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:

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!

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

I wanted something very wide for the 5D mk2 that cound be used for stills and video. This is a great lens. There is a little distortion in some photos that is easily corrected with PTLens. After using it for more than 8 month I find this lens has many uses in my work in both photography and video. I'm looking to adapting if to my professional video camera.

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

Mismatch when used on the Canon 5d mk2 have to return

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

Bottom line, for video this Bower is absolutely fantastic! Using it with my Canon T2i and DIY steadicam. I recently used it at a 'girls helping girls' thecakemamas event and footage looks awesome. Highly recommend

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

A great lens that delivers professional quality. The lack of autofocus is a downfall, but this can be overlooked. Also, manual aperture adjustment is required. You won't be able to use the dials on the camera to change f/stop. I use this with my Canon 7D for video and photography. Works great, and I love it for its quality and price.

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

Im a storm chaser that also does a lot of lightning photography at night and this lens is great for capturing different perspectives with things in the foreground but also keeping alot of the background exposed to capture the lightning. Great lens for landscape photography.

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

very good product

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

i bought this lens simply because i wanted a wide angle lens and im on quite a budjet. after a few weeks use the lens definitly paid for itself. you can capture stunning images at infinite focal range and the same quality at less than a foot away. the manual focus takes a bit of gettting used to but once mastered makes it easier to focus than if it were automatic. the one focal range of 14mm is a bit of a nuisance at times but as long as you arnt trying to capture a portrait of someone hundreds of feet away you wont have any troubles. very good lens for the price!!

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

I use this lens for recreational purpose and I love it

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

This lens is super sharp with great contrast. Distortion is so low that I haven't felt the need to correct for it. I was apprehensive about working with a manual focus lens, but this lens is so wide that focus is very forgiving. During the day set it to F8 and focus to 1.5m and just about everything is in focus. It's easily hand holdable. I've been getting critically sharp shots down to a 1/4 second shutter speed.

I was concerned about handling problems because of the bulbous front element. In use the built in lens hood has kept me from bumping into anything with the front element.

I love the crazy wide perspective. This is my new favorite lens!

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

I can barely believe I am typing this, but this lens is one of the sharpest, highest-resolution lenses I have ever used. This goes for center, extreme edges, and corner to corner. To put things in perspective, I use it on a Canon 5D Mark II, and I own the 24-70 f/2.8L and 300 f/4L. They are different lenses to be sure, but I find myself zooming in to 100% and marveling at the detail this lens captures. It is actually astonishing. Chromatic abberation appears well-controlled, as is flare. The largest down side to this lens is the complex mustache/barrel distortion. This appears to be the most common complaint, but I find it to be rarely distracting, and easily correctable in post-process. I was actually considering buying the 14L, Zeiss 18 or 21mm, 17-40L, or even the 17 TS-e. The TS-e is a specialty lens. But I can honestly say I would buy 3 or 4 of these before buying either of the other four. At this focal length, the manual focus and aperture ring do not bother me at all.

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

if you don't pan, you get a nice wide angle image using the Canon 7D. (this is in movie mode of course).

I don't like that the lens hood is permanent, which is not good when you want to put a matte box around it. But again. The price was right for this type of lens.