Pany 42.5mm f/1.2 vs Oly 25mm f/1.2

pdelux wrote:

I use the 25 mostly between 1.2 and 2.8 I very rarely use it at F4 or higher, because I usually take portraits of people/kids in small groups 1-3.

The lens is very sharp @ 1.2 - (not record breaking) but only a fool could fault its sharpness. Its not the clinical type of sharpness you find on the other Olympus lenses - there is a different somewhat very natural looking sharpness, zoomed in 100% you can really see its very sharp. It does improve slightly up to 1.8/ F2 but I think from F2 onwards sharpness improvement is probably negligible, perhaps only in the corners.

But thats just my version and how I perceive it - there are obviously websites which test this sort of thing. The Imaging resource review mirrors my experience with it:

"Sharpness
The lens does not disappoint: it is very sharp right out of the gate at ƒ/1.2 and offers tack-sharp edge-to-edge sharpness by ƒ/2. You can stop down further if you want, but it doesn't garner substantially more image sharpness."

Sigma is known for excellent sharpness, but sharpness sometimes comes at a cost of "character" i.e. very clinical. I feel sometimes that my Olympus 45 1.8 is sometimes like this, and other olympus lenses are known for this.

In my opinion the idea of sharpness can be overrated. Call me crazy - but sometimes I prefer a softer overall image to a very sharp one. Some of my fav images are from my voigt 17 @ F0.95 -- and no the image background is not a blurry mess, infact very recognisable - but the overall softness of the image including the subject adds a very dramatic, cinematic quality.

Of course it depends on the images you make - there are times where absolute sharpness is critical, like a large group photo with lots of small faces. But for my type of shooting it i will consider the overall "look" and quality the lens produces, sharpness I think once it reaches an acceptable level loses its importance.

P.S. a 25 is not the most ideal FL for large group photos you have to backup quite a bit...

A very good assessment IMO. I am still "reprogramming" my mind for the 25 Pro to appreciate the smooth-sharp low contrast vs the coarse-sharp high contrast of the Sigma 30 1.4 DC DN. A perfect lens would have the characteristic of the Pro between 1.2 and 1.8 and the characteristic of the Sigma between 2.0 and 5.6 lol...