Review on Capture Stunning Shots with 7artisans 25mm F1.8 Lens for Olympus & Panasonic MFT Cameras in Black! by Darnell Murphy

I bought this lens after reading an excellent article by Kirk Tuck. Having used various vintage Minolta manual focus lenses with my Panasonic Lumix cameras for years, I knew how much fun manual focus lenses could be. What I wasn't prepared for was the build quality, the feel (handling) of the lens itself, and its value for money. First is the size. This lens reminds me a lot of the LTM lens (Leica thread mount). It's smaller than almost all of my Minolta MD glasses but has the same build quality. Heck, none of my Rokkor goggles can compete with its curved 12-blade diaphragm. I like the aperture ring where it is, at the base of the lens, rather than in the front like some older LTM lenses. Some reviews mention that the clickless aperture ring is easy to adjust, but compared to the ring on the front, at least in my experience, there is no problem with misalignment. The "stroke" of the focus ring is perfect. Approximately 2/3 turn from macro close-up to infinity focus. Not too short like many cheaper film lenses where you can't keep a close eye on focus; and not too long like many macro lenses that require you to constantly rotate to get full range. Where this lens really shines is in the video. I find it easy to switch focus back and forth to create a sharp, sharp look. Again, having a focus ring at the front and an aperture ring at the bottom is ideal. The focus ring has a nice textured finish on the sides. Adjusting the aperture slowly without clicking is also a great way to fine-tune the exposure in the image as the lighting in the scene changes. This is not possible with any old film camera lens. Yes, it's a little soft in the corners when it's fully open. But be warned: this is a $70 lens. This isn't a $1,000 Voigtlander or a $10,000 Noctilux. For a specific moody video style, it works very wide open. Don't get me wrong: This isn't Lomography or Holga soft, by the way. It's still pretty darn wide open, even compared to some of my (allegedly) legendary Minolta MD Rokkor wide open goggles. But stop it at f/5.6-f/8 and it's surprisingly sharp, more than adequate in fact. A few years ago I bought an Olympus 15mm-f/8 lens, which is a little plastic thing with a fixed, pivoting aperture. Your Micro 4/3 camera in a cheap plastic soap dish. You know what? It was really fun to use. Set the focus lever to the hyperfocal click-stop position and take the picture. Then correct the images in post - fix the barrel distortion and sharpen them a bit - and you end up with nice little 4x6 prints. But for almost the same money as that body cap lens, you can get this 7Artisans gem. What excellent value it represents. I would buy twice as much it's that good.