Focus breathing with Leica 25mm f/1.4

The Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 is a classic M4/3 lens in the true sense of the word: It was the first prime lens offered by Panasonic. And it was very successful, due to the small size and the impressive sharpness.

However, it has a flaw: The focus mechanism is the old style which moves the whole lens assembly back and forth. This is slow and noisy. Modern cameras like the Panasonic GH3 overcome the slowness quite well, making the lens more usable even for autofocus during video. It still fair to say that it is a slow focusing lens.



Leica Summilux 25mm f/1.4 and Lumix G 20mm f/1.7

The Leica Summilux 25mm f/1.4 is a more recent lens with a promise to fix this: It has the more modern internal focus design. This means that only one lens group moves inside the lens when focusing. This is much faster, and generates less noise. Plus, it makes the lens more solid, as it has no moving parts on the outside.

But, can you believe it, there is a snag anyway. The internal focus design has a drawback: It causes the focus breathing effect. This means that the focal length changes as the focus distance changes.

Overview of Olympus cameras

Following up my overview of Panasonic cameras, here is a presentation of the Olympus cameras, with a summary of their main features and differences.

While Panasonic released the very first Micro Four Thirds camera, the Lumix G1, back in 2008, it was Olympus who first made a real impact with their retro styled E-P1. Olympus have always drawn on their legacy by calling their compact M4/3 cameras "PENs", referring to the Olympus Pen half frame cameras from the 1960's and onwards. Also, their SLR styled cameras are called "OM-D", referring to the compact, reliable and successful series of film based Olympus OM SLR cameras from the 1970's.

These two lines of cameras make up their current offerings:

Camera	Olympus OM-D E-M1	Olympus OM-D E-M5	Olympus PEN E-P5	Olympus PEN E-PL5	Olympus PEN E-PM2
Price	$1500	$1000	$1000	$600	$400
Announced	Sep 10th, 2013	Feb 8th, 2012	May 10th, 2013	Sep 17th, 2012	Sep 17th, 2012
Dimensions	130 × 97 × 63mm	122 × 89 × 43mm	122 × 69 × 37mm	111 × 64 × 38mm	110 × 64 × 34mm
Weight	497g	425g	420g	325g	269g
Style	SLR	SLR	Compact	Compact	Compact
EVF	Yes	Yes	Optional	Optional	Optional
Tilt LCD	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
PDAF	Yes	No	No	No	No
Focus peaking	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Built in flash	No	No	Yes	No	No
In a nutshell	Weatherproof, pro ergonomics, 4/3 lens compatability	Weatherproof, retro design	Enthusiast friendly, but expensive	Compact, useful features	Very compact, more stripped of features
Body

Is the Leica 25mm a portrait lens?

Portrait lenses have traditionally had a focal length of around 85mm on the classic 135 film format. On a Four Thirds sensor, that corresponds to about 42mm, which explains why most kit zoom lenses stop at 42mm.

In addition to the focal length, though, the portrait lenses typically also have a fast aperture, at least f/1.8. The Olympus 45mm f/1.8 comes very close, and is in fact the first real portrait lens for Micro Four Thirds. It is a very good lens, and at an affordable price.

However, some may want an even faster aperture, for better background blur and bokeh. So it may be tempting to turn to the Leica 25mm f/1.4. After all, it is currently the fastest (in terms of aperture) autofocus capable Micro Four Thirds lens.

Olympus 45mm f/1.8 and Leica 25mm f/1.4

To test how these lenses perform as portrait lenses, I have tried to photograph a static face, a statue. The statue has natural proportions, i.e., the size of the head is the same as for a genuine human. I focused on the eyes, which is the common thing to do for portraits. Here they are:

Olympus 45mm f/1.8 at f/1.8, focus distance about 1m, 3 feet	Leica 25mm f/1.4 at f/1.4, focus distance about 0.6m, 2 feet

To better see the differences, I have superimposed both images into one animated GIF:

What we see here is that at 25mm, and at a closer focus distance, the face becomes distorted: The chin and nose looks bigger, and the eyebrows look a bit asymmetric.

Review: Porsche Design Mikado Pen

This article deviates from what I normally write, since it is not primarily about photography. However, I have included some details about photography here as well. For example, methods for product photography, and the effects of diffraction. If you are mostly interested in photo, you could skip to these section at the end of the article.

It is quite common to see owners of high value brand names to licence them out to other manufacturers. From photography, one of the most common examples is Leica. They are allowing Panasonic to produce cameras and lenses with the Leica brand name. This helps Panasonic sell more photographic equipment, while allowing Leica to capitalize on their brand name. Everybody wins. See the Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 below as an example of Leica branding of premium Panasonic lenses:



In the premium car world, we see the same with many high end brands. For example, Ferrari is licensing their name to toys, electronic products, clothes and more. This surely generates a lot of short term profit for them, but risks lessening the perceived value of their brand.

Porsche is doing the same with their Porsche Design series. However, unlike Ferrari, they are mostly putting out high quality premium items. One example is their pen series, which is produced by Faber-Castell.

Overview of Panasonic cameras

It was Panasonic who released the very first Micro Four Thirds camera, the Lumix G1, back in 2008. While it was a very ergonomic camera with photography oriented functions and one of the best kit zoom lenses in its class, it never made much impact. It was not until Olympus released the retro looking E-P1 that the format took off.

Since this time, they have released a number of cameras. Here is an overview of the current models.

Camera	Lumix GH3	Lumix G6	Lumix GX7	Lumix GM1	Lumix GF6
Price	$1000	$600	$900	$750	$500
Announced	Sep 17th, 2012	April 24th, 2013	Aug 1st, 2013	Oct 17th, 2013	April 9th, 2013
Dimensions	133 × 93 × 82mm	122 × 85 × 71mm	123 × 71 v 55mm	99 × 55 × 30mm	111 × 65 × 38mm
Weight	550g	390g	402g	204g	323g
Style	SLR	Compact SLR	Rangefinder	Compact	Compact
EVF	Yes	Yes	Yes, tilting	No	No
Tilt LCD	Articulated	Articulated	Tilting	No	Tilting
Flash hotshoe	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Focus peaking	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IBIS	No	No	Yes	No	No
In a nutshell	Weatherproof, pro ergonomics, the best video	Compact, value for money, good on features	Retro rangefinder style	Very compact, retry style	Compact, enthusiast friendly
Body