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Review on πŸ“· Pergear 25mm F1.8 Manual Focus Fixed Lens for Fujifilm Fuji Cameras - Superior Image Quality & Compatibility with X-Series Models (Silver) by Bobby Montoya

Revainrating 3 out of 5

ALMOST what I was looking for but not quite

First of all, the Pergear 25mm lens is a pretty good option for anyone new to photography or a new camera system looking for an inexpensive, compact, robust, sharp, mid-range lens that does you can throw in a bag. Always keep it strapped to the camera. If this is you, take one. BUT. It has some disappointing flaws that for some may be enough to ruin the experience. PROS: - so tiny! It is extremely pocket friendly and very discreet when installed. - Focus stays where you put it! That really shouldn't be a problem, but many of these cheap 25mm f1.8 lenses suffer from a very strange phenomenon where the plane of focus keeps drifting even after you've stopped rotating the focus ring. , as well as move abruptly when you slide the lens from front to back. I have encountered this issue with all lenses from 7artisans, Hengyijiya and other brands of similar design, and it results in very inaccurate focusing during operation and completely unpredictable pre- and zone-focusing experiences. - Sharpness in the center! it's at least as sharp as the 7a 25mm and much sharper than the Meike I was hoping for. Well-dampened rings and solid construction! The lens feels more premium than you'd expect at this price point, and my specimen's focus and aperture rings rotate smoothly and securely, with no wobble in the adjustment details. CONS: This lens is definitely not an f1. eight! Comparing my copy of this lens to my 7a 25mm, I noticed that the camera selects slower shutter speeds with Pergyre to get the same exposure. Just for testing, I tested it with a Fuji 23mm lens set at f1.8. both pictures were taken with ISO 200 and 1/500 second. Pergear's results were almost a point darker in the center and much darker in the corners due to vignetting. that brings me to.- vignetting! This is either a plus or a minus depending on your aesthetic preferences, but I included it here because it's so dramatically wide open that it almost crosses my personal threshold. It looks really amazing under certain circumstances, and when you press it down almost everything disappears, but it's still worth mentioning. - there is no hard stop at infinity! that was one of my two main problems with the Meike 25mm. The lens focus ring marking is the same as the ft/m marking instead of the infinity marking. and it is pointless to think of this mark only as infinity, because actual infinity is not even reached exactly at the infinity mark. REAL infinity appears to be just a hair to the left of the mark on my copy. only a big deal if you want to do pre- or zone-focusing accurately, but worth mentioning here too. - The tags on the device do not work! The foot markings seem accurate enough, but if you prefer to think in meters, the markings will let you down. You can see in the pictures that the 3 meter mark (about 9ft 10inches) is a little AFTER 10 feet and the 1.5 meter mark (about 4ft 11inches) is between 5 and 7 feet. Everything falls into place when you get closer than 1 meter, which is about where it should be, just past 3 feet. disappointing because even at this price point it seems easy to test and get right. All this to say that this is a compact, durable, fairly wide aperture manual lens with above-average sharpness for under $70. I'm hesitant to keep it because it doesn't meet all the requirements I was hoping for, but I still think it's a great offering for people who can live with its quirks.

Pros
  • πŸ‚ Wide Compatibility: Fuji X-A1 X-A10 X-A2 X-A3 A-AT X-M1 XM2 X-T1 X-T3 X-T10 X-T2 X - T20 X-T30 X-Pro1 X-Pro2 X-E1 X-E2 E-E2s X-E3.
Cons
  • Only available in black