Panasonic 25mm F1.7 vs. Mitakon 25mm F0.95 sharpness comparison

Panasonic 25mm F1.7 vs. Mitakon 25mm F0.95 sharpness comparison: Both lenses are fast “normal focal length” lenses released in 2015 for the Micro Four Thirds System (MFT). While the Panasonic Lumix G 25mm F1.7 is the cheapest 25mm lens available for the system, the ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f0.95 is the cheapest F/0.05 lens available.

Panasonic 25mm F1.7 vs. Mitakon 25mm F0.95: Test Procedure

For this test I mounted my OM-D on a tripod and released the shutter via the Olympus app on my phone. The camera was set to electronic shutter, IS off and ISO 200. I took 5 pictures with refocusing for every setting and chose the best of these pictures to avoid focusing errors. I also took separate pictures for the image border to make sure it is perfectly in focus. All images where shot in RAW and exported to JPG with DxO Optics Pro and the setting “No corrections”, which means they are less sharp than out-of-camera JPGs would be. All images are of course 100% crops.

Comment: Transmission of the ZY Optics Mitakon 25mm Speedmaster f0.95

Prior to the release of the ZY Optics Mitakon 25mm Speedmaster f0.95 there have been rumors that it’s real light transmission (“T-stop”) might be lower than it’s theoretical light transmission (“F-stop”). Therefore I made some comparison images to test the light transmission and looked at the shutter speeds the camera reported at maximum aperture. In my review of the Panasonic 24mm F1.7 I concluded that it most likely has a T-stop of T/1.8. At maximum aperture the Mitakon 25mm F0.95 1 to 1,5 stops faster than the Panasonic. It seems that the Mitakon 25mm F0.95 is on average 1 1/3 stops faster than the Panasonic 25mm. Therefore it seems that the ZY Optics Mitakon 25mm Speedmaster f0.95 is an T/1.2 lens. However these are only estimates.

Mitakon 25mm F0.95 @ F/0.95

Image Center

ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/0.95
ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/0.95

Image Border

ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/0.95
ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/0.95

Panasonic 25mm F1.7 vs. Mitakon 25mm F0.95 @ F/1.7

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ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/1.7
ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/1.7
Panasonic 25mm F1.7 @ F/1.7
Panasonic 25mm F1.7 @ F/1.7

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ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/1.7
ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/1.7
Panasonic 25mm F1.7 @ F/1.7
Panasonic 25mm F1.7 @ F/1.7

Panasonic 25mm F1.7 vs. Mitakon 25mm F0.95 @ F/2.8

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ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/2.8
ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/2.8
Panasonic 25mm F1.7 @ F/2.8
Panasonic 25mm F1.7 @ F/2.8

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ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/2.8
ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/2.8
Panasonic 25mm F1.7 @ F/2.8
Panasonic 25mm F1.7 @ F/2.8

Panasonic 25mm F1.7 vs. Mitakon 25mm F0.95 @ F/5.6

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ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/5.6
ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/5.6
Panasonic 25mm F1.7 @ F/5.6
Panasonic 25mm F1.7 @ F/5.6

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ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/5.6
ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 @ F/5.6
Panasonic 25mm F1.7 @ F/5.6
Panasonic 25mm F1.7 @ F/5.6

Panasonic 25mm F1.7 vs. Mitakon 25mm f0.95 – Conclusion

I already tested the sharpness of the Panasonic Lumix G 25mm F1.7 and concluded that it is a sharp lens, especially at the image center. How fares the ZY Optics Mitakon 25mm Speedmaster f0.95 in comparison?
The results at the image center are sensational! At F0.95 the Mitakon 25mm f0.95 is already as sharp as the Panasonic 25mm at F/2.8. Stepping the lens down further improves sharpness. If both lenses are set to F/5.6, the Mitakon 25mm F0.95 is clearly the winner regarding sharpness – and the Panasonic 25mm F1.7 is already very sharp at F/5.6.
The result at the image border is a bit more complicated: At F/0.95 the images borders are rather soft, but that is to be expected from an F/0.95 lens. At the F/1.7 they are already much sharpers. The ZY Optics Mitakon 25mm Speedmaster f0.95 is even a tiny bit sharper than the Panasonic Lumix G 25mm F/1.7 at F/1.7. If both lenses are set to F/2.8 the border of the Mitakon 25mm F0.95 are again a tiny bit sharper. At F/5.6 it is hard to say which lens is sharper.
Both lenses take very sharp pictures and can be complimented for their sharpness. I am really impressed by the performance of the Mitakon 25mm F0.95! I did not expect a cheap lens from China to be so sharp!

Mitakon 25mm f0.95 – Field Curvature

Other reviews of the ZY Optics Mitakon 25mm Speedmaster f.095 are less favorable. Those reviews claim that the border of the Mitakon are extremely soft and that they do not improve if stepped down to F/2. These tests claim that you have to step the lens down to about F/5.6 to get decent results at the image borders. As you can see for yourself if you look at my test pictures this is not true. The corners improve a lot if they are stepped down to F/1.7 and are already at a good level at F/2.8. So what is the explanation of such different results?
The only reason I can think of it that the others reviews did not take the field curvature into account. Field curvature means that the image center and image borders have different focal points. It seems they focused on the image center of a plain test chart and took the results for the image borders from the same image instead of refocusing for the borders. As the Mitakon 25mm f0.95 has a strong field curvature wide open this means the image borders were out of focus.
In my opinion the field curvature is not a big problem in real life shooting. How often do you take pictures of a frame filling flat object at F0.95? If you step the lens down to F/8 the field curvature effect is gone.
In my opinion there are two reasons to take pictures at maximum aperture:
a)    To isolate an object. In this case extra blur in the others areas of the images is a good thing.
b)    To take pictures of moving objects in low light. In this case the objectiv will seldom fill the whole picture and therefore you will most likely not notice the field curvature.
If you take the field curvature of the lens into account, as I see it, it will seldom be a problem.

The Panasonic Lumix G 25mm F1.7 is available at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and also .

At the moment the ZY Optics Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f0.95 is only 

2 Gedanken zu „Panasonic 25mm F1.7 vs. Mitakon 25mm F0.95 sharpness comparison

  1. The problems with this comparison (for me…;-) are the following:
    – I shoot JPGs only (with Panasonic bodies), and doing this with a Panasonic lens on an Olympus body (and the other way around…) defeats the in-body CA corrections available (if any – and the OM-D doesn’t provide these).
    – Lens performance often varies considerably with focus distance, and many lenses that perform very well near infinity-focus perform very poorly near minimum-focus (I test with infinity subjects).
    – While edge performance is of equal interest to center performance to me, corner performance is also of interest (a lens that is soft in the corners at a stop that I want to use is useless to me for use at that stop – and if it is poor in the corners at most stops, I have little interest in owning that lens since it is too „special-purpose“).
    – Also of interest to me are the out-of-focus CA characteristics (a lens that looks great with everything in focus may look terrible with added false CA color – although I’m not one of those people who is bothered by „busy“ OOF imagery…;-).
    –David Ruether

    1. Hello David,

      I agree with many of your points. Please keep in mind, that this is only a comparison of the two lenses and my full reviews include many of the information you are talking about. You can read about infinity sharpness, CAs and bokeh in my full review of the Panasonic 25mm F1.7 (Panasonic Lumix 25mm F1.7 Full Review) and my review of the Mitakon 25mm F0.95 will also include these information.

      Regarding your first point (Auto-CA correction when shooting JPGs): What you say is only true for older cameras. I can garantuee you that the OM-D E-M5II corrects the CAs of Panasonic lenses in the out-of-camera JPGs. I tested it with the Panasonic 14-140mm a few days ago. I was told the same applies to newer Panasonic bodies. I know many people shot JPGs, however I never do, as the standard setting of my raw converter (DcO Optics Pro) most of the time creates better JPGs than those ot of camera, even without any adjustments.

      Regarding focus distance: The test shots in this comparison have a distance of roughly 1.5 meters. My review of the Panasonic 25mm F1.7 includes infinity shots and the review of the Mitakon will, too.

      Regarding edge performance: You are right I should include one or two example for the edges. However I think edge performance is most of the time only important in shots, where one has to step the lens down anyway to get enough depth of field. Wide angle lenses are another matter of course.

      Regarding CAs and out-of-focus areas: Please look at my full review of the Panasonic 25mm F1.7. It includes the information you are looking for. The full review of the Mitakon will also include such images.

      Regards,
      Jan

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