the 25mm f/1.8 since it was released, and so far I don’t see any wear. I’ve carrier it mounted on the E-M10 for extended periods, and it rides in my car every day without camera bag or other protection. I had the 45mm f/1.8 for only about a months, so can’t say anything about that. Maybe they changed the plastic in the 25mm, which could explain the much higher price?
I have been shopping around my PL25 to see what I can get for it so I can swap it out. Too much CA and fringing to deal with. The Oly looks great.
I own it and it is definitely sharp…sharper than my 45mm 1.8.
The Josh McLeod link doesn’t point to a review of the Olympus 25mm lens, just to his general site. If you want a review, you could always read mine on Tumblr… 🙂
http://jlwilliams-us.tumblr.com/post/79942370394/
the only problem I have with O25 f/1.8 is that it came to market too late
most of the m43 users already have P25 and only very few will do the switch
… there are newcomers etc …but I dont see rapid growth of m43 user base
my opinion is that this is not a nifty-fifty …if was released 3 years ago …yes
on the other hand if I broke mine P25 …I would go for O25 as a replacement 😉 …unless Pana will not upgrade their P25(which I think they will do )
It seen Lenstip is not impress with the new Leica branded 15mm F1.7 , he might right . The only problem with m4/3 is the wide angle lenses can’t do much in bokeh / swallow DOF .
Consider the sensor size is limited , a wide angle lens need to have at least f1.2 or below in order to have nice nice bokeh which I consider is almost impossible for m4/3 to achieve .
This segment is desperately need a breakthrough !
That’s why I bought a RicohGR instead of that 15mm 🙂
Anyway I have brought it mainly due to I don’t want to miss out any opportunity taking photos at the street . It’s the only wide angle I have at the moment . I’m fine with it as it did outclassed my sold 14mm F2.5 . As I not a regular wide angles takers , I’m more on tele portraits so m4/3 still good in this aspect .
The GR is a really nice, powerful option that you can slip in your pocket. Now if they can come up with a way to make a matching 85mm equivalent it would be great to have 1 in each pocket!
85mm sounds really impossible, given the size. I would rationslly hope for a 50mm though, “flat” enough to let you take portraits. On a curved sensor it should be possible keeping it quite small, but not as the 28mm GR. By the way, Jean Loup Sief used to take portraits with a 28mm. 🙂
I want the red ring one :D. Still feels quite cool to get the Olympus stabilizer down to 1/3 of a second handheld sharp and overexpose my night sky with the 15mm. Ricoh got no IS 😀
lenstip was disapointed due to not excelent sharpnes ….if the sharpnes was there on par with CV 17.5 …they would love it
For me , a wide angle lens is hard to be a sharp lens so I don’t expect too much when come to wide angle .
The 15mm F1.7 for me is just nice when come to sharpness although my consent is more on bokeh .
Again Olympus 30p insistence is turing its ugly head.
Look at the video – 2.38 and watch the “flickering” of light.
Amazing after all these years they have done nothing to sort this out.
I have the Leica 15. I can say that lens is the best thing to happen to m43.
The hot girl at 2:31!