Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Panasonic/Leica 25mm F1.4 Dilemma

One of the things that carried me into the micro four thirds world and which also keeps me there is the wonderful selection of lenses available for the format.  Just when I thought I had settled on my 'holy trinity' of lenses (Panasonic 14/2.5,  Panasonic 20/1.7 and Olympus 45/1.8) along came a new lens today.  It is the Panasonic/Leica 25mm f1.4 lens that I had back ordered 4 months ago and frankly forgot all about until it arrived today.  All I can say is "Wow".  This thing is spectacular.  It's built really well (although not all metal like the true Leica's),  it's pretty sharp wide open and stopped down a little it is breathtakingly sharp with a wonderful bokeh.  Now what do I do?  It's a little sharper than the Pany 20 which is a great lens and is a little faster but it is more expensive and it is definitely bigger than the 20.  The 12, 20 and 45 are a tough trio to beat for quality and super compact size but man this 25 is a sweet lens.  I really don't want to carry 4 lenses especially with the 20 and 25 being so close in focal length.  How often can you say in the newer camera world that you have too many quality primes to chose from.

I will post some pics soon from this lens.  I am still trying to get some comparison pics posted of my Voigtlander 40 vs. the Olympus 45 so now I have to do a comparison between the Panasonic 20 vs. the Panasonic/Leica 25.  I will get them up but only when I get the time.  I like to shoot and post daily pictures but I don't get all excited about technical comparisons as I feel there is a lot more to pleasant pictures than sharpness down to the atomic level:o) 



(Olympus E-PL1 with Panasonic 20/1.7 lens - shot at ISO 400, f/2 @ 1/3s)

No comments:

Post a Comment