Olympus m.ZD 25mm f/1.8 standard lens

see also:

• Micro Four Thirds system
• a catalogue of Micro Four Thirds lenses
• 25mm "standard" lenses for Micro Four Thirds
• Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4 ASPH lenses
• Panasonic Leica-D Summilux 25mm f/1.4 lens for Four Thirds
• Panasonic Lumix 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens

• introduced Jan 2014
• smaller, lighter, more affordable and faster AF than the Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4 ASPH lenses and Panasonic Leica-D Summilux 25mm f/1.4 lens for Four Thirds
• faster AF but bigger than the Panasonic Lumix 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens
• similar styling and qualities as for the Olympus m.ZD 45mm f/1.8 portrait lens

• 25mm f/1.8 equates to 50mm f/3.6 in full frame lenses, but unlike 50mm full frame lenses, is sharper across the frame, will AF faster, be image stabilised and have eye detection AF on Olympus cameras
• 7 circular blades
• 9 elements in 7 groups incl. 2 aspherical elements
• close focus 0.24m (0.12x magnification)
• stepper motor AF
• internal focus
• 46mm filter
• 56mm diam x 41mm long
• 136g
• hood supplied
• £369 / $US399

• Damian McGillicuddy's preview
• Robin Wong's review part 1
  • a must have lens - 50mm equivalent field of view is perhaps the most versatile of all focal lengths
  • sharpness level of the 25mm F1.8 is on par with 45mm F1.8 (if not slightly better than the 45mm!)
  • very sharp wide open
  • not as sharp as the 75mm F1.8 (one of the sharpest lenses around in the market) but the look and feel of the images somehow came out with similar tones
  • nice bokeh - out of focus area has very good “creaminess”, with round shaped bokeh and overall looking very pleasing
  • much closer focusing than most other “50mm” lenses
  • almost no noticeable barrel distortion, and very little chromatic aberration - but perhaps corrected by the Olympus EM-10 camera
  • focusing was extremely fast and silent, and deadly accurate
• Robin Wong's review part II - comparison with PanaLeica 25mm f/1.4 lens
  • the Olympus 25mm f/1.8 is:
    • smaller, lighter, less expensive, sharper across the frame, slightly wider field of view, has less CA ands more accurate, faster AF on Olympus cameras, appears to allow more light in at similar f stops, can focus closer and thus give higher magnification images, but cannot achieve quite as much background blurring/shallow DOF given the 2/3rds EV aperture disadvantage- but sufficient for most people.
• Jackie Loi's review
• Admiring Light review - comparison with PanaLeica 25mm f/1.4 lens
• ephotozine
  • extremely sharp in centre wide open but even sharper at f/2.8 where overall sharpness peaks
  • edges show good sharpness wide open and are best at f/8
  • CA well controlled < 0.5px wide open
  • vignetting 1.2 EV wide open, negligible by f/5.6
  • only 1.07% barrel distortion
  • very resistant to flare