Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 25mm F1.2 Pro review: specs and price

A shorter minimum focal length allows you to get more of the scene in the photo, and offers a wider angle of view than longer focal lengths.

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A longer maximum focal length allows you to focus in on a small part of a scene, and offers a narrower angle of view than shorter focal lengths.

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A prime lens has a fixed focal length. In general, these are sharper, with a wider aperture.

A normal lens is one that doesn't fall into another category such as wide angle or telephoto, and typically has a focal length between 35mm and 70mm. These lenses aren't tailored towards a specific type of photography, and so are quite versatile.

The zoom range is the ratio between the longest and shortest focal lengths. A higher zoom range means that the lens is more versatile.

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A true macro lens has a magnification of 1:1. This means that the image produced is a life-size representation of the subject being photographed.

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With a wider aperture the sensor can capture more light, helping to avoid blur by enabling a faster shutter speed. It also provides a shallow depth of field, allowing you to blur the background to focus attention on the subject. Show more

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Similar to the number of aperture blades, rounded blades affect the way the light gets through to the sensor. Rounded blades, often only found on more expensive lenses, improve the appearance of the out-of-focus areas. This allows you to attain better, softer looking bokeh in your photos.

The aperture controls how much light gets through to the camera’s sensor. More blades is often an indicator of a better quality lens. It also allows you to achieve much nicer looking bokeh when blurring out your background, whereas a lens with less blades will often produce harsher, more polygonal bokeh.

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Lenses with a built-in focus motor can autofocus even if the camera does not have its own focus motor.

This is the closest distance that the lens can focus. A shorter minimum focus distance allows you to get closer to your subject, and is particularly important when doing macro photography.

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With full-time manual focus, you can move the focus ring whilst it is in AF (autofocus) mode. This means that you can make manual adjustments once the AF has finished, without changing to manual mode.