Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

It's a lot cheaper than the canon (and other 14mm or 15mm options) and does just fine for most of what I tried. Manual focus is fine and the focus ring is smooth- even though there's barely a need to focus. The lens cap is an odd shape for anyone that's only used the little disc shaped things for normal lenses.

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

I purchased the 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras by Bower for a recent webseries shoot. We had a couple of scenes in a very small space, a powder room in a residence. The 14mm gave us beautiful depth of field with no distortion of our primary subjects' faces. Perfect for tight spaces.

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

Wish it were not a manual focus but is a great addition to the range of options

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

Good build quality, very wide, excellent sharpness edge-to-edge, good color rendition. Contrast is good, but this could be improved. All in all, this is an excellent lens. For the price, it is a steal. There are caveats, however.

It has significant mustache-style barrel distortion, so you need to use a lens profile in your favorite photo editor to correct this distortion (Google them and you will find some created by others). Canon has a tool for creating your own profile. This is not a defect; it is a "feature" of this lens design, and it is correctable.

The quality control is iffy. That is, my first copy of the lens was very soft around the corners and super sharp in the middle. I returned it and got a replacement lens that was noticeably sharper in extreme edges. This is a great lens if you get a good copy. When you receive the lens, immediately take photos of a lot of stuff close up, far away, etc. Put the lens through its paces. If your shots have excessive smearing on the sides or softness in nearly every shot, swap it out for a different copy. B&H's customer service is excellent.

I haven't tested for flare. Chromatic aberration appears controlled to me.

The front element is bulbous and sticks out, which means that filters cannot be used with this lens.

This is manual-everything lens, meaning that you will have to focus and select the aperture manually on the lens. There is no electronic contact with your camera, so the aperture will always read f/0.0 and the EXIF info on your photos will default to 50mm. You can use aperture priority mode on your camera without any problem -- your camera will meter normally.

Focusing such a wide lens is always a challenge. Use LiveView at 5x and 10x and approximate what appears to be the sharpest view. The throw on the lens is very long, so if you miss perfect focus, you won't be off by much and you will probably nail a sharp photo.

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

Bought this to use with a steadicam, the lens is easy to focus and perfect for an APS-C camera! Awesome lens!

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

i use this lens w/T3i and T2i for professional video work. it is fantastic. as you'd expect, it's a little soft wide open, but still wonderful to have the capability for low light. sharpness picks up to an acceptable level (for video) around f4. edge distortion on a crop sensor is minimal--i haven't tried it on full frame.this is the second bower lens in my kit (the other is the 35mm 1.4), and i use both all the time. primes are perfect for the way i shoot (two-camera interviews, controlled studio shooting, slow-moving b-roll subjects); for a more run-and-gun situation/one-camera shoots, i might opt for a variable zoom lens.because of the long focus throw, i'd recommend a magnifying viewfinder. to note: this is definitely not an efficient photography lens.

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

I was waffling between this and the canon version. I am so happy I saved over $1000.00 and still got the exact look that I want. Super sharp, very wide with no distortion. no brainer in my opinion.

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

Bought this lense on a Sunday evening and had the lenses in my hand on Tuesday afternoon. I live in a rural area and so I walked around my yard and took some pictures to see what I could do. Did not have much time to play with it as it started to rain, however I loved the images I got. First time with an ultra wide, so had to get used to the "extra stuff" in the final picture. Can't wait to go on vacation to Australia to really try it out. Only gave it four stars because I haven't really given the lense a good workout. I guess if I had one gripe it would be the lack of autofocus, but I will be taking most landscape photos with lense so taking the extra time to set up won't be a big deal.

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

Be careful and check it out well when you first get it !!
Well I read reviews, looked at pictures, did some more reading and went ahead and bought the lens thinking it wouldn't be used a lot but would be fun when I did.
Then lens arrived and I shot a lot of frames at all f/stops. ALL shots were soft in the corners and the left edge and lower corner was MUSH 1/3 into the frame. Bad.
I had to send it back and now I don't think I really want to try another one. Nice price but not if you can't use it !

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

Simply put
I Love it!

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

I used a couple of ultra wide angles before for my crop sensor Canon, and I was bitterly disspointed by the corner softness, and what I call the mother-of-chromatic-abberation, in some $600-$1000 lenses. I upgraded to fullframe, and shot at 24mm until I bought this lens. 14mm is much better of course for big sky, stars, and creative compositions. I was pleasently surprised by the sharpness and lack of chromatic abberation in this lens. It's just much better that what I paid for it. I'm happy, and my guess is you will be happy as well, considering it costs less than 5x the price of Canon. Yes, there's a weird distortion, but you can very easily correct it in lightroom if you have to.

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

I'm stunned! $ and it is sharp CORNER to CORNER on FF! Zero CA. It blows away any non-L Canon lens on FF wider than 40mm. It blows away any older L Canon lens wider than 40mm. I swear it matches any current L lens wider than 40mm. Think 24-70 II, think 24 1.4 II, (and I have both among many other L lenses) it is simply amazing and for $ it is simply nuts.Of course it lacks AF and it is tricky to focus it through the VF so it is best left on infinity or used with 10x liveview (for a 14mm lens both are probably fine solutions for most cases). But hey $ for insane quality. It does have a HUMUNGOUS amount of distortion though, for some uses that may be a big problem and were it some other lens than a super, ultra wide it might matter but for a 14mm I can live with it and it's probably what allows for the astonishing image quality and low price.Truly astounded.Bower may not have the name recognition of even Sigma or Tamron but wow, wow.

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

The Bokeh of this lens was great and the build of the lens felt very strong and it was a really beautiful look glass, so I liked this lens, but I really needed a lens that has autofocus, so this lens wasn't ideal for my kit. If you are into art photography then this lens would be great for you to figure out depth of field.

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

I bought this lens because I was looking for getting that "extreme" wide look that is impressive in photos, but also video. I GOT IT! This lens does the trick and is super great at making any room look HUGE, or any moving or panning video shot look crazy awesome. Hah.
I gave this lens 5 stars because of the price. For the price nothing comes close and this lens is completely and 100% worth it, however I someday will look at getting the Zeiss 18mm I think? I have the 50mm Zeiss and it is super sharp. Perfect detail in everything, versus this lens doesn't get quite as sharp in the fine fine details, but like I said it's still a wonderful lens.
I'm mainly a video guy, but I've been shooting some corporate and architectural photography recently and this lens was just what I needed. Thanks Bower. Thanks BH.

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

I LOVE THIS LENS!
its sharp, clear, perfect wide without a great amount of distortion (unless you are up close) perfect for wide shots and landscapes!
I know the complaints about having a hard time with the long focal ring, but as a DSLR cinematographer in constant changing terrain and light its PERFECT, I love the long focal ring and that for a prime MF UW its light and an asset to my tool bag! great great great lens especially for the price.

if i was really picky I would say the lens cap it comes with is a pain but that is replaceable! GREAT lens for a GREAT price

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

Plan on using for scenic photos. Clarity is key both short and long distance this has it covered. This is my first time with bower and I am truly happy

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

Amazing lense for the price. Surprisingly sharp and very little distortions.

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

This manual-everything lens is very sharp, and feels well made. I'm getting excellent results, with the following caveats.

The lens has about 5% barrel distortion, but complex distortion and vignetting can be corrected in post-processing by building a lens profile. This isn't a problem for digital images, but it may be an issue for video.

Distance markings are significantly off, but with practice one can learn to compensate. "Live View" focusing can be used to focus better. Ultra wide lenses like this one are not sensitive to precision focus, especially when stopped down; therefore critical focusing is difficult to judge. Flare seems well controlled. In operation, good results are possible even without focusing. Using hyperfocal distance at f/8, everything from about 1m to infinity should be sharp enough.

Both focus and f-stop are fully manual, and operate very smoothly, with solid half f-stop clicks. In good light, one can frame the image with the lens stopped down to the desired aperture, but otherwise framing fully open then stopping down is necessary. This lens doesn't communicate to the camera its focal length nor the working f-stop.

This lens is too wide to accept a front filter, so protect its bulging front element with care. The metal lens mount is attached to its plastic body with three screws, adequate but not ultra strong.

An excellent lens, with fully manual operation.

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

Amazing lens for the money. The lens really performs and I love it - the only downfall is the focusing ring is long winded - I would have to turn it a couple times before I can fine tune the focus - I am a wedding videographer and being able to focus quickly is key. I do love this lens and what it adds to my bag of cropped bodies, I will be returning this lens for the long focus and will continue to use my 16-35 on my 5d until I save up for the Canon 14mm.
They don't disclose the weight of the lens - it is a little heavy, but the pros outweigh the cons for this one. I would keep it if I wasn't a perfectionist.

I would highly recommend this to anyone one a budget and semi-pro events.

Comments about Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus Lens for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras:

I purchased this primarily for video on a Canon 60d. It's wide, it's sharp, and it's heavy as a brick compared to the Nikkor 20mm f4 AI I've been normally using for video. If you're using a small Glidecam or Merlin, you'll want to think about getting an arm/vest setup as you WILL fatigue quickly.
For indoor, low light stuff, this lens is fantastic. For outdoor video, that's another story as there's no way to fit a neutral density filter. If you're doing a lot of daytime shooting & want to go for the film look, you're going to have to stop it down all the way to get the shutter speed low enough. Forget about Bokeh in those situations.
Regardless, I've got some great results with it. As long as you work within the lens' limiations, you should get great results!