Canon EF14mm F/2.8 II L Lens

[Digiphilic]

Hi everyone,

Could someone please tell me if they have this lens and their experience with it?
I am curious how do you use ND filters on this due to the glass bulging outwards.

Thanks for sharing your views.

[unistudent1962]

I haven't had any personal experience with this lens.
Don't know if this helps or not.
"A rear gelatin filter holder is provided. These filters are required to be cut to size and installed with the lens dismounted. Circular polarizer filters cannot be used."
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/reviews/canon-ef-14mm-f-2.8-l-ii-usm-lens-review.aspx

[DAdeGroot]

I haven't got one, but believe it has a rear gelatin filter holder. (i.e. same sort of filter material you use on flashes) - you cut them to size and insert them to the square folder over the rear element.

There is no circ. polariser for this lens but the ND filters can be used in the rear as above.

[pollen]

You can use 3rd party filter holders, but it will vignette significantly due to its wide FOV

It has a gelatin filter holder at the back, yes

The lens itself is decent, but very overpriced. The Nikon 14-24 has comparable IQ, yet is cheaper and has 15-24mm

My dislike with the lens is that it exhibits some strange field curvature sometimes, and the corners are often OOF if you are not careful

[Digiphilic]

Thanks for all the comments.

After reading a lot of reviews and talking to a pro, I am looking forward to getting this 14mm lens. I believe the 14mm and 24-70mm will be a good combo on the 5D for my upcoming trip to Milford track hike, NZ.

I have only a short time to learn and get used to this 14mm, it's a difficult lens to get the composition right. Any tips on how you have been using it would be most appreciated. Thanks.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to everyone. :xmas31:

[Xenedis]

my upcoming trip to Milford track hike, NZ.


Just as a matter of curiosity, when is your trip?



I have only a short time to learn and get used to this 14mm, it's a difficult lens to get the composition right. Any tips on how you have been using it would be most appreciated. Thanks.


The rules of composition are no different.

What is different is that a 14mm rectilinear lens can see a hell of a lot of the scene. Watch out for tripod legs, feet, camera bags and pretty much anything else you don't want in the scene.

One feature an ultra-wide lens offers is the ability to get very close to a subject and make it appear larger than life; the perspective distortion offered by a short focal length at a short distance can make a subject jump out of the scene.

I often do this with boulders in seascape shots.

[Steve Axford]

I have the lens and I like it. But, it is not an easy lens to use. For a start, you have to keep the lens very level or you will get wild distortions of vertical/horizontal lines. Second, the lens does not seem to focus in a flat plane but more like the surface of a sphere. This becomes noticeable at very close distances which the lens is capable of focusing at. I live without filters for this lens - actually, for most lenses.

[pollen]

Steve thank you I thought I was going crazy. The field curvature was really driving me crazy, I thought it was something wrong with my copy. I tested one of Canon's display models and it also exhibited similar behaviour.

This is a demonstration of how where you focus wildly affects the focus of the edges, even stopped down at f/9

Note the 2 photos below were at identical apertures, but focus was different.
Both were at f/9 - you would think f/9 and 14mm would give you infinite DOF. No.

1
http://dawei.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v3/p1054166932-3.jpg

2
http://dawei.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v8/p985355827-3.jpg

100% crops from the areas I have labelled are shown below

1
http://dawei.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v3/p716771100-3.jpg

2
http://dawei.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v1/p608218975-3.jpg

[Steve Axford]

That's interesting. Those photos would indicate that the dof is much greater at the centre than at the edges. I don't know if that makes sense optically, but it does fit with my experience. I may have to use focus stacking for some shots inside a rainforest, even when I use f16. That is a bit weird. Still, it is a great lens and worth the effort.

[pollen]

Yeah it seems strange doesn't it. My experience has been that if I manually focus at the edges, then the whole photo is sharp. Or even AF at the edges is better than randomly AF'ing somewhere in the centre.