Olympus Zuiko Digital 25mm F2.8 'Normal' Pancake Lens
I'm completely breaking with tradition for D2 Gallery by writing about a modern (digital only) lens. But while I am still obsessed with film camera gear, I also shoot digital. More particularly I've been shooting Olympus digital. What led me to Olympus was the fact that it's the mount with the most adapters available for old manual focus lenses - so it was a natural fit for me. I presently have 4 adapters for Olympus 4/3 mount (Olympus OM, Minolta MC/MD, Pentax K mount and M42 screw mount). But I'm digressing!
Above: Olympus Zuiko Digital 25mm F2.8 Pancake lens, shown on an Olympus E-520 body.
The Olympus Zuiko Digital 25mm/2.8 pancake lens is a beauty of a lens - very small and lightweight, yet exudes quality despite a reasonable price tag. As usual, I'm not going to try to quality anything here with numbers and graphs - there are good review sites that offer than info. If you read those reviews - which I recommend - you'll find they are a mixture of good and bad. Bottom line here is that - yes - Olympus had to make some optical design compromises to make this lens so small, but I feel the trade off is worth it, provided size is why you buy it. I won't go on and on about it because it's simple... if you want a very small compact lens for the sake of portability, yet you want it to be sharp and result in nice photos - this lens is a no-brainer.
LIKES: Small and lightweight size; build-quality (includes a metal cap!); reasonably sharp and contrasty giving very pleasing images; decent auto focus performance
DISLIKES: Screw on cap is a tad inconvenient I'll admit despite its contribution to feeling of quality; some barrel distortion; some chromatic aberration; hood sold separately (although a very nice hood it is, and like the cap, adding to the feeling of quality).
Specifications:
- Focal length: 25mm (35mm equivalent: 50mm)
- Maximum Aperture: f/2.8
- Angle of View: 47 degrees
- Optical Construction: 5 elements in 4 groups
- Aperture range: f/2.8 - f/22
- Minimum focusing distance: 0.2m
- Weight: 95g (3.4oz.) (excluding cap)
- Length: 23.5mm (0.9 in)
- Lens hood: Optional, screw-on metal (LH-43)
- Filter mount thread diameter: 43mm
Above: Dinghy at Pine Point in Scarborough, Maine; Photo taken with an Olympus E-1 and ZD 25mm F2.8 Pancake lens.
View a slide show of photos taken with this lens