Bower is also sold as Rokinon (US) or Samyang (EU). We call them the 'Samyang lottery' due to their poor quality control. Many lenses are decentred, but the 'good' ones are well suitable! Therefore I only use their premium line, called Rokinon SP and Samyang XP which has a better quality control. So I can only compare the Brightin 14/2.8 against the Samyang XP 14/2.4 and I use them only for astro photography (mostly polar light): The Samyang is more heavy, more expensive, has slightly less coma and less vignette (and is slightly faster). The Pergear/7Artisan/Brightin 14/2.8 is lighter, cheaper (!), has slightly more coma (but I would still call it low), and a strong vignette. I tested several Pergear and 7Artisan 14/2.8 lenses and they have a similar quality control as the Samyang XP serie. That means most lenses are well centered. The Brightin Star/7Artisan/Pergear 14/2.8 seems to have problems with flares from strong light sources.
I probably got a bit lucky with my Bower. It's not a perfect lens by any stretch but it is good and consistent. Yes, I recall it also being sold as Rokinon and Samyang. Same exact lens basically. Glad I got a decent one - I had really poor luck with a Sigma 20 mm f/1.8 many years ago, maybe around 2004 or so. That Siggy was severely decentered. Center and one side in focus, other side way out. If you nailed focus on the one side, the rest was way out. A trip to Sigma for repair netted NO change.
Indeed. I had a Rokinon 14/2.8 for EF, which was a good copy that I got after returning the first one. That's only one of two lenses that I've returned for a better copy (the other being the RF 14/1.4L VCM).
The same lens (same optical formula, same MTF curves) is also sold under the Cheecar brand, in addition to Pergear, 7Artisans, and now Brightin Star.
I don’t understand the marketing under so many different names. You would think it would lower the appeal.
I'm a bit shocked about your having to return an RF 14mm f/1,4 for, I presume, optical reasons.
The copy that I returned was not really a bad copy, but the one that I kept was slightly better. The reason that I bought a second copy was that the astigmatism on the first (from B&H) was worse than I saw in other posted images, and upon reviewing my images in more detail, the astigmatism was worse in the upper left corner compared to the upper right. Test images shown here, including some ISO 12233-type chart crops.I'm a bit shocked about your having to return an RF 14mm f/1,4 for, I presume, optical reasons.
Anyway, thanks for the warning, I won't buy mine just before my summer vacation as I intended to do.
I agree! I don't understand how the 'lens business' works in China. What I see is that 'Pergear' is a distributor of several brands (Viltrox, TTArtisan and 7Artisans etc.), but the brands/manufacturers are looking independent to me (or am I wrong?).
Of those, I've only heard of Makita. I have a nice Makita circular saw, and I once used a Makita reciprocating saw for purposes very far afield from what the manufacturer intended (you probably don't want to know specifics, given that it relates to my forum username).
“No-no, they just landed crappy but cheap lens in terms of price and IQ too. We will eat it because it’s cheap”. I look every time at those Leicamen from a rival campus, how they bought their expensive Leica M bodies and then they are excited about those cheap and crappy commies lenses.
