Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

I love this lens. It works well when doing video and it takes the best photos. The weight is pretty heavy but it's worth it. I actually like the manual focus setting. The bokeh is amazing and I can't wait to use it during our next shoot.

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

Surprised by the sharpness and the results I get. Manually focusing with the Eg-S Focusing screen is a charm and I'm more precise than the auto-focus of my 5DII with my 50 f/1.4. I'm in love with this lens.

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

This is a great lens at a nice price-point. I use this lens for video and I love the smooth manual focus ring.

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

-On full frame, the 35mm field-of-view is the best standard lens. You can use this lens everywhere.
-Having a f/1.4 aperture on a 35mm lens on full frame lets you get shallow depth of field while still showing a wide angle, which can give really stunning and really unique photos.
-This lens is amazing. The build quality is as good as Canon L lenses. The image quality exceeds the Canon, Nikon, Zeiss, and Leica 35mm f/1.4 lenses. It is sharp in the full frame corners at 1.4, which is unheard of for any lens. At 1.4, you have an incredibly sharp fast prime. Stop it down and you have an incredibly perfect landscape lens.
-It is manual focus and manual aperture. If you need to get quick shots, or if out-of-focus shots are unacceptable, this lens is a no-go. Otherwise, buy a special focusing screen (Eg-S) and you will be very happy with the quality of the MF ring and the control you get with such a manual lens.

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

This is a completely manual lens, but it's not a problem. I bought it to use with low light conditions but it's amazing in every situations, specially the focus that it get... I like it! = )

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

Full manual controls put you squarely in the driver's seat - a great sharp lens.

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

Great lens for video. I dont need auto focus anyway, i prefer the cheaper price.

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

I bought one of these last August. It was incredibly perfect: wide open until the diffraction limit was exactly the same sharpness, whether photographing stars at infinity or macros up close. Vignetting on aps-c was nil, sharpness was awesome, and there was no CA or purple fringing even wide open.

Then it rolled off my desk and fell a foot onto my padded office chair, and the rear focusing group became loose and decentered. I sent it to Bower, and they charged me 200 dollars to get it replaced.

But the (new, not refurbished) lens that they sent back was poor quality. The lens never sharpened up, even at f/8, and the focal plane was tilted: the lens focused farther away on the left side than on the right. I sent that one back too, and the third copy they sent me was passable, but still not nearly as sharp as my first copy.

Long story short: if you get a good one, be careful with it, because it's easily damaged.

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

You need to pay attention to focus but when you do the it looks great in low light. Looks and feels a bit cheaper because of the plastic but the quality is comparable to much more expensive lenses. Seems pretty sturdy, we've had it for a month, bringing it to Thailand to test out in different conditions!

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

First off, I would never recommend this lens for fast photo shooting. For that matter, I wouldn't recommend it for much photo shooting at all. It takes beautiful photos, but it is just not designed for photographers. I let one of my pro photographer friends try it out and he was completely lost for the first few minutes trying to compose a shot with it.

That said, I use it 95% for video. I also use it for taking some low light and awesome shallow depth of field portraits of my daughter and the resulting shots are amazing. The fact that it is f1.4 is awesome. I shot a clip with it where there was one 60w lamp in the room and 1 birthday candle. The lighting is adequate with the lens wide open. When the subject blows out the candle there is a noticeable drop in light, which is a great effect!

The lens has great bokeh, no distracting breathing during rack focus, and is just all around a great lens to use. Very little chromatic aberration, and no distortion. It is perfect on my APS-C 60D but it would also work nicely with a 7D or 5D mkII.

Some have complained that this is a heavy lens. I feel the problem with DSLR video shooting in general is that the cameras are super light and it is hard to stabilize even when using a monopod or other stabilization. The lens makes a good balanced feel, centering almost exactly at the mount to the camera. Nice added features--it comes with a lens hood a nice cap, and bag.

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

All I can say is WOW. This lens is sharp as a tack, even at 1.4. The construction is solid. There is no electronic communication between the camera and the lens. It's completely manual, but for video this is excellent.

If you are a sports photographer, then you will find no use for this lens, since there is no autofocus. As filmmakers, we find no need for autofocus. For the price, there is nothing that beats this lens. It's as good as an L lens, but CHEAPER.

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

I shoot mainly weddings and portraits. I have been round and round with this specific lens. Every time I sell it and try and go the 24-70 zoom route, I always really miss this lens and end up right back where I was. Going back thru my archive of images, I can always, always spot the ones taken with the 35mm. They just stand out.

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

Perfect manual focus lens for video. Fast stop, long throw on the barrel. Used it on a doc I was shooting in Mexico and the footage is far sharper than my 24-70mm L series zoom. Great all around prime. The only thing that would make it better would be an all metal construction but that would raise the price.

For anyone who clames that there is "No way this is a F/1.4" and proceeds to compare it to other lenses they own, let me introduce you to the concept of a T/Stop. Google it if you don't know what that means.

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

Nice lens, the best thing is the 1,4 aperture. The f control is not in the camera but in the lens itself

Comments about Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon:

Watch Test Footage Here: [@]Today I got the new Bower 35mm f1.4 lens for my Canon 7D. It's like the store brand cereal at the grocery store. You can get the exact same lens under the Samyang and Rokinon brand names. I've never had a problem with store brand anything. That is, except for Fruit Loops. Could always tell the difference.But simply put, the Bower 35mm f1.4 is a fast, manual lens designed specifically for DSLR video shooters who don't have much of a use for autofocus. So if you don't need it, why pay for it? That's at least what this Korean company thinks, and I'm jumping on board.It's fantastic, seems solid and well built. But remember, it's a manual lens so your iris is control by a ring of the lens itself (LIKE A REAL *#(&)#$ing VIDEO CAMERA!). Also, the exposure display meter seems to measure really low... don't trust it. Oh, the lens cap falls off too easily.But, overall I love the lens. Great value for $499... if you do still photography it becomes a dilemma and you might want to splurge for the autofoucs on the Canon lens. It's like a grand more though.Anyways, my own video is the first I've seen come from this lens under the Bower name. It is untouched. No color correction, grading, etc. I used the Marvels Cine picture profile setting on my Canon 7D. Highest ISO setting used was 320. At night, the lights in the ballpark were too bright to let me get down to f1.4 without a ND filter. Overall range in video is f1.4 to f4.Keep in mind this was shot hand-held during free moments working a wireless PDW-700 for the Fenway HD boards.