25mm F1.8 Large Aperture Wide Angle Lens Manual Focus Lens Compatible with Panasonic Lumix Olympus M43 Mount Mirrorless Cameras GH4 GH5 GH6

It's always a gamble buying a Chinese lens at this price point. That being said, I took the chance and bought this lens and contrary to some of the (justified) poor reviews, I am lucky enough to have purchased one of the good ones. In the past, some Chinese cinema lenses I had purchased were plagued QC issues such as gritty/noisy barrel rotation rings and infinity focusing issues. I am very pleased to say this Meike 25 mm MFT lens is very good. I found it to be sharp at f1.8 through f8 (I don't like to shoot over f8 with MFT lens because of sensor defraction. As another reviewer said, this lens is less contrasty than other lenses but that's okay with me since its dynamic range looks better. I did not notice any chromatic aberration. At this price I suggest you take the chance and purchase this lens. What have you got to lose? If the quality is there for you, then you have a great, lightweight, small profile video/stills lens that provides great images.

I use this lens with an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II. All I use is manual fixed lenses - no automatics at all. This is a good lens. Once one understands the basics of using manual lenses, I see no disadvantage to these verses any automatic fixed lenses. I now own three Mieke manual lenses - the 25mm, 35mm, and 50mm; and I also have a manual Rokinon 12mm. The 25mm lens is great for close up shots - indoor party type events with people in close quarters, and better for group shots than the other two. This lens is good when you need to focus quickly for close up shots ( I always use the focus peaking and sometimes the magnifier features on the camera). If you try to focus close up the same way using the 35mm or 50mm lens, it just will not focus like the 25mm. You have to know what works well for each lens. Each one has their sweet spots. There is a myth that manual lenses do not work with action or motion pictures. That is absolutely not true. I have zero problems capturing motion pictures, and I have taken far more than a few of them. Once you understand getting the appropriate lighting with a fast shutter speed, appropriate distance, etc. such pictures are a piece of cake. Using manual lenses may push you to learn a few things about the lenses that you may miss if you only use automatic. Once you learn, I see no advantage over the automatics. Photoshop can always enhance the photos you've taken. I use Adobe Lightroom for all my shots. I highly recommend this lens as well as the others from Meike. Save your money. Buy these. Use them. Learn and they work fine. I love the fact that the camera and this lens are small. I usually carry 2 lenses with me in a very small camera case. If I were to spend a lot more money, the one advantage would be to have a great automatic zoom lens so that I would not need to deal with changing lenses for different shots. But that is very expensive.

I was really impressed with this lens. Back in the days of film, I used to shoot manual focus, first SLR (MInolta XD-11), then rangefinder (Bessa R). Manual focus is not a problem for me. Even if new to it, It really shouldn't be for you either, provided your camera has focus peaking. Without that, I would find using my MF gear a real chore. I frequently take my camera out with a small set of primes. Lenses that I kept from my rangefinder days. I had a 50mm, 90mm, and 135mm. Of course, with MFT this gives a 100mm, 180m, and 270mm 35mm field of view equivalency. Clearly I needed something to replicate the 50mm field of view on a 35mm camera. I tied the Panasonic 25mm f1.7, but it wasn't for me. Visually meh (though sharp) and with focus by wire as my only manual focus option, it really didn't go with my other primes. I started hunting around for a good solution. While researching, I came across a review of this lens, along with some sample images. I really liked the sample images, and when I saw the price, I decided to take a shot on it. So how does it stack up? The build quality is very very nice. Far nicer than one has any right to expect, given the price point. It feels tough and solid, without being too heavy. Bigger than my old rangefinder glass, but not by too much. The metal construction is really first rate. Focus and aperture move nice and smoothly. The image quality is surprisingly good. Nice and sharp at the center, just a little softening at the edges, like most lenses. That said, Since my edges are already softening on a MFT sensor, I would suspect that might possibly be an issue if using it on an APS-C sensor. So why only four stars then? Well three things, none of them major, and only one of them any kind of real inconvenience. First, that clickless aperture ring. I know, I know, lots of people like them, especially for video. For my purpose it is a negative. I can't move the aperture and know where it is without looking. Not a major inconvenience and your preference might vary from mine. Second, f11 and f16 are so close to each other that you can't really select f11 with any confidence that is where you have it. Not an issue for how I shoot with this lens 90% of the time, but occasionally I'd like to meter with my hand meter and set the aperture accordingly. This takes away f11 as a real option for that. Third, that depth of field scale. It might as well have had numbers put on it randomly. This is the one thing that really is an issue for me. When out and about, I like to set a distance on my lens, and see the range of what will be in focus. This often allows me to get a shot quickly, that I would otherwise have missed. You simply cannot do this with this lens. The focus markings are not even in the ballpark of accurate. A shame really. So do I still recommend this lens? Yes, very much so. I find myself using it more and more, and the quality to price ratio is crazy good. The flaws are minor compared to what you get from this lens. If you are on the fence about trying it, I urge you to go ahead and get one.

for the price I paid, this is really a great investment. SUPEr sharp, no distortions and great overall

Fun to use

This lens is fantastic! For the price it is just wonderful. The contrast is great, sharpness is good, minimal flaring. There is only 1 real downside to this lens, I am not a fan of the "click-less" aperture ring and as this is my second meike lens I can say i am not really getting used to it. This 25mm lens has a very loose aperture ring that is easy to change without noticing. When it is wide open, there are funny spots around bright points of light and the sharpness drops a little, it goes away quickly when stopped down just a little, but i usually stop down a little anyway. That IS an issue if you plan on shooting stars with this lens at the wide open 1.8 they are a bit fuzzy. I just cant get enough of using this lens, wish i could afford some Olympus glass but until then this lens is going to be used like crazy. Beautiful cloud renditions during sunrise and sunset, cant wait to get some lightning photos with this lens!!!

Working really great. Has a quality better than most of the expensive lenses at this focal length.

Well constructed lens with great finish. Big name brands can take a page from Meike's book when it comes to materials used and product finishing. Sadly when it comes to big name brands I was seriously disappointed by Olympus as opposed to impressed by Meike. I think people will easily pay 20% more for products using premium material and this should not be that hard for a name brand to offer.