Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 25 mm f/1.4 ASPH. review - Introduction

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Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 25 mm f/1.4 ASPH.

5 September 2011

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Szymon Starczewski

1. Introduction

When you start a system kind of from scratch you must make sure its potential users have several basic lenses available. We think here not only about an all-purpose kit lens but also about a fast, classic standard so the equivalent of 50 mm device. The moment the Olympus company decided to launch its 4/3 system they must have been aware that they would have to launch a lot of new lenses as well. Fortunately they didn’t have to produce everything on their own because the 4/3 system is supported also by Panasonic, in cooperation with Leica, and by independent producers such as Sigma. Due to that help the new system got a fast standard lens, offered by Leica. We think here of course about the Leica-D Summilux 25 mm f/1.4 lens, which has already been tested by us. It wasn’t exactly cheap (like practically any instrument boasting the Leica logo), but it offered really excellent optical properties. Hardly any f/1.4 lens is fully useful up from the maximum relative aperture and the Leica didn’t have the slightest problems with it.

When Olympus and Panasonic focused their efforts on constructing the Micro 4/3 system, the situation developed in a similar way. A fast 1.4/25 standard was planned as a result of Leica and Panasonic cooperation and, owing to that, in June 2011 a launch of a new lens was officially announced – the Panasonic-Leica DG SUMMILUX 25 mm f/1.4 ASPH.

The lens has just hit the shelves and, courtesy of the Panasonic Poland company, which lent us that instrument for testing purposes, we can present our opinion and impressions after the test. The Olympus E-PL1 body, used by us, was lent by the Fotozakupy.pl shop.

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It’s also worth noticing that the sample photos, taken with the tested lens attached to the Panasonic DMC-GF3 we published just after their joint launch.

You are also invited to get acquainted with our test procedure, described in the article "How do we test lenses?" If you feel it’s still not enough, please go to our FAQ section where you can find some further explanation.