How Good Is This Ridiculously Cheap 35mm f/1.4 Lens?

A 35mm lens with a wide maximum aperture is one of the most useful and versatile options a photographer can have in their bag, but such lenses can often be quite expensive, sometimes running north of $2,000. At $129, you probably do not expect much out of the dirt-cheap Pergear 35mm f/1.4 lens, but you might be surprised at the results it can produce. This excellent video review takes a look at the performance and image quality you can expect from this affordable lens. 

Coming to you from Hyun Ralph Jeong, this great video review takes a look at the Pergear 35mm f/1.4 lens for Sony E, Leica L, Nikon Z, and Canon RF mounts. At just $129, this lens is about as cheap as it gets, especially for full frame cameras, but it produces surprisingly impressive results, with good sharpness, smooth bokeh (aided by a 10-blade diaphragm), low levels of distortion and vignetting, and excellent resistance to flares. Perhaps the one downside is the lack of autofocus, but with the focus aids of modern digital cameras, manually focusing is not as much of a challenge as it used to be, and as long as you are not shooting fast action, it likely won't be a big issue. Check out the video above for Jeong's full thoughts on the lens. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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Aaaaand it's on my Amazon basket lol I use mostly this sort of lens, specially things like the Helios 44 58mm lens, because with mirrorless cameras, focusing these lenses became so easy, that for non professional work, they are amazing.