Aliz Kovacs-Zoldi shares her experience using the fully manual Pergear 100mm F/2.8 2x Macro lens
On my photo walks my eyes jump from the overall view to small details all the time. A solitary flower popping its head through a brick wall or the texture that frost leaves on otherwise mundane surfaces. The overlooked little nooks and crannies of the world. I believe the best gear is what you have with you, so I’ve captured these dainty scenes with whichever lens I’ve had on my camera. Ranging from standard primes to occasionally a telephoto with a macro switch. The results were nice, but not quite the same as what you can achieve with a dedicated macro lens. So naturally, when I had the opportunity to test Pergear’s new 100mm F2.8 2X Macro lens, I was thrilled.
Pergear 100mm F2.8 2X Macro – At a glance:
- Price: $319/£267
- Macro lens for full frame cameras
- Manual focus and aperture control
- 2:1 magnification
- Min. focusing distance: 0.30m
- Working distance: 0.11m
- Mount: Sony-E, Canon RF, Nikon Z, Canon EF, Leica L
- Filter thread: 67mm
- Pergear.com
When you shoot macro photography the difference between a regular lens and a true macro lens is that the latter has a 1:1 magnification, meaning that your subject is captured true to life size on your screen. Some lenses offer even more like the Pergear 100mm F2.8 2X, the 2X designation means that the lens can focus on a subject area as small as 18 x 12mm of your 24 x 36mm full frame sensor and can magnify your subject twice-life sized.
Like other lenses from Pergear the 100mm f2.8 2X is a manual focus only lens. This is not a major issue as you would likely used manual focusing for precise adjustments, as AF tends to struggle with macro subjects. Before you start shooting you need to tell your camera what lens you are working with, to do this on Nikon, open the shooting menu and under “Non-CPU lens data” the lens’ focal distance and maximum aperture.
The aperture is also set manually at the ring closer to you. There are no electronics involved so focal-length and aperture information won’t be registered in the EXIF data. This is not unusual for budget lenses, and at only £266 the Pergear’s is one of the cheapest dedicated macro lens out there with a 2x magnification. It has a 0.11m working distance at 2X magnification, so you will need to get really close. This short distance can be problematic if you are planning to photograph skittish subjects like insects.
All that said if you have never used a dedicated macro lens before, let alone a 2x magnification lens, I tell you now you will be oohing and ahhing at every shot you take. At 2x magnification everything appears twice life-sized, and it reminded me of scenes from The Secret World of Arriety, I imagined tiny people taking shelter under the leaves and avoiding sharp blades of ice as they would make their way across the minuscule landscape.
During the course of a few weeks, I took the lens with me on various walks and used it for abstract macro shots, nature close ups, product photography and even took some portraits too. My favourite place to test was in the Cambridge University Botanical Garden. I planned my visit after a particularly cold night hoping to capture some frosty leaves in the morning light and to visit the greenhouse in search of some exotic flowers. As I expected, the gardens and the lens didn’t disappoint.
Check the detailed review HERE.
