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Not many brands make a 25mm lens. But Zeiss has made several of them. We’re talking about full-frame 25mm lenses — not those for Micro Four Thirds or APS-C lenses. In fact, Zeiss made several. In our 14 years of reviewing lenses, we’ve tested their 25mm f2 Batis, 25mm f2.4 Loxia, 25mm f2, and 25mm f1.4 Milvus. Truly, it’s a focal length that they decided to commit to. And it made sense — for years, the 25mm f2 Batis was one of the sharpest lenses for the Sony E mount. Why 25mm, though? Why not 24mm? Well, we have a fascinating story.
This isn’t the story of why and how it happened, at least that we know of. But it surely is a story that shows how powerful it can be. Decades ago, photographer Josef Koudelka asked Zeiss for a 35mm lens. However, he received a 25mm lens instead. Rather than send it back, he just used it. And the images that he made have had an impact for several years. We reviewed his book, Chaos, a while back and fell in love with the imagery. We even saw a few of you purchase it through our Amazon links — so we know that it truly resonated with people.
Koudelka used the lens to get very close to his subjects. Indeed, that’s what you have to do — you have to get even closer than you would with a 28mm or 35mm to get the framing you need. That’s closer than what many people are comfortable with. Essentially, instead of photographing someone from a few feet away, you’d need to get closer than within an arm’s reach to get something along like an upper body photograph. Because of that, people often don’t reach for it when photographing people.
25mm lenses haven’t been made for full-frame cameras by any other traditional company besides Zeiss. Leica — who isn’t afraid of experimenting with focal lengths like 75 mm, hasn’t even challenged it. Instead, brands go for 24mm. Laowa and Meike make some, but they’re very specialized. They’re not necessarily designed to be as versatile as the ones Zeiss made.
Unless there’s a fast aperture associated with the lens, it’s probably going to see in a similar way to how your phone will render a scene with a wide-angle lens. That’s to say that there probably won’t be anything blurred out in the background. It immediately eliminates depth of field and bokeh — which are important elements of storytelling. Because of this, you’d use the lens to tell a wider story. You’ll be shooting a lot of landscapes to tell people where we are and a lot about the scene. This isn’t unlike what Joel Meyerowitz did with photographing the areas around 9/11.
The 25mm lens, however, typically has some level of vignetting when being shot wide open. So they’ll keep that story-telling element alive.
Over the years, we’ve used 25mm lenses in our tests for landscapes, cityscapes, architecture, and street photography. But perhaps my favorite 25mm lens was the 25mm f2 Batis. It’s a fantastic tool for telling food photography stories and even documentary photojournalism. That latter point is exactly what Josef Koudelka used it for.
Are we saying that you should go out and buy a 25mm lens? No, a 24mm lens might be far more practical for lots of photographers. However, that’s not to say that an experienced photographer can’t make great images with this focal length despite its oddity. In fact, we don’t think one will ever be made again — and so it’s bound to disappear from history. Personally, I’d consider picking up the Canon EF Milvus variant as it’s the least likely one to fall apart after years due to its manual focus setup.
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