Defective Oly 25mm lens

Betarover wrote:

Today I tested a new lens that I purchased from B&H Photo. It is an Olympus 25mm f1.8 lens. It was bought during the recent Olympus sale. I had great expectations after having researched the lens. Sadly it is a lemon. The left side is blurry and the right side is sort of sharp. I have trouble believing that such a defective lens was allowed to pass the Olympus "quality" control and was sold by a reputable company like B&H. B&H has agreed to give me a full refund and even sent me a return shipping label. I think their service is terrific and am not blaming them.

I wonder how many other lenses having this problem are out there with unsuspecting photographers? For photographers wanting edge to edge sharpness, my experience shows the importance of being able to return a defective lens and of testing it before the return period is up.

Below is the full size image so those interested can zoom in and see what I mean. It was taken at F4, which should be its sharpest stop. I took many others and the results are the same, unsharp on the left and sharp on the right. I took high res and regular res, but am posting this regular res because my internet connection can't handle sending the high res image.

I also took the scene with my Panasonic 14-45mm lens, and these images are normal edge to edge. They are much sharper on the left edge than the Oly 25mm, but not quite as sharp as the Oly on the right edge. Some of you may think I am being too particular. But it makes no sense for me to buy a prime lens that is not as sharp as my zoom lens.

Looks similar to my 25/1.8 adventure.

I had three 25/1.8 lenses, one good sample in 2014 and two lemons in 2016:

• Early sample which was tack sharp, better than the 20/1.7 it replaced. Unfortunately I had to sell it but now I decided to buy a 25mm again ...
• I got a very bad sample, worse than yours but similar: the left 25% were blurry and only stopping down to f5.6 could help. I sent it back as obviously "defect"
• The replacement was much better but the left corners were still soft, not on par with the 20/1.7 or even the 25/1.8 I owned before. I gave up and returned the lens
  (I have the perfect 12-40 zoom and I don't need a fast prime which is soft)
• Finally, I bought a Panasonic 15/1.7. Again, soft left corners. I gave it to repair and they replaced the optics. Now, finally, the lens is how it should have been at the beginning...

I am a little bit disappointed, three lemons in a row. I bought and sold many lenses before and did not have any issue.

Buying lenses no longer is big fun for me, I am very careful now ...