by Anthony Gyzen and Sara Long
The Pergear 25mm f/1.8 all manual lens is available for multiple camera systems like Fujifilm, Olympus, Panasonic, and the one that I tested, Sony E-mount. This small lens is a good affordable companion to the lower-end Sony APS-C cameras.
Due to stay at home orders, my testing with this lens has been limited. I mostly used it to snap pictures on the trails between neighborhoods and on simple solo photo walks.
This lens has a 12-bladed aperture with a range of f/1.8-f/16. The aperture transition is declicked and smooth, which is ideal for video shooters who don’t need hard stops.
The minimum focus distance is .2 meters, or about 8 inches. The focus throw from minimum to infinity is short, which I find convenient in a manual only lens at this focal length. The aperture ring is more smooth than the focus ring, but it requires a little more force to move. I like that the focus ring uses a different style grip so that I don’t accidentally change aperture when I wanted to change focus.
Some things to note:
Shooting with a 25mm lens on an APS-C camera is equivalent to using a 37.5mm lens on a full frame sensor. It’s close enough to being a classic 35mm field of view.
If you’re not accustomed to manual focusing, your mirrorless camera probably has some handy features to assist, like focus peaking and focus magnification. Check your camera settings so that you can get accurate focus.
Without caps, this lens weighs about 7 ounces. Only measuring 1 and 1/4 inches from the mount, this lens doesn’t add much bulk to the small a6000 series camera.
The Pergear is extremely small and pocketable, and because of that convenience, I tend to take it out shooting more often than not. It’s one of the most affordable lenses for Sony E-mount, so I’m not too concerned with keeping it pristine. The metal exterior makes the lens feel more premium than the price would suggest, and it’s solid in the hand.
At times I was pleasantly surprised at how well this little budget lens performed, but sometimes I was puzzled by the occasional soft centers of the photos. Around f/1.8 to about 2.8, I noticed some vignetting.
The sharpness and contrast was adequate for what I was shooting, but it was definitely not something that I would use in a professional environment. I liked the color rendition, but that can vary greatly based on your personal camera and color profile settings.
Overall, it’s a decent performer for less than $70. Keep in mind that this is an ultra budget lens, so you should not expect to get image quality that is comparable to Sony, Zeiss, Sigma or other such lenses. But if you are looking for a budget manual APS-C lens, this might be one of your best options.