Inside The Guts Of An Olympus Lens

Pancake Lenses got their name for a reason: They’re super-flat. Skinny means light, too. The Zuiko 25mm f/2.8 weighs only 3.35 ounces. Why? Thank its dual-sided aspherical glass element. The Olympus Four Thirds sensor format makes this the equivalent of 50mm on a DSLR, Four Thirds, or Micro Four Thirds body. And its images are far from flat.

This $225 (street) Olympus Zuiko 25mm f/2.8 ED pancake lens: light, flat, and impeccably sharp, according to our tests.

1. Front Lens Elements

These two elements have high-quality optical multi-coating for accurate color reproduction as the light enters the lens. Among other things, multicoating helps filter out ultraviolet rays that might otherwise add too much blue tone to your image.

2. Aspherical Glass Element

This aspherical element in the rear of the lens minimizes aberrations. It redirects the rays of light so that they accurately fall across the image sensor, providing edge-to-edge sharpness in the final image.

3. Main Circuit Board

The camera and lens use electrical circuits to communicate, allowing the camera to control focus and aperture. Like all Olympus E-series gear, this lens contains a CPU.

4. Dual-sided Aspherical Glass Element (DSA )

DSA elements are created using a high-precision mold process. The thickness between the center and the periphery of the lens varies to accurately redirect the light to the image sensor. Generating these high-precision molds requires twice the accuracy as creating singlesided elements. Temperatures of hundreds of degrees are maintained within 1 degree to precisely shape each individual element. DSA elements are the key to making small lenses like this one.

5. Metal Lensmount

This mount has 9 pins (contact points) that transfer electrical signals back and forth between the lens and the camera body.

Comments

[Jabilson007]

How about a description or video on how the lens was cut in half? That would be interesting.