Samples from YI 42.5mm / 1.8 Lens on G7

I know many are interested how does this lens perform on Panasonic and Olympus cameras. Here is an album with some shots. The camera was set to Normal/Standard profile. No PP done except conversion from RAW in LR. There is lots of room for sharpening and other PP.

The lens focuses very fast, I cannot make a difference between the YI and the Pana 25mm/1.7 I have. Focus in lower light was also good, if low contrast it might hunt a little like every other lens. Since I will be using this for portraits mostly outdoors or in relatively well lit rooms there should be no issues.

The macro mode was a surprising bonus. There is a macro switch on the lens itself which brings the focus to about 6" from the front element. The normal mode min focusing distance is 14". In macro mode the minimum aperture drops to 3.5 which is fine. The photos shot at F 3.5 are in macro mode. It was windy so the flower shots might be a little soft or OOF because of that.

Overall I like the lens a lot and will keep it. For $169 it is a great bargain. The only annoying thing (I knew it in advance) is the lack of manual focus - the focus ring is only for decoration :-).

https://www.amazon.com/YI-42-5mm-Macro-Mirrorless-Camera/dp/B01CW4DSWS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510277976&sr=8-1&keywords=YI+42.5

Here is the album https://www.dpreview.com/galleries/7835090839/albums/xiaoyi-42-5mm-1-8-lens-test and some of the photos. I hope this is helpful.

There's actually kit with the camera, this lens and a 12-40mm kit lens on Amazon UK for less than £400.  Even if the camera is a bit iffy, and the lenses just above average, would be worth a punt to have as a back up kit.  From what I hear they are updating firmware pretty regular.

Some nice shots there, looks fine to me.

Quite a few out of these pictures are simply not sharp. But since there are a few acceptably sharp ones, I suspect it is rather a user error.

Cagey75 wrote:

There's actually kit with the camera, this lens and a 12-40mm kit lens on Amazon UK for less than £400. Even if the camera is a bit iffy, and the lenses just above average, would be worth a punt to have as a back up kit. From what I hear they are updating firmware pretty regular.

Some nice shots there, looks fine to me.

It is even cheaper in the US - $380 now for the camera + 2 lenses kit. I was considering getting the entire package but I want a viewfinder or at least a tilting LCD screen. The YI camera has none of those so it will probably just sit around the house. The lenses seem good enough quality for family photos. Thanks for commenting.

Loga wrote:

Quite a few out of these pictures are simply not sharp. But since there are a few acceptably sharp ones, I suspect it is rather a user error.

As I mentioned in the post it was windy so the flower shots are definitely affected by that - the flower moves after focus was locked. The other non sharp ones were probably from not being steady with the camera when composing on the LCD close to the ground. At 1.8 the DOF is narrow enough so even a small movement of the camera after acquiring focus will result in lack of critical sharpness.

At this price it is a steal!

YI 42.5mm F1.8 Lens with Macro Mode for Mirrorless Camera MFT Mount Ice Silver https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CW4DUGC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_YkXdAb8329J0W

I cannot find a way to manually focus on the G7. This is probably something that works only on the YI camera.

Touch screen focusing works just fine.   I rely on face/eye detection to focus in portraits and that works fine of course.  When focusing very close I find lack of manual focus frustrating on this lens, but i rarely use it for that.

I couldn't resist grabbing this lens @ $99 the other week, despite the lack of samples.  Here's a few I took today with my e-m10.

IndieAZ wrote:

Touch screen focusing works just fine. I rely on face/eye detection to focus in portraits and that works fine of course. When focusing very close I find lack of manual focus frustrating on this lens, but i rarely use it for that.

Yes, touch screen focus works. I was referring to manual focus using the touch screen. The YI camera has a special manual focus mode interface which seems not to be available on Panasonic. Even if it was it would be cumbersome to use.

BTW, Black Friday deal on Olympus 45mm 1.8 is $199 at B&H and Adorama ...

IndieAZ wrote:

I couldn't resist grabbing this lens @ $99 the other week, despite the lack of samples. Here's a few I took today with my e-m10.

Great detail in the portraits and nice soft background. At this price this is one heck of a lens. The lack of manual focus is not that important for portraits photos. For video manual focus would be probably limiting.

Where can you buy this lens? I can only find it with the Yi camera.

iL337P337 wrote:

Where can you buy this lens? I can only find it with the Yi camera.

It seems like it is no longer available outside of a kit at Amazon. B&H Photo and Adorama have it but the price is $199 now. At that price it would make more sense to get the Olympus 45mm version.

https://www.amazon.com/Olympus-Zuiko-Digital-Black-Cameras/dp/B00CPLQ7GI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1520355573&sr=8-2&keywords=olympus+45mm+1.8&dpID=41kgrEdbBDL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Seems they are not selling it separately any longer.

The focus motor on mine has started making lots of noise after only maybe a few hundred clicks.  IT seems to still focus fine and focus speed doesn't seem to have been impacted.  Strangely it focuses faster/quieter in 'macro' mode.  I guess that's the price you pay.

Honestly wish I had grabbed the $199 Olympus 45/1.8 deal, but i had already picked up this one for $99 2 weeks before that deal went live.

At this point i'd suggest just waiting for an olympus deal, or even grab a used copy.  It's definitely a better lens.  The Yi has a fari bit of fringing in high contrast areas and based on my focus motor noise and plastic body it's clear it's not a high quality constructed lens.  I assume it'll die on me soon and i'll be picking up an Oly 45.

I saw one pop-up seperately a few weeks ago but it was $160, not worth it?

iL337P337 wrote:

I saw one pop-up seperately a few weeks ago but it was $160, not worth it?

Probably better get an used Olympus version for around $200. The lack of manual focus ring is sometimes limiting, especially when shooting video. Also, some users have reported durability issues due to the very lightweight plasticy build. Mine still works fine but I do not use it much.

Not in my opinion.   You can get the Olympus 45mm/1.8 from the outlet for $239 right now.  I'd go that direction, or just find a used copy somewhere.  The oly will correct CA in JPEG, and raw editors will have a profile for it.  The Yi does not have a profile in any raw editors, so any shots with CA I have to manually clean up.  Also the focus motor occasionally gets super noisy and slow and I have to power cycle the camera.  I am wondering how much longer it will last...

Mine is still in one piece. Great value for money performance wise. I use mine with the PL15mm f1.7 for night walks.