Pro-Optic 14mm f/2.8 Aspherical Wide Angle Lens for Canon EOS Mount SLR Cameras

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Product Feature

• This fine 14 element lens features 2 ED, one hybrid aspherical, and one glass aspherical lens element.
• This wide angle lens also offers an impressive 114-degree field of view on full frame cameras and 92.5-degrees on APS-C cameras
• Manual Focus type, with Automatic Aperature
• Lens Hood included

Pro-Optic 14mm f/2.8 Aspherical Wide Angle Lens for Canon EOS Mount SLR Cameras Review

This is a superlative ultrawide for pure image quality, but be prepared to focus by Live View or hyperfocal techniques unless you equip a focus confirmation chip.

First things first: if you're on a crop camera (10D-60D, 7D, Rebels), this is not an ultrawide. There are four or five ultrawide zooms that wind out to 8mm or 10mm and will give a much stronger sense of perspective, along with AF. I'd buy a 10-22/3.5-4.5 and wouldn't think twice about it. The extra stop at 14mm isn't worth the handling issues and loss of versatility.

Where this lens shines is on a full-frame body. Simply, at this price and focal, there's no competition for across-the-frame sharpness.

A few comments:

* This lens is sold under a half-dozen brand names. The cheapest I could find was sold by Adorama. There was an older, inferior non-UMC version of this lens that was tested by a few reviewers. They're almost nonexistent on the used market. All new copies from any brand will be UMC.

* It's a somewhat wide and heavy lens. Not unduly so, but I find the ledge behind the hood tends to get stuck on the lens pockets in my Domke camera bag. You have to carry the top cap with you.

* There are no filters, nor ways to protect the front element. The only filter you'd really want at this focal would be a neutral density (ND) or graduated ND filter; polarizers will give inconsistent results across the frame. Given the extent to which you can beat on a file in Photoshop these days, I didn't find this loss objectionable.

* Optics are extraordinary. It's fairly sharp, edge to edge, at f/2.8. It's bitingly sharp everywhere by f/5.6. This lens ties the Zeiss 15/2.8 and Nikon 14-24/2.8 for the best edge performance of any full-frame ultrawide lens for any mount. Flare is present, but not overwhelming. Contrast is average for a prime. For the price and the focal, there isn't anything that comes close. Given a choice between this and Canon's 14/2.8 II, on pure performance, I'd choose this.

* Barrel distortion is significant and you will notice it with straight lines that extend the length of the frame. It's complex and not easily removed without a custom profile. Fortunately, two such profiles exist for Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and Lightroom. PT Lens is also capable of generating perfect corrections. I've linked the profiles in a comment.

* Build quality is very good. Nothing objectionable, very solid. The aperture ring feels cheapish but adequate. The focus ring is extremely smooth, though the focus throw is about twice as long as it needs to be. To make small adjustments, you're often twisting it a quarter-turn or more. The distance scale on my copy was not accurate at all.

* Quality control is variable, but less than with more complex optical designs. My first copy had slight softness in one corner that merely dropped it to a level comparable to Canon's better L zooms.

All that said, I'm not completely sold on this lens as shipped. I miss autofocus. A lot. Depth of field at f/2.8 for close subjects is too thin to use hyperfocal techniques on my 5D II. I can get away with it at f/5.6 or f/8, but there's no way to verify focus through the viewfinder. A scene grossly out of focus manifests as a slight softness. A scene that appears sharp probably still isn't in focus, not really.

The distance scale is useless as shipped; you need to either pull the lens apart and reset it, shim the back, or draw your own marks for various distances after testing the lens out. The alternative is to use Live View to focus. The process is like so: compose through the VF, start Live View, magnify 10X, fiddle around for five or ten seconds, close Live View, reset your composition because you moved, and then take the picture. Fine for a landscape when you've got all the time in the world, but a total nonstarter for moving subjects.

The probable solution to this is to buy a focus confirmation chip. Or to buy the Nikon version and then a Canon EOS adapter with a confirmation chip integrated (which would broaden your market if you ever resold the lens). I can't vouch for how well those confirmation chips work, but that would at least stop you from being totally reliant on Live View for critical focus.

My take, then, is that this is not the best lens for high-stress situations. Professional event shooters would fare better with a 16-35/2.8L, Tokina's 16-28/2.8, or Canon's own 14/2.8L. But if you're willing to devote the extra moments to proper setup, the results from this Rokinon are as good as it gets.

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