The Panasonic 25mm f/1.7 lensis not only cheap ($99 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto) it’s also an “attractive option” according to latest DxOmark test:
Although it performs quite, well it doesn’t really stand out. And there are some concessions, most notably in sharpness. While experienced photographers know sharpness isn’t everything in a lens, it feels like a somewhat retrograde step. Nevertheless, as a model intended to entice users to upgrade from a kit zoom, it is an attractive option.
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Current US deals reminder:
Olympus camera deals:
E-M1 for $899 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus. $50 off. This is the lowest price ever!
E-M5II for $849 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus. $50 off. Again lowest price ever!
E-M10II with kit lens for $699 at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto, GetOlympus. $100 off!
E-M10II body for $549 at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto, GetOlympus. $100 off!
E-M10 two lens kit bundle at GetOlympus. $400 off!
E-M10 for $399 (or $449 with kit lens) at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus. $250 off on the kit version!
E-PL7 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, GetOlympus. $100 off!
E-PL7 with lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, GetOlympus. $100 off!
Panasonic camera deals:
$400 off on the GX8 with 12-35mm lens at BHphoto (Click here).
Free $150 gift card with the GH4 at BHphoto (Click here).
GX8 got a $200 off at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Panasonic.
G7 got a $200 off at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Panasonic.
You get a free $100 gift card on the G7 kit sold by Adorama .
The GM5 sells for $469 only at Adorama.
Panasonic lens savings:
$200 off on the Nocticron 42,5mm f/1.2 OIS Lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Panasonic Store.
$200 off on the 12-35mm f/2.8 ASPH Lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto
$200 off on the 7-14mm f/4.0 Lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto
$150 off on the 25mm f/1.7 lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and Panasonic Store.
$1o0 off on the Panasonic 14-140mm Lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$70 off on the Leica 15mm f/1.7 Lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto
$50 off on the Panasonic 100-300mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$50 off on the Panasonic 45-150mm lens at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$50 off on the Panasonic 42,5mm f/1.7 lens at Amazon, BHphoto and Adorama.
$50 off on the Panasonic 30mm macro lens at Amazon, BHphoto and Adorama.
$30 off on the Panasonic 20mm II pancake at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto.
$30 off on the Panasonic 14mm pancake Amazon, Adorama and Bhphoto.
Olympus lens deals:
$150 off on the 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$150 off on the 12-40mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$150 off on the 40-150mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$150 off on the 8mm f/1.8 PRO lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$150 off on the 12mm f/2.0 lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$100 off on the 45mm f/1.8 lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$100 off on the 17mm f/1.8 lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$100 off on the 60mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$100 off on the 75mm f/1.8 lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$100 off on the 25mm f/1.8 lens at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama and GetOlympus.
$100 off on the Olympus 40-150mm PRO lens sold at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$150 off on the 9-18mm f/4.0-5.6 lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$100 off on the 75-300mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$100 off on the 14-42mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$150 off on the 14-150mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$100 off on the 17mm f/2.8 lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
$100 off on the 12-50mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
40 Responses
Remember that the DXO sharpness rating is sensor specific, and therefore these ratings are only compatible within a single format. ie you cant compare a Sony FE lens to a m43 lens using DXO. In fact you cant compare a Sony FE lens on an a7 vs an a6000.
Totally BS rantings in other words!
nope they clearly explain what the their tests are doing ,all the data is in the details. the overall score thing is a tad daft. Looking at the results here { same camera, same sensor} that Olympus 17mm F1.8 which costs nearly £200 more than the full price Panasonic here in the UK is the one that looks dodgy. For those in the USA the $99 price was an absoloute bargain .
And you agree that the lens is only 7 Mpix sharp? LOL That is totally rubbish. In reality that little marvel very sharp and very afordable.
Here is a better review: https://www.ephotozine.com/article/panasonic-lumix-g-25mm-f-1-7-asph-lens-review-28432
You don’t know what you’re talking about.
I happen to have this lens, and it is lacking in sharpness. It pretty much behaves exactly like the DxO profiles suggest it should. In that it is already good wide open, but does not get much better when stopped down. The corners get a little boost around f/2.5 and from that point, you have a very uniform sharpness across the whole frame. It’s never bad, but it also never gets great.
As I see it, it doesn’t really matter whether you shoot it at f/1.7 or f/5.6, the image quality will be almost identical (minus vignetting of course).
Interestingly, the review you linked to confirms DxO findings as well. Other 25mm lenses reach 2700-2900 lw/ph, while this Panasonic stays around 2300.
So yeah, this lens is not as sharp as other normal primes. And that’s a fact. It’s still a great lens, and I’m very happy with my purchase, despite the fact I paid more than the amazing $99 deals Americans got.
You are proabbly right about stooping down but I bet if you take a picture with it, resize it at 7 Mpix then upsize it again to 16, the original one will certainly contain more detail. Anyway I bet the lens resolves more than 7 Mpix any way you look at it.
I would never use those perceptual Mpix from DxO to compare between different systems or sensors. Also, you should not relate them to actual megapixels as well.
As everything in DxO, it’s really only useful when comparing within the same format/sensor family. That Oly 75/1.8 is 50% sharper, I have no reason to doubt. That Pana 25/1.7 is twice as sharp as 14-150 a superzoom? No doubt about that. Nothing really controversial about those results.
How about they change that stupid Mpix perceptual notation thing because it’s useless.
Where do they list the LW/PH score on older tests they only recently started doing so on the graphs?
Unfortunately, it looks like they just started doing that. Previously, they were only posting charts without any values. And those were completely useless, as they suggested that blurry images at f/16 were considered good, so obviously, every lens they tested was either very good or excellent 🙂
The numbers for other 25mm lenses I took from photozone.de. You can also probably get the lp/mm values lenstip.com publishes and convert them to lw/ph.
Their definition of sharpness is explained. As for ephotozine,here is a little challenge find any lens from anyone that looks bad on their test graph
Here is their graph for the Sony 16-50mm one of if not the
worst kit lenses on the market , doesn’t look so bad here , excellent central sharpness , very good weighted, and extreme edges just under good wide open good luck with that lol
I read DXO measurement methodology but I disagree with their sharpness notation.
As for “ephotozine”, they only test center and edge sharpness + weighted. They don’t have corner sharpness measurement where normally the lenses are at their worst but in rest their reviews seem pretty ok to me.
Indeed, the sharpness score doesn’t make sense as in a “lens test”. They get two variables at the same time, .
They didn’t test the Oly 25mm f1.8, did they?
PhotoReview(AU) reviewed both, but on different sensors (20mpx/GX8 and 16mpx/E-M5) rendering 9.0 and 8.8 ratings for IQ of Panasonic and mZuiko respectively. It is one of the odd quirks for lens reviewers to ding edge sharpness, for a prime where bokeh is the intentional outcome of wide-aperture selection. If sharpness, greater depth of field, and low cost are your priorities, the 20/1.7 pancake is the better choice.
I just got one and took some quick shots this afternoon. So far – i dig it.
From which seller?
B&H
OK, hopefully my B&H order will not be delayed until March. I specifically ordered from B&H for the promise of quick delivery (their $99.99 price is not the cheapest, Adorama $99, Samy’s $97.99) for my Christmas vacation, and will be pissed if they don’t deliver.
Panasonic,
If you want to move these buy the crateload, retail it for $150.00. The $99 sale was a good thing, but M43 could use its own nifty fifty.
Perfect rating for hair splitters and nit pickers.
Indeed. The bad-mouthing should always be suspect.
Well done, Admin, to compare the lens’ DXO scores with those of the two worst lenses ever made by Olympus.
The 17mm f1.8 costs well over double the price of the Panasonic { that is with the 25mm at the full UK price } it is Olympus who should be thinking about that lens
Haha, I see your sarcasm.
Congratulation to Panasonic for making a worse prime than one of Olympus’s worst primes.
Dude… It’s a kit lens that currently retails for $99. At that price it’s a grand slam home run. At full price it might not be an epic bargain, but it’s almost half the price of the Oly. You should congratulate Panasonic being able to offer a nifty fifty equipped kit for the same price as one with a zoom.
Check your facts you lazy Olympus Fanboy. Look at this table of all Olympus u43 lenses tested by DXO.
http://www.dxomark.com/lenses/brand-olympus#hideAdvancedOptions=false&viewMode=list&yDataType=
What you call “two of the worst lenses ever made by Olympus” are the 3rd and 7th highest ranked out of 17 tested by DXO! So, sorry Don, you have no idea what you are talking about.
I’m ok with that choice. It lets us know what to expect as far as optical quality.
Ah yes. Comparing apples and oranges. An actual comparison would require identical focal lengths, and we should have three entries here, the Panasonic 25mm f1.4, the Panasonic 25mm f1.7 and the mZuiko f1.8, and to be fair there would have to be more sharpness data, center, edge, and corner, not just a weighted summary value. Then you could judge for yourself, how much lens you wish to pay for.
Well, that’s what the Measurements tab on DxO page is for. You have exact sharpness profiles there. And they match my observations of the lens behaviour. It’s already good wide open, but never really gets super sharp, like you normally expect from primes.
EDIT: I have no idea why admin choose such lenses for comparison. Panasonic 20/1.7 and 25/1.4 make much more sense. unfortunately, DxO did not test Oly 25/1.8.
Agreed. We’ve got a terrific range of choices here. I think OM-D buyers will stick with the 25/1.8. There is some obvious push-back on the price of the 25/1.4 from the Panasonic crowd. I don’t think we will see an Olympus price match because the typical sale price on the mZuiko is only $50 higher than the Panasonic, a clue that will send many picky buyers to lens review sites that discriminate on slivers of superiority.
Except for vignetting, it doesn’t look horrible, especially for a US$99.00 lens. At full price, it only looks a bit worse, as there are so few economical micro Four-Thirds lenses.
It would have been interesting to see how it fared against the other two 25mm lenses, as well as the Sigma lenses.
Yes, it is a $99 lens after all. The $300 MSRP and $250 “sales” were always laughable. But some people wanted to believe. 😉
“The Panasonic 25mm f/1.7 lensis not only cheap ($99 at Amazon,”
It is actually not available from Amazon itself, and the cheapest from other sellers on Amazon is $159.
Wasn’t it supposed to ship December 3rd? My order from B&H is not shipped, and expected availability now shows March 2016? WTF, really?
It is also still not available on Adorama, and the price is $249 now.
Looks like as usual Panasonic dropped the ball on this one, again.
Yes, at the MSRP of $300, it’s probably not worth it. This is probably the reason behind all those pre-order promotions. And whether it’s worth $200 or $250 depends on how much can you get Oly 25/1.8 for. For me, that price difference was 100 EUR, and that was already after Olympus cashback. That was enough to convince me.
But it’s not fair to put that lens in the same basket as a cheapo Yongnuo clones. It’s not the same league.
Of course, it is not f/0.95 after all (which on m43 is equivalent to f/1.8 on FF), at any quality.
And now that tests are out (on DxOMark and photozine), it is barely up to Canon and Yangnuo at f/3.4, as expected.
Well, that’s just BS.
That’s just not true.
Learn something. Learn where that extra blurred light which creates reduced DoF on larger formats comes THROUGH.
You can’t compare canon lenses to MFT lenses using DXO.
It seems to have the quality of a 17 1.8 but with more vignetting and CA. In light of the fact that in the 17 is not a particularly great lens, and in the native m43 catalog, the 17 is solidly in the bottom half for optical quality, it seems this new 25 is an unquestioned bargain at $99, but maybe not the best choice at $250.