Photography News Issue 39

Photography News | Issue 39 | absolutephoto.com

65 First tests

Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.2 PRO £1099

Specs

Price

£1099

Format Micro Four Thirds Mount Micro Four Thirds Construction

With its superfast maximum aperture you won’t be surprised to learn that the lens is quite large and weighty for a Micro Four Thirds lens and it looks more like a telephoto than a standard focal length. But of course Micro Four Thirds lenses are small to start with and this 25mm f/1.2 (equivalent to a 50mm in the 35mm format) is a pleasure to use and not at all unwieldy or cumbersome. When fitted onto an Olympus PEN-F or the OM-D E-M5 Mark II the pair made for a very nicely balanced combination and they were great to use. AF speed is very impressive and effectively silent – put your ear to it and you hear a whisper as the AF motor does its job. It’s ideal for street use because the lens simply zips into focus on scenes with contrast and is only slightly less effective in low light or with less strongly defined textures, such as painted surfaces. The surface of the front lens element lies quite close to the lens rim so using the supplied bayonet-fit LH- 66B lens hood is advised for physical protection as well as to help prevent flare. A high quality UV or skylight protection filter is advised too. There is only one button on the lens and that is a lens function (L- Fn) button that you can assign to a different function using the camera’s menu. I went for AF Area Select so pushing the button brings up the AF zone pattern and moving the AF point around can be done with the four-way control pad on the camera rear. The other lens control is available if you pull back on the focus barrel and you get manual focus. This is handy and good to use if you need to quickly switch over to manual focus but personally I felt it could be more firmly click-stopped to avoid unintentional use. I found, for instance, that I managed to slip into manual focus just by pulling the lens out of the bag on a couple of occasions.

Quality does get better with

19 elements in 14 groups Special lens elements 1xSED (super extra-low dispersion), 2xED, 1 E-HR (extra high refractive), 3xHR, 1xaspherical Coatings Z Coating Nano Filter size 62mm Aperture range f/1.2-16 Diaphragm 9 blades Internal focus Yes Manual focus Yes, pull back focus barrel Minimum focus 30.5cm Focus limiter No Maximummagnification 0.11x Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale Yes Image stabiliser Olympus use an in-body system Tripod collar No Lens hood Supplied, bayonet fit Weather-sealed Yes. Dust, splash and freeze proof Dimensions (lxd) 87x70mm Weight 410g Contact olympus.co.uk

When in manual focus position, there is a minimal distance scale in feet and metres which explains the presence of the depth-of-field scale; in AF mode, the depth-of-field scale alone is visible. Infinity to the minimum focusing distance of 30cm takes just over one-quarter rotation of the lens barrel. Of course, there is no point having f/1.2 if it doesn’t deliver sharp images. No problem with this Olympus, though. Sharpness starts at a high level right from itsmaximumaperture and that’s across the frame. Quality does get better with stopping down but you know you are in for an optical treat when it starts so well at f/1.2. From f/2 to f/8 the lens delivers excellent quality images packed with crisply recorded detail with high levels of contrast. You might not need toaddanypost-processingsharpening but if you do, the picture literally gets better. I’d be perfectly happy using f/4 or f/5.6 knowing the results will be outstanding. Diffraction at f/11 and f/16 comes into play to soften the image and sharpness is noticeably down from its peak at f/5.6. I shot pictures in a wide range of lighting types, from bare sun to street lamps and had no significant issues with flare or ghosting and that was with and without the hood. WC stopping down but you know you are in for an optical treat when it starts so well at f/1.2

Above Clevedon pier exposed at 1/100sec at f/10 and ISO 80. The Raw file was processed in Lightroom and viewed at 100% on screen. The result is full of fine detail.

Original image

F/1.2

F/2.8

Verdict

Packed with high-tech glass, the ability to turn in a very fine optical performance and beautiful handling, there is no doubt that the 25mm f/1.2 is an excellent and deeply impressive standard lens. Of course you are paying for it, but £1100 for a lens of this spec and quality isn’t unfair by any means and if you want a first-rate fast aperture Micro Four Thirds standard lens, this baby will take some beating.

F/4

F/5.6

F/11

F/16

Above The Olympus 25mm f/1.2 was used on the PEN-F and OM-D E-M5 Mark II over a period of a couple of weeks shooting a wide range of subjects. Having such a fast aperture is liberating especially when lighting conditions were less than perfect and you get a nice bokeh with suitable backgrounds. The end of Clevedon pier was the subject above.

Pros F/1.2 aperture, AF speed, image quality, smooth handling Cons Price