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Before I start just want to say I am a very new and inexperienced camera user so I appreciate any support. I also want to thank you for your time reading this in advance even if you don't have an answer.

I am having issues with my new Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mk III. I have coupled this with a Panasonic G Lumix lens (25mm f/1.7 ASPH) that was recommended to me from a friend who does a lot of photography on the side.

The lens works completely fine. I was aiming for a bokeh effect and I love the effect it has. The problem I have however is that even though the camera is about 2 metres from me, the camera is zoomed on my face and I do not have any electronic zoom functions for this camera. There is a setting but this is as far as I have gotten.

Explaining the distance to my friend and since he was the one that recommended me the lens, he said that it should be a lot more zoomed out than it should be. I can barely get my head in the full frame and have to be about 6 metres away to get a full upper body shot.

I am also currently at work and do not have my camera with me. If there's information missing then it may take me a few hours to reply.

Once again, thank you!

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Your Olympus is a Micro Four Thirds camera. Without going into all the technical details, this means that the sensor in the camera is smaller than the 'standard' full-frame sensors found in some other cameras. The upshot of this is that your 25mm lens is equivalent to a 50mm lens on a full-frame camera (you double the focal length for Micro Four Thirds to get the equivalent). Could it be possible that your friend is expecting this lens to behave as though it is a full-frame 25mm? For that, you would actually need a 12.5mm lens on your Micro Four Thirds camera!

Not only that, but your 25mm lens is what is known as a prime lens: the focal length is fixed, and you have no zooming capability whatsoever! You will find many answers and blog posts explaining the pros/cons of primes vs zooms, but I will say that I agree with your friend that this is an excellent lens to get started with.

From what you have described, your lens is working exactly as I expect it to. With a prime, if you can't fit something in the frame, then I'm afraid you will have to zoom out using your feet!

As an example, the following shot was taken with the same camera (albeit the Mk II version), and the same lens, from probably about 3m or so away:

enter image description here

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    Awesome! Thanks so much for the in-depth reply. I really appreciate it with not knowing all the technicalities in photography/camera settings and their lenses. Don't get me wrong - I love my lens, but what you described kind of makes sense (to me). I will pass it along to my friend too as he is not personally into Olympus cameras. Because my account is so new I cannot upvote your comment, but please know I really appreciate your information. Thank you :)
    – Liam
    Apr 28, 2021 at 12:33
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    @Liam Thanks, glad it was useful for you!
    – Matt Dunn
    Apr 28, 2021 at 14:50
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    It's also worth noting there is (or was) a bug in that lens, which caused the AF to be slow at around f/4 (sometimes as much as 2x slower than when used at f/1.7).
    – spikey_richie
    May 8, 2021 at 17:49
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    @ spikey_richie That I did not know! Thanks, really useful info. Has this been addressed in a firmware update?
    – Matt Dunn
    May 9, 2021 at 16:23
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    I believe so, but the changelog is quite limited in detail. I assume v1.1 (current) has the fix.
    – spikey_richie
    May 16, 2021 at 12:43

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