Conclusion
Pros
- Small, well-built lens that will fit in a shirt pocket with ease.
- Fast and silent autofocus
- Very sharp right from f/1.8, providing even decent corner resolution at maximum aperture. Very sharp corner to corner stopped down a bit.
- Bokeh is smooth and neutral
- Great close-focus ability
- Excellent color and contrast at all apertures
- Good control of flare, chromatic aberration and distortion
- Olympus includes the hood!
Cons
- Focus tended to hunt a bit in dimmer light
- Relatively high levels of vignetting
Looking at the short Con list above, you can see there’s not a lot to dislike about the Olympus 25mm f/1.8. It provides sharp images at all apertures, nice bokeh, and great color and contrast in a very small package. Olympus charges $399 for this little guy, which is on the pricey side for an f/1.8 normal lens, but it makes up for its modest maximum aperture with exceptional performance right out of the gate.
The only real issue with the Olympus 25mm for me, was that the f/1.8 aperture didn’t provide quite enough subject separation for a lot of what I shoot. It’s not a fault of the lens itself, but it did cross a bit of a line with me, and made it a little less useful than it otherwise would have been. For me, the Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 is a little better suited for what I shoot.
That said, if f/1.8 is fast enough for you, then pick it up right now. It excels in almost every way and is extremely small and discreet. Another great lens from Olympus.
Image Samples
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