For the opportunity to review lens Bower 14mm 1: 2.8 ED AS IF UMC EOS many thanks to Roman Kononov, who sent I have a lens from another area.
Review Bower 14mm 1: 2.8 ED AS IF UMC EOS
This lens can be found under other names: Samyang (most often), Rokinon, Vivitar, Walimex, etc. Optically, such lenses are identical. True, there is a version with the designation UMC and without it. The UMC version is said to be noticeably better. Bower 2.8 / 14 Made in Korea.
Enlightenment of the front lens Bower F 2.8 14 mm
Since my copy says 'Bower', I will refer to this lens as Bower 2.8 / 14 in the review. Although this lens does not have autofocus, it is not an old lens. In fact, Bower 2.8 / 14 is a modern manual high-aperture ultra-wide-angle prime lens for full-frame cameras. The lens is available for different systems with different mounts. Now you can already find 'AE' lenses which have a chip for confirming focus on Canon and for metering exposure on younger Nikon cameras. If you got an unchipped version, you can attach Dandelion Lushnikova (he's a chip) himself. The copy from this review is equipped with a Canon EOS mount and does not have any electronics on board.
Bower F 2.8 metal mount 14 mm and rear lens view
The lens attracts to itself with a huge convex lens. Filters cannot be used on the Bower 2.8 / 14. By the way, some other lenses with a 'problem' front lens may use filters that are attached near the rear lens. For example, they know how Zenithar 16mm F2.8 MC Fisheye, MS Bearing 3,5 / 8A, Nikon 300mm f / 2.8 ED AF Nikkor, etc. Bower 2.8 / 14 does not have such an opportunity. The Bower 2.8 / 14 has a protective tulip-like built-in hood. The lens cap is thought out very well, unlike other similar lenses, the cap on the Bower 2.8 / 14 does not just put on, but snaps onto two petals of a tulip hood.
Side view Bower F 2.8 14 mm
Lens focus internal (IF) and very smooth. When focusing, the rear lens also remains stationary. The focus ring is rubberized and rotates 270 degrees. The lens has a focusing distance scale with an MDF of 28 cm. Infinity 'starts' after 3 meters on the focusing scale. The lens has noticeable infinity flight when focusing at the extreme position of the focusing ring. But there is no depth of field scale on the lens, it's strange that the creators did not put such a useful thing for a manual lens on the Bower 2.8 / 14 body.
Bower F 2.8 14 mm Lens Indicators and Aperture Blind View
The aperture control ring has one intermediate value between the indicated values of F / 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22 (except between F / 16 and F / 22). There are only 6 diaphragm blades. Optically, the Bower 2.8 / 14 is a fairly complex lens, with 14 elements in 10 groups. Moreover, 2 Low Dispersion (ED) elements and two aspherical elements (AS) are used. And don't forget about UMC enlightenment.
Sample Photos
Still, even on a cropped DSLR APS-C Canon EOS camera 350D you may notice distortion. But there is no vignetting. The lens is very sharp and contrasting. Because of the small MDF, bokeh can be achieved, and the bokeh itself is pretty good. Optically, the Bower 14mm 1: 2.8 is a good lens. True, the flight of infinity ruined many photos for me. Usually, using manual focus ultra-wide-angle lenses is easy - just set focus to infinity and shoot. The Bower 14mm 1: 2.8 turned out to be more complicated.
Personal experience
Samyang now has a couple of very interesting lenses: 2.8 / 14 (from this review), 1.4 / 24, 1.4 / 35, 1.4 / 85, 3.5 / 8. All of them have a high optical quality and a very pleasant price, which is several times cheaper than the native autofocus counterparts. I do not recommend this Bower 2.8 / 14 for use on Canon crop cameras. Crop factor turns Bower 2.8/14 into a regular wide-angle with EGF 22,4 mm. It will be much easier for owners of cropped cameras to use for a wide angle of 18 mm (EGF 28,8 mm) standard kit lens with autofocus and all the charms of automation. If you want to get a real super-wide crop, then you need to look towards lenses with a focal length range of 12mm and below. But for full-frame cameras Bower 2.8/14 is a very attractive lens, it can even be used for serious photo tasks.
This is what Bower F 2.8 14 looks like on CZK
Conclusions
The Bower 14mm 1: 2.8 ED AS IF UMC EOS is a high-quality modern lens without autofocus. The Bower 2.8 / 14 has just an excellent price / quality, such a lens can become a real boon for owners of full-format cameras, because 'native' autofocus counterparts are at least 3-4 times more expensive. Small flaws such as a convex lens and infinity flight can be tolerated.
With this lens I will stop a little 'marathon' with reviews, a lot of basic work has accumulated. Thanks for attention. Arkady Shapoval.
It would be interesting to look at the lens with the cap on.
It seems to me that the depth of field scale at such focal lengths is superfluous.
Now you can already meet the 'AE' lenses which have a chip to confirm focus on Canon and to measure exposure on the younger Nikon cameras.
probably still on older Nikon cameras?
On older cameras, he already works.
if you have a jump rope, yes.
He also works on senior cameras without jumping
and how does the measurement take place? it is not enough to indicate the data of the manual glass. information about the selected aperture for modes A and M is transmitted either through a chip or through a "jump rope"
About froze on older cameras is written here https://radojuva.com.ua/2011/04/optika-na-nikon/#how-mount. For older Nikon cameras, starting with the Nikon D1, D200, it’s enough to specify 14mm and 2.8 so that the lens correctly measures exposure on an open aperture. When closing the aperture, the cameras measure exposure very well even without adjusting the aperture value for the NON CPU LENS menu. You probably meant AI, AI-S lenses that can transmit aperture value to the camera.
Nothing is transmitted through the "jump rope", it is just a lever for closing the diaphragm.
The camera measures the amount of light entering through the lens, and based on this, sets the shutter speed. If the lens is without a “jump rope”, then the aperture IMMEDIATELY closes to the working value, the amount of light decreases, and the camera adapts to this.
In non-chip lenses with a "prag", the value is transmitted through a special ring.
Therefore, the presence of a jumper does not affect the correct metering.
Hurray, and the Samyangs appeared here =) thanks to the sender, and of course to Arkady for the review
the only thing - I don't quite understand why you switched to the designation of lenses as 2.8 / 14, when it seems to be traditionally written 14 / 2.8? I just swooped in and did not figure out what numbers are indicated; do not consider it a nit-picking, it just rushed hard
“The crop factor turns the Bower 2.8 / 14 into a regular 22,4mm wide-angle lens. It will be much easier for owners of cropped cameras to use the standard kit lens with autofocus and all the delights of automation for a wide angle 18 mm
It seems you forgot 18 times 1.6 (which equals 28.8).
And 28.8 and 22.4 mm are far from the same (87.7 ° versus 73.5 °).
Confused in places. 73.5 ° vs 87.7 °
The difference is certainly not striking, but still 14 ° is not 1..2 °
I understand that 14mm and 18mm are different things, but I think that in this case the game is not worth the candle.
If this lens is much cheaper than lenses of class 11-18, etc., then it is even worth it. 14 mm even on a crop is very, very wide, and plus the aperture ...
Arkady, how did you focus on the 350d camera without a live view?
As usual - by eye and using focus bracketing with focusing steps https://radojuva.com.ua/2013/04/focus-bkt/
Through JVI, it's common. When I really needed it, I used this - https://radojuva.com.ua/2013/04/focus-bkt/
Visually very similar to a small copy of the Nikkor 14-24 f / 2,8.
I would like to compare Samyang 85 / 1.4 Nikon F with the original Nikkor 85 / 1.4g and 85 / 1.8g ...
And you wouldn’t be bothered by the full-frame Canon :-)
Good full-frame wide-angle lenses with unclouded price tags are few. I have a Nikkor 20 / 2.8D. Everyone likes it, only the D90 focuses it uncertainly at medium distances, everything is OK at close range. But the distortion is much less than that of a whale! So the whale is a bad shirik!
Can you help me with full frame Canon - https://radojuva.com.ua/2013/07/paradise-circus/
Good day!
I have such a handsome man called Samyang. On the Nikon D5100 crop.
And yet it is a little incorrect to compare it with the whale 18-55. In any case, the quality is higher, sharpness, etc. There is only one "drawback" - it's a fix. My copy is with a chip, so there is an automatic exposure and confirmation of sharpness (the ring turns green). Initially I took it for landscapes, so I shot at infinity (I did not find a flight). Then he began to shoot in rooms where you need to cover a large volume (went on excursions - halls of palaces, for example). Thanks to the aperture, it turns out very well. Of the shortcomings - chromatite, it can be seen even on the crop. It is corrected by easily known methods. The focusing ring is very smooth, too smooth. Sometimes it is not clear - sharply or even twist. But, as it turned out, setting the approximate distance gives sharp images, apparently due to the large depth of field.
Sample photos:
http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alfik24/album/352012/
http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alfik24/album/348996/
except 2-3 all made on Samyang 14mm f / 2.8
http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/alfik24/album/288096/
test photo on the day of purchase of this lens, there was no processing.
My opinion is a must have, and even on a crop.
Nikon and Canon have a slightly different crop - https://radojuva.com.ua/2013/06/aps-c-sensor-nikon-canon-size/
Yes, I remember that, 1,5 versus 1,6. The difference, I think, is small.
I also thought about buying a clone of this lens from Samyang, but changed my mind at the last moment. The first thing that repelled was that there was no way to protect the lens with a filter. The second - on the crop it is just wide, and I wanted super wide. As a result, I bought a used Tokina 12-24 f / 4 for the price of a new 14mm samyang.
Quote: "Although this lens does not have auto focus, it is not an old lens."
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That is, according to the author, all old lenses are non-autofocus?
Quote: "But there is no depth of field scale on the lens, it is strange that the creators did not put such a useful thing for a manual lens on the Bower 2.8 / 14 body."
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With such a viewing angle, this lens does not need a depth-of-field scale - the lens designers were well aware of this and did not poke this scale onto the body.
Quote: “Moreover, 2 Low Dispersion (ED) elements and two aspherical elements (AS) are used. And all this is covered by UMC enlightenment. ”
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How does the author know that the UMC coating is applied to the surface of ALL (!) Optical elements, and not to some of them?
Quote: “Small MDF can achieve bokeh effect”
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The bokeh effect is the blurring of the background and the drawing of point light sources in the out-of-focus area. Any lens has boke and it does not depend on MDF.
Quote: “I do not recommend this Bower 2.8 / 14 for use on Canon crop cameras. The crop factor turns the Bower 2.8 / 14 into a regular 22,4mm wide-angle lens. It will be much easier for owners of cropped cameras to use for a wide angle 18 mm (EGF 28,8 mm) "
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Is it okay that with an EGF of 22,4 mm the aperture of this lens is 2.8, and that of a kit lens of 18 mm is only 3.5? So even on a cropped camera it makes sense to use this lens as a fast wide-angle lens. Moreover, he has a good MDF 28 cm.
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SUMMARY: The author of the review is an amateur, does not know the obvious things, but teaches others.
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This clarification was specially written for people who do not know this fact.
In fact, there is no scale. For example, the ikon 14mm f / 2.8D ED AF Nikkor Lens has such a scale, I do not think that the creators of Nikon did not have the mind not to apply. I think this is your nit-picking.
Corrected. Thank you for your attention.
Usually it’s not customary to talk about bokeh for ultra-wide-angle lenses. In the review, I still highlighted the fact that with this lens you can achieve a pronounced bokeh effect.
This column is in the “personal experience” section, which implies exactly my subjective thoughts about the lens. In reality, a wide-angle rarely needs an open aperture, given that the difference between F / 3.5 and F / 2.8 is less than a stop, I really do not recommend this lens for use on cropped cameras.
Please note that I am not teaching anyone, this is just my review of the lens.
In any case, thanks for the adjustments and bringing the review to a better view.
Boris Badenov, I do not understand why you are attacking Arkady so zealously? Arkady spends his time and effort writing articles and I think that this is only worthy of gratitude and praise. He owes nothing to any of us. And even if there are sometimes inaccuracies in his articles, I believe that it is much more effective to write about it correctly, and not to attack. It's always easy to criticize. But helping is another matter.
Many thanks to Arkady for Radozhiva :)
Boris does not need to waste your precious time on Mr. Stampoval — he is neither an amateur nor even a layman — he just makes money by extolling some things from the world of photography and “banya” others — depending on who pays more. he uses other popular resources that have authority in the world of photography, he himself cannot test anything, for this you need to have money and specialists, and he is just a loser photographer, and that says it all !!!
Well, I can say with full confidence that no one gives me a penny for reviews in order to humiliate some and / or elevate others :) think up the rest yourself :)
Three years later, I want to support you. In the famous Sermon on the Mount, it was clearly stated in which cases it is not worth throwing beads :) Yes, there may be inaccuracies or understatements, the information may be incomplete and may not be entirely correct somewhere. The conclusions of any author are by definition subjective. Therefore, first of all, you always have to think with your own head, analyze, compare, understand .. Education is not a set of knowledge in the head, but, IMHO, the ability to learn.
I sold this lens. On a full frame, I have a demand of 24 mm. It's a pity, but what to do. Contrary to the opinion of the majority, this lens was in demand for me precisely on the crop. If I had a Negro boy as a servant who would carry a photo backpack after me, I would leave the lens - on FF such a super wide angle is simply gorgeous
Now this lens has released a device for installing filters
some inadequate ran into the comments
It would be interesting to see a review of the Samyang 8mm fisheye lens. In my opinion, a very good fish for little money.
Lens bomb, took for Nikon with a red ring, Nor any flights. no flights. Nikon 5200 has a rangefinder function. caught 0 in the plug everything from socks to the moon all in focus.
Hello! Tell me where to buy the Bower 85mm f / 1.4 Nikon!?
Sorry !!!!!!!!! Bower 14mm f2.8
It would be amusing in the future to evaluate the review of the correct version for Nikon of the most recent modification of this 14 / 2.8. This is a full-frame super wide, which means that you need to test on the FF camera. And preferably on a more modern landscape FF (800, 810)
I have in the arsenal of D810 and 24-70 2.8G without a stub and thought about over-wide, this (already with a red ring) prompted the most budget option, cheap and cheerful. I would like more information
And how is he with HA?
Good health to everyone! Special thanks to Arkady for the site! Help (tell me) Why, when I use 14mm f / 2.8, with the chip I can never achieve confirmation of focusing on green light or sound. I will put A, S, P, but there is no confirmation, no matter how I try. Maybe I made a mistake in the settings , tell me. Thank you. Vladimir
Why do you need confirmation? If you use this lens for landscapes, its giant depth of field makes focusing unnecessary. Set the focusing distance 1,2-1,3 meters on the lens and already at aperture 5,6 you will have a depth of field from 0,7 meters to infinity, and already at 11 - the depth of field will start from 40 cm.
Thank you very much, Andrey !!! The other day I checked everything on your advice and ... Bomb! Virtually no need to twist anything, just press the trigger. The landscapes are cool. The glass is created for them. Why take AF when the manual is behind the eyes. Andrey! Successful photos, always.
Not at all Vladimir, I was glad to help))) And good pictures to you. And ... as they say - may the luminosity be with you)))
Oleg, the flight of infinity on this lens will be for all brands except Nikon. This is due to Nikon's larger working length. For Canon, Sony and other brands, you can easily adjust the infinity yourself.
I have a Nikon, and he is flying.
Tell me, but this lens is for shooting architecture.
If you shoot in a jeep, it will not work, it has a heterogeneous distortion, which is also called "mustache". If you shoot in RAW, then Lr or ACR converters have a profile for this lens and the "mustache" will be removed.
In most cases, you will not be able to shoot buildings (structures) so that your lens is positioned strictly horizontally, so the corners will be obstructed. You can then tinker with the ACR with the corresponding distortions. But ideally, for shooting architecture, tilt / shft lenses are needed, for example this one: http://samyang.ru/obektivy/nikon/samyang_t_s_24mm_f_3_5_ed_as_umc_nikon_f/ - the price tag will not cause a heart attack.
If you still want to check the heart, then look at the cost of Nikkor PC-E lenses
Perhaps I will replace the first sentence with “in most cases you will not be able to choose the point of view so as not to fill up the corners”
I shot in St. Petersburg, there were no problems with the horizon, I didn't have to edit the horizon in any photo. More problems are brought by the narrow DD of the D700 matrix and the desire of super-wideness to drive shadows to the left corner, and light to the right.
In the secondary market, for a completely cheap price, the new Samyang 12mm f / 2.8 ED AS NCS Fish-eye AE Nikon F. was bought
I liked everything, I shot wonderful shots and such pictures can only be produced by a similar shirik with its features. Since the background with its bokeh is on our side, each frame must be automatically shot with a 5,6 or 8 aperture lens, and then the sharpness immediately increases. You can shoot without fear of getting out of focus - everything is sharp from 1,50 to infinity. The flaw is purely constructive, but this is a common occurrence when you take a third-party optics - everything is always good with your own: when you set the lens all the way and then click the locking mechanism, I observed that when I pressed the shutter, the shutter did not work and only after pressing the lens lock button , with its subsequent turn in the direction of unscrewing literally by 1mm, everything worked and beautiful pictures were obtained. So I shoot. Due to the fact that the lens twists tightly, especially at the end, then when shooting, even if it is not completely fixed, it will not fall off and everything will be fine. Yes, the camera was used for shooting - Nikon 610
I read a lot of your posts, thank you for your work. I got answers to many questions.