Olympus M.Zuiko ED 25mm f1.2 PRO Review - Review 2022

The Olympus M.Zuiko ED 25mm f1.ii PRO ($1,199) is a sturdy standard-angle lens with a very wide aperture, giving Micro Four Thirds shooters greater command over depth of field. It doesn't just let you mistiness backgrounds with ease, it's also quite precipitous, fifty-fifty when shot wide open, and boasts an all-weather condition design. It'due south an Editors' Pick winner, despite its high request price. If you're on a budget, Olympus has another 25mm lens, the M.Zuiko ED 25mm f1.eight, which is smaller and doesn't soak in equally much light, but is a fine low-price alternative.

Design

The 25mm f1.2 ($1,149.00 at Amazon) captures a lot of light, only requires a good amount of glass to do so. It measures 3.4 past two.viii inches (Hd), weighs 14.5 ounces, and supports 62mm front filters. A reversible plastic lens hood is included. It's a lot bigger than the ED 25mm f1.8, which is a svelte, light optic at 1.half-dozen past two.2 inches and iv.8 ounces, but the larger lens captures twice the low-cal at its maximum discontinuity and includes some physical features unmatched by the f1.8.

Olympus M.Zuiko ED 25mm f1.2 PRO : Sample Image

One of those features is weather condition sealing. The 25mm f1.2 is protected from dust and moisture, so yous tin shoot without worry in inclement conditions. The other is a focus clutch machinery. The knurled metallic focal band pulls dorsum toward the base of the lens to switch from autofocus to manual command. There'due south resistance when turning the ring, and hard stops at both ends of the focus range give the lens a truthful mechanical transmission focus feel. To round things out, printed focus altitude (in feet and meters) and a matched depth of field calibration make it possible to set scale based on subject distance from the sensor plane.

Micro Four Thirds cameras are smaller than SLRs not only because of the lack of a mirror box, but because the image sensor format is smaller than an APS-C or full-frame chip. Just the smaller sensor size has some trade-offs—notably a bottom ability to capture images with an extremely shallow depth of field. If focal length, focus altitude, and aperture are all equal, depth of field is equal as well, regardless of sensor format. Only because a Micro Four Thirds sensor is smaller than a full-frame model, yous'll shoot with a shorter 25mm lens to mimic the field of view of a 50mm on a full-frame system.

Olympus M.Zuiko ED 25mm f1.2 PRO : Sample Image

The shorter 25mm lens doesn't compress a scene as much every bit the longer 50mm, and then the 25mm must have a wider maximum aperture in order to get the razor-thin depth of field that full-frame photographers expect from a 50mm f/i.4 lens. Fifty-fifty at f/1.ii, the ED 25mm f1.two PRO doesn't quite match the 50mm f/1.iv wait—you'll want to turn to the transmission-focus-only Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95 for the slimmest sliver of focus—but information technology gets y'all a lot closer, with the convenience of autofocus, than Micro Iv Thirds photographers had been able to become previously.

The ED 25mm f1.two doesn't back up in-lens stabilization, but no lens of this type for the Micro 4 Thirds system does, and it's a rare feature in SLR lenses. Olympus builds in-trunk stabilization into all of its electric current cameras, so that's not a large issue at all. Panasonic has likewise included in-trunk stabilization in its contempo cameras.

Olympus M.Zuiko ED 25mm f1.2 PRO : Sample Image

The minimum focus distance is eleven.8 inches (0.three-meter), which is fairly typical for a wide discontinuity standard lens. It'southward non a macro blueprint—yous'll desire to await at the Panasonic Lumix G Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm F2.8 ASPH. or Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f2.8 Macro—but it's a fine working distance for most shots, and the wide discontinuity blurs backgrounds with aplomb.

Aside from the focus ring, the but command button on the lens itself is L-Fn. Short for Lens Function, information technology is programmable via the camera body.

Image Quality

I tested the ED 25mm f1.2 PRO with the 20MP East-M1 Mark II. It'due south among the highest resolution Micro Four Thirds bodies currently bachelor. At f/1.ii the lens and camera pair to evangelize ii,290 lines per film hight on Imatest'south center-weighted sharpness exam. Epitome quality is excellent, correct upwardly to the edges of the frame, which show about two,000 lines. We desire to see a minimum of one,800 lines from a 20MP camera.

Olympus M.Zuiko ED 25mm f1.2 PRO : Sample Image

There's a very minor comeback in resolution at f/i.four, with 2,337 lines. Gains are more noticeable at f/two (two,609 lines), f/2.eight (2,651 lines), f/iv (2,691 lines), f/five.six (two,746 lines), and f/8 (2,768 lines). A very slight dip is evident at f/11 (2,517 lines), only diffraction cuts into resolution more noticeably at the minimum f/16 discontinuity (2,078 lines).

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Baloney is negligible; the lens shows almost 0.4 percent butt distortion, which isn't noticeable in field atmospheric condition. Dim corners give images a natural vignette at f/1.ii, lagging behind the centre past well-nigh two stops (-2EV). The upshot isn't as pronounced at f/1.iv (-one.7EV), and is less than -1EV at narrower apertures, a figure we consider to be nominal. It's easy plenty to brighten corners in Lightroom CC ($9.99/Month at Adobe) if the effect detracts from an image.

Olympus M.Zuiko ED 25mm f1.2 PRO : Sample Image

Conclusions

If y'all have the coin and a desire for a lens that can shoot in dim low-cal and blur backgrounds with equal versatility, the Olympus M.Zuiko ED 25mm f1.2 PRO is an excellent option. Its superb optical and concrete pattern merits Editors' Choice marks, merely you will likely want to pair information technology with a larger Micro 4 Thirds camera like the E-M1. If you adopt a smaller lens and camera, you lot may exist better off with the M.Zuiko ED 25mm f1.eight, which doesn't have quite as an ambitious f-stop and lacks a manual focus clutch, but delivers crisp results as well, for much less money.