My name is Justin Kauffman and I’m a professional outdoor adventure and photographer from Montana. I grew up playing in the mountains and now get to share my adventures around the world for a living. You can usually find me outdoors hiking, climbing a mountain, camping under the stars, skiing powder, or riding my mountain bike.
Have you ever wondered what the perfect wide-angle lens would look like? Does one even exist and if so, where can you find it?! Well now you don’t have to think about that anymore! The new M.Zuiko 8-25mm F4.0 PRO is the only wide-angle you will ever want to use. From wide shots to medium shots to tighter portrait-styled shots, this new lens can do it all.
This lens has quickly become my go-to option for anything I do. Whether I’m going for a hike, paddling across a lake, or riding my bike to find remnants of snow to ski, I know this lens will help me capture all the images I have in mind. It’s light, compact, strong, sharp, and has a flat front so you can put filters on it. I’ve never been happier with a lens and the range of zoom that this one has!
Zoom Range and Image Quality
One of my pet peeves about most wide-angle zoom lenses is that there’s not enough “tight” zoom options. Since I like to use compression in my images, I quickly fell in love with this lens. It’s the perfect lens for the way I like to shoot and let me feel like I could shoot any scene any time.
Build Quality and Size
Size and build quality are two of the largest factors I take into account when purchasing a lens. I want something strong so it will handle abuse in the mountains and something with a small footprint so it won’t take up a lot of room in my pack. (You can learn more about how I pack my bag for a backpacking trip.)
The M.Zuiko 8-25mm F4.0 PRO checked both those boxes. Its metal construction makes it feel invincible and the fact that it can compress it to half its size saves a lot of space when I’m going on a longer mission.
8mm | 1/100s | F8 | ISO 500
15mm | 1s | F22 | ISO 200
Flat Front for Filters
It may seem insignificant but one of the BEST features of this new lens is its flat front. Being able to attach filters to the front makes this thing an absolute powerhouse. I love to shoot with circular polarizers or variable neutral density filters, so being able to do this was a gigantic blessing, especially when photographing water. Slowing the shutter speed down and capturing the movement of water was crucial for a couple of my images and this would have been much more complicated if the lens didn’t have this flat front.
Instagram: @justindkauffman
Justin is an outdoor adventure and lifestyle photographer/cinematographer from Montana. He grew up playing in the mountains and can usually be found outside diving into water, climbing mountains, or exploring different areas of the world.