Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 Asph. verdict
Summary
The Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 Asph. is cheap to buy so you may not be expecting very much, and the lightweight plastic feel doesn’t give a very good first impression. But the image quality is really very good indeed, the AF is fast, and this lens is so small and light you’ll hardly notice you’re carrying it. This lens is a real eye-opener!
For
+ Small size, light weight
+ f/1.7 maximum aperture
+ Optical performance
+ Fast AF
+ Value for money
Against
– Cheap feeling
Specifications
| Mount | Micro Four Thirds |
| Lens Construction | 8 elements in 7 groups (2 aspherical lenses, 1 UHR lens) |
| Focal Length | 25mm (35mm camera equivalent 50mm) |
| Aperture | 7 diaphragm blades / Circular aperture diaphragm |
| Maximum Aperture | f/1.7 |
| Minimum Aperture | f/22 |
| Closest Focusing Distance | 0.25m / 0.82ft |
| Maximum magnification | 0.14x / 0.28x (35mm camera equivalent) |
| Filter Size | 46mm |
| Dimensions | 60.8 x 52mm |
| Weight | 125g |
| Accessories | Lens cap, Lens hood, Lens rear cap, Decoration ring |
The Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 Asph. is a cheap lens by any standards. It’s normally on sale for £149/$148 when bought on its own, but mine came free with a Panasonic Lumix G9 body I bought recently in the UK, itself heavily discounted. So I wasn’t expecting much.
First impressions on taking it out of the box were of a very light, very plasticky lens with a very plain finish. But closer inspection of both the lens and its specs told a different story.
This is not a low-quality optical formulation. There’s a fair chunk of glass on the front and inside are 8 elements in 7 groups, including 2 aspherical elements and 1 UHR (ultra high refractive) element. Round the back of the lens is a proper metal lens mount, and there’s a big focus ring with a light but very smooth movement.
Fitted on to a camera, this lens looks good and has a nice feel. The autofocus is very quick, so there are no cheap/compromised AF actuators in here, and if you switch to manual focus the travel is both very precise and yet very smooth. There’s no focus distance scale, but that’s standard for Panasonic Lumix G lenses.
There is one bit of oddness. If you want to use the included lens hood (yes, included, at this price), you first have to detach a ‘decoration’ ring. You can leave it off without affecting the use of the lens, but it does square off the front quite neatly.
So the Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 Asph. handles well, but what’s the performance like? I carried out a brick wall test to check for distortion and sharpness across that range at different aperture settings, but the results were so good wide open at f/1.7 that’s the only one I’m bothering to reproduce here. I expected some edge softness and vignetting wide open, but if there is any, I can’t see it.
That’s impressive, especially taking the price into account. I’ve put some more sample images and comments below.
I didn’t set out to buy the Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 Asph. for its own sake. A 50mm equivalent lens isn’t my ‘natural’ choice for the things I shoot. But now I’ve got it and tried it, I might change my mind. I wouldn’t thing twice about using it wide open, and this gives a decent shallow depth of field effect, especially at closer focusing distances. No, it’s not full frame, but it’s a mistake to imagine that MFT cameras and lenses can’t do shallow depth of field.
If you have an Olympus or Panasonic MFT camera, and especially if it’s one of the compact models, like an Olympus E-P7, for example, this would be a terrific little prime lens to carry around with you for when you need better low light capability or shallower depth of field than you can get from the kit lens.