Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 8‑25mm F4.0 PRO review

Is this the perfect kit lens? The M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 8‑25mm F4.0 PRO could replace both an ultra-wide and a standard zoom

Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 8‑25mm F4.0 PRO
(Image: © Rod Lawton/Digital Camera World)

Digital Camera World Verdict

The performance of the Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 8‑25mm F4.0 is excellent, and its focal range is just brilliant for photographers who like wide-angle perspectives. It means you can carry around just one lens instead of two. However, this is not a small lens. It’s slightly larger than the Olympus 12-40mm F2.8 PRO lens and not much smaller than the mighty 7-14mm F2.8 PRO. As a result, it might handle OK on an E-M1 body, but feels clumsy and front-heavy on a smaller camera like the E-M5 III or new E-P7.

Pros

  • +

    Incredibly useful focal range

  • +

    Excellent optical performance

  • +

    Short zoom action

  • +

    Handy L-Fn button

Cons

  • -

    Quite big and heavy for an F4

  • -

    Even longer when ‘unretracted’

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The Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 8‑25mm F4.0 PRO is one of a rare breed of ultra-wide standard zooms. The only equivalents we can think of are the outlandish Panasonic 10-25mm f1.7 LEICA DG VARIO-SUMMILUX ASPH Lens (20-50mm equivalent) and the full frame Panasonic LUMIX S 20-60mm f3.5-5.6 Lens. Neither lens covers the same angles of view as this Olympus.

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Rod Lawton
Contributor

Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com