Canon 14mm f/2.8 L II

Canon 14mm f/2.8 L II
© 2007 KenRockwell.com

Canon 14mm f/2.8 L II. enlarge. I'd order it from Adorama, B&H Photo-Video, J&R or Ritz. It's an unusual lens, so its rarely in stock. It helps me keep adding to this site when you get yours from these links, too, thanks!

NEW: How to Use Ultrawide Lenses 11 August 2008

August 20th 2007 (updates scheduled for late October 2008)

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The new 14mm II is a little bigger and 4 oz. (110g) heavier than the original 14mm f/2.8 L. This new one has a silver "II" on the identity ring after the red "L," and instead of saying "Ultrasonic" in red on the ring, the new II version says "USM" in silver on the ring and says "Ultrasonic" in red on the barrel to the right of the distance scale.

I own a 14mm f/2.8 L (original version), which I bought brand new six months before this one was announced. My only complaints about the original are that it's not that sharp away from the center, so I always shoot it at f/11, and that it has two strong amber ghost images opposite the sun.

This new II is significantly sharper away from the center, and also rectifies the strong lateral color fringing of the first 14mm L. This new II version also fixes the amber ghosts, and replaces them with a much dimmer rainbow laser-beam effect opposite the sun. I often shoot 14mm lenses with the sun in a top corner, and these ghosts occupy a lower corner.

The new Canon 14mm is designed for full frame, especially the high-resolution 1Ds Mk III.

Canon claims better dust and water resistance and a new plastic cap held in place with a clamp.

Canon announced this new 14mm f/2.8 lens on August 20th, 2007, but oddly only as a tag-along at the bottom of the 1Ds Mk III press release. Why do lenses get the butt-treatment? This is the first new 14mm lens since the last one was introduced in December 1991! This makes me laugh, since personally this 14mm is the most interesting product announced by Canon in years.

EF: Electronic Focus. All modern Canon lenses focus with a motor in the lens.

L: Expensive as L. No exact meaning other than this being Canon's lingo for lenses with extra durability and weather sealing. L lenses work on all cameras including film and full-frame digital. Canon puts a red band around the front of these. See also Canon L Lenses.

Focal Length: 14mm. On film and full-frame it's insanely wide and works wonders. Used on a 1.3x camera it gives an angle of view similar to what an 18mm lens would give on a 35mm film camera. On a 1.6x camera it gives an angle of view similar to what a 23mm lens would give on a 35mm film camera. See also Crop Factor.

Optics: 14 elements in 11 groups, including two glass molded aspherical elements and two of UD glass. It uses lead-free glass, which means Canon isn't polluting Japan with lead in the dust created in shaping and polishing. (The older 1991-2006 lens has 13 elements in 10 groups, including an aspherical.)

Diaphragm: Canon claims rounded, no mention of blades, stopping down to f/22. My original version has 6 straight blades.

Close Focus: 8" (0.2m), close enough to get your head cut off in an airplane propeller. My original 14mm f/2.8 L is marked to 9.8" or 0.25m.

Front Cap: Snap-on plastic. My original 14mm f/2.8L has a wonderful solid aluminum slip-on cap, which can slip off just as easily.

Size: 3.15" around by 3.7 " long. (80 x 94mm) My older Canon 14mm f//2.8 L USM is 3.034" around by 3.4" long (77.05 x 87mm), so the new 14mm is bigger. I measure length as extension from flange; I'm unsure how Canon measures the new 14mm.

Weight: 22.75 ounces (645g). My older Canon 14mm f//2.8 L USM weighs 18.98 oz (538.0g), telling us that the new 14mm is even bigger and 4 oz (110g) heavier than the old one, which is already huge.

Price: 2008: $2,050 USA. 2007: $2,199, $400 more than I paid for my previous 14mm f/2.8 L.

The original 14mm f/2.8 L is excellent, with my biggest complaint being less sharpness in the corners. Canon claims to have improved this, so bring it on!

The new 14mm L II is still soft in the corners. Optimum aperture is f/11. It's nowhere near as sharp as the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 AF-S in the corners ar wide apertures. The 14mm L II

There are some blue-yellow lateral color fringes in a 5D. Canon doesn't correct this in-camera as do the second-generation Nikons.

It's got some minor barrel distortion. It's far, far less than the Nikon 14mm f/2.8 or 14-24mm f/2.8, and what little the Canon 14mm f/2.8 L II has is simple and easy to correct in Photoshop CS2's Lens Distortion FIlter with a value of about +1.2.

The published MTF is excellent, far sharper in the corners than my original Canon 14mm f/2.8. It's about the same as Nikon's 14mm f/2.8 AF. Nikon's new 14-24mm f/2.8 zoom is rated far better than any of these other three fixed 14mm lenses.

Of course these MTFs are dreams, which mean they are calculated, not measured from real lenses. Nothing is said if the published graphs are monochromatic, polychromatic, or integrated over white light, so they mean very little for comparison to real samples of lenses. Don't lose sleep over any of this.

Normal people have no use for ultra-wide lenses. Ultra-wide lenses are the most difficult of lenses to use because composition varies wildly just by moving your position a fraction of an inch.

The Canon 14mm is the widest lens available for full-frame, film, and 1.3x professional Canon cameras.

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