Pergear 14mm f/2.8 II
Full-Frame Manual-Focus 114º Ultra-Wide
Sample Images Intro New Good Bad Missing
Specifications Performance Recommendations
Pergear 14mm f/2.8 II (solid alloy 82mm filter holder, 17.2 oz./487g, 0.7'/0.22m close focus, $289). bigger. I'd get mine at Amazon for Canon RF or at Amazon for Sony FE, at eBay for Nikon Z, or used at eBay for all three brands if you know How to Win at eBay.
This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.
December 2023 Better Pictures Canon Nikon Sony Fuji OM SYSTEM LEICA Zeiss HASSELBLAD All Reviews
Sony vs. Nikon vs. Canon Full-Frame
Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji & OM SYSTEM Menu Systems Compared.
Sample Images top
Sample Images Intro New Good Bad Missing
Specifications Performance Recommendations
More samples throughout this review at Bokeh, Falloff, Macro and Sunstars.
These are just snapshots; my real work is in my Gallery.
The Milky Way, Bridgeport, California, 8:43 P.M., 14 October 2023. Canon EOS R6 II, Pergear 14mm f/2.8 II wide-open at f/2.8 for 30 seconds at ISO 6,400 (LV -8 — that's minus 8!!!), tungsten (3200K) White Balance, Skylum Luminar Neo. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.
More at How to Photograph the Milky Way.
Introduction top
Sample Images Intro New Good Bad Missing
Specifications Performance Recommendations
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This lens has great optics at a super-low price.
It has exceptional sharpness with no chromatic aberration and nearly no distortion, flare or ghosts.
It's solidly made of all-metal, like an immortal LEICA M lens.
Sadly it's just a deaf and dumb lens with absolutely no communication or automation with any camera. It's more primitive mechanically than a lens from the 1960s, lacking a preset diaphragm ring (it's always stopped down to whatever you've set; there is no easy to flick it open and closed-down to a preset aperture).
With absolutely zero electronic communication there is no autofocus, no EXIF information and no automatic diaphragm control or Program or shutter-preferred exposure automation.
There are no lens corrections, however this lens has such exceptional optics it doesn't need any for most use.
This primitive lens is best used for astrophotography, where its totally mechanical manual focus is a benefit. It can be locked with a piece of tape so it doesn't get knocked.
I'd get my Pergear 14mm f/2.8 II at Amazon for Canon RF or at Amazon for Sony FE, at eBay for Nikon Z, or used at eBay for all three brands if you know How to Win at eBay.
New compared to the original Pergear 14mm f/2.8 intro top
Closer focus: 0.7'/0.22m compared to 1.4'/0.43m for the original versions.
Good intro top
Exceptionally good optics:
Essentiality invisible distortion.
Few if any ghosts of flare.
No lateral chromatic aberration.
Super sharp corner to corner, even wide open.
Real mechanical manual focus ring.
Solid alloy 82mm filter holder included. Works great with a couple of filters with no vignetting on full frame.
Real felt-lined metal front cap, not a crappy plastic thing as Nikon, Canon and Sony give today.
Bad intro top
Primitive lens mount with ZERO automation, autofocus or communication of any kind.
My sample's focus was misadjusted; I had to use the right-hand "8" in 2.8 as my focus index.
Missing intro top
No electronics.
No data communication
No autofocus.
No automatic diaphragm control.
No preset aperture ring.
Pergear 14mm f/2.8 II. bigger.
Specifications top
Sample Images Intro New Good Bad Missing
Specifications Performance Recommendations
I'd get my Pergear 14mm f/2.8 II at Amazon for Canon RF or at Amazon for Sony FE, at eBay for Nikon Z, or used at eBay for all three brands if you know How to Win at eBay.
Optics specifications top
13 elements in 9 groups.
2 Aspherical elements.
3 ED elements.
5 high refractive-index elements.
Diaphragm specifications top
10 blades.
Stops down to f/22.
Filters specifications top
Solid alloy 82mm filter holder included. Works great with a couple of filters with no vignetting on full frame.
Angle of View specifications top
114º diagonal on full frame.
Autofocus specifications top
NONE.
Focus Scale specifications top
Yes, but not properly calibrated.
Infinity Focus Stop specifications top
No, and the focus ring on my sample is miscalculated. Samples will vary.
Depth of Field Scale specifications top
Yes, but it seems weirdly calculated.
Infrared Focus Index specifications top
No.
Close Focus (distance from subject to image plane) specifications top
0.7 feet (0.22 meters).
Caps specifications top
Real felt-lined metal front cap, a beauty!
Plastic rear cap.
Hood specifications top
None; the front petals you see are to protect the front element from damage, not light.
Case specifications top
Fake plastic leather sack. It feels like the Naugahyde used in Tesla cars.
Size specifications top
About the size of a baseball.
Weight specifications top
17.175 oz. (486.9 g) actual measured weight, no caps, Canon version.
Quality specifications top
Made domestically in China.
Announced specifications top
Late 2023.
Included specifications top
Lens.
Caps.
Filter adapter ring.
Pouch.
Packaging specifications top
Microcorrugated cardboard box with open-cell squishy foam insert.
Price, U. S. A. specifications top
December 2023
About $289 at Amazon for Canon RF, at Amazon for Sony FE, at eBay for Nikon Z.
Price may vary with mount or where you find it.
Performance top
Sample Images Intro New Good Bad Missing
Specifications Performance Recommendations
Overall Autofocus Manual Focus Bokeh Distortion
Falloff Filters Flare & Ghosts Lateral Color Fringes
Lens Corrections Macro Mechanics Sharpness
I'd get my Pergear 14mm f/2.8 II at Amazon for Canon RF or at Amazon for Sony FE, at eBay for Nikon Z, or used at eBay for all three brands if you know How to Win at eBay.
Overall performance top
This is a lens with solid optics and mechanics, subject to the pitfalls of inexpensive manufacturing and complete lack of any intelligence or electronic or mechanical communication with any camera.
Autofocus performance top
NONE.
Its not really a big deal with such a wide lens, with which everything is usually in focus anyway.
Manual Focus performance top
Manual focus is smooth and heavily damped.
Bokeh performance top
Bokeh, the feel, character or quality of out-of-focus areas as opposed to how far out of focus they are, is pretty good — although you're not going to get much of anything out of focus with a lens this wide to find out.
Here's a photo from headshot distance wide-open. I'm focused on the DAVIS logo. Click for the © camera-original file:
Made-in-U. S. A. Davis 6250 weather station, 21 October 2023. Shot with Canon EOS R6 II. bigger or camera-original © file.
As always, if you want to throw the background as far out of focus as possible, shoot at f/2.8 and get as close as possible.
Distortion performance top
Distortion is invisible in normal use.
For more critical scientific use, use a factor of +1.2 in Photoshop's lens correction filter to correct the slight barrel distortion.
Falloff performance top
It has less falloff than I expected. It's surprising well controlled for such a wide and uncorrected lens. Of course it goes away as stopped down.
I've greatly exaggerated the falloff by shooting a gray field and placing these on a gray background; it will not look this bad in actual photos of real things:
Falloff on full-frame at infinity, no correction.
© 2023 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved. |
Filters, use with performance top
There's no need for thin filters. I can stack several standard 82mm filters with no vignetting at any setting on full-frame.
Go ahead and use your standard rotating polarizer and grad filters.
Avoid polarizers with ultrawide lenses; the sky's natural polarization can appear as a dark band across the sky.
Flare & Ghosts performance top
Except at f/2.8 where there can be some internal reflections from the inside of the barrel, flare and ghosts are surprisingly well controlled for such a wide lens.
See examples at Sunstars.
Lateral Color Fringes performance top
I'm very impressed: I don't see any!
Lens Corrections performance top
There are none, because no camera has any idea what this lens is due to the complete lack of any electronic communication.
Macro Performance performance top
It's sharp and focuses closely, however it's so wide that it will never look that close. Here's as close as it gets on full frame (note my own shadow in the foreground; I'm only inches away from the watch):
Casio G-Shock Solar Atomic Watch at close-focus distance, 21 October 2023. Shot wide-open at f/2.8 with Canon EOS R6 II. bigger or camera-original © file.
1,200 × 900 pixel (5× magnification) crop from above. bigger or camera-original © file.
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 3" (7.5cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same large magnification would be about 10 × 15" (25 × 38cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 6" (15cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 20 × 30" (50 × 75cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 12" (30cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same insanely high magnification would be about 40 × 60" (1 × 1.5 meters).
Click either for the camera-original © files.
Mechanical Quality performance top
Pergear 14mm f/2.8 II. bigger.
It's all metal, a nice change from everything else today.
Sadly the focus arrived out of adjustment.
Markings are engraved and filled with paint.
I didn't see a serial number, but didn't look for that long either.
Made in
Made in China.
Sharpness performance top
It's sharp corner to corner. I'm impressed. 14mm lenses never used to be this sharp.
Sunstars performance top
With a 10-bladed diaphragm, I get 10-point sunstars on brilliant points of light at most apertures.
Ignore the vertical smear at large apertures. This is a sensor artifact called interline transfer smear and is a camera, not a lens, defect.
Likewise ignore the crazy rainbow dots at small apertures; these are sensor artifacts caused by taking a picture directly of the sun and exposing for the dark underside of a huge palm tree, and using that same palm tree to hide the sky to accentuate the stars.
Click any to enlarge:
Click any to enlarge.
Weather Sealing performance top
This lens claims no weather sealing. Neither does any LEICA M lens, nor did anything other than dedicated underwater cameras claim this up until a few years ago. "Weather sealing" is mostly a marketing feature to get you to pay more for more expensive lenses.
People worry way too much about this ever since camera companies started FUD campaigns to make us think that our gear will melt unless it has weather sealing. How do you think we shot in the rain for the first 190 years of photography?
Recommendations top
Sample Images Intro New Good Bad Missing
Specifications Performance Recommendations
I'd get my Pergear 14mm f/2.8 II at Amazon for Canon RF or at Amazon for Sony FE, at eBay for Nikon Z, or used at eBay for all three brands if you know How to Win at eBay.
This is a simple, sharp lens. I'd ignore it for general photography as modern photography demands constant communications between camera and lens, however this is even easier to use for astrophotography because you can focus it once, tape down the focus ring, and be in focus all season without worrying about losing focus.
For Canon, don't forget the much smaller and similarly priced autofocus RF 16mm f/2.8 pancake ultrawide, a much smarter choice for most uses for Canon. There is no equivalent in Nikon or Sony.
I use a clear (UV) protective filter instead of a cap (exactly like an iPhone) so I'm always ready to shoot instantly. I only use a cap when I throw this in a bag with other gear without padding — which is never. The UV filter never gets in the way, and never gets lost, either.
The very best protective filter is the 82mm Hoya multicoated HD3 UV which uses hardened glass and repels dirt and fingerprints. The Nikon NC 82mm is also an excellent choice, but not as resistant to the environment, fingerprints and physical abuse as the HD3 UV.
For much less money, the Hoya multicoated 82mm UV is also optically superb, but the Hoya HD3 is the toughest.
Any of these filters protects as well and gives ultrasharp images, but since filters last a lifetime, you may as well get the best since the Hoya HD3 is tougher and stays cleaner than the others since it repels oil and dirt.
All these filters are just as sharp and take the same pictures, the difference is how much abuse they'll take and stay clean and stay in one piece. Since filters last a lifetime or more, there's no reason not to buy the best as it will last you for the next 40 years. Filters aren't throwaways like digital cameras which we replace every few years, like it or not. I'm still using filters I bought back in the 1970s!
I'd get my Pergear 14mm f/2.8 II at Amazon for Canon RF or at Amazon for Sony FE, at eBay for Nikon Z, or used at eBay for all three brands if you know How to Win at eBay.
This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.
Thanks for helping me help you!
Ken.
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