Pelikan M205 With Ef Nib Review With Many Pictures

December 13, 2010

I know that the Pelikan M205 was reviewed before. But this one has a EF nib and I took many photos to show its beauty. The photos are taken with a Canon EOS 500D with normal 18-55 mm lens in Aperture Priority mode. Please pardon my amateurish skills.

First thing is that I am not a pen collector and also not interested in starting an collection. Pens to me are functional tools. I just want more fun and varieties in my tools.

Some specifications about this particular Pelikan M205

Length = 126mm; width = 11.9 mm; weight = 13 gm; reservoir capacity = 1.4ml; Nib = EF stainless steel nib by Pelikan; trim = silver colour trim

First encounter

I saw this pen at a showcase at the windows of a store call "Artfriend" in Singapore's Ngee Ann city. It seems like they are clearing out Pelikan pens. This pen is going for only 77 USD. The downside is that I cannot choose the nib as this is the last one. It has an EF nib one it. I took a close inspection against bright light and found no scratches or aesthetic problems with the nib. The nib seems to be aligned properly. I have concerns with the fact that the nib says EF. I usually prefer an F size nib. When i write with a ink roller pen (my favourite is the Uni-ball Vision Elite) I use a 0.5mm nib. A closer visual inspection tells me that this is not exactly an EF nib. The nib seems wider than my Sailor Procolor F nib. So i decided that that Pelikan is rather pessimistic with its nib width and EF is probably what i wanted.

The colour of the pen is Black. I wanted to buy a pen that is a piston filler and fits well for my hand. It also has to look professional for work. Further, it cannot give a pretentious impression (like an Mont Blanc) and has to look humble and subtle (I'm young and about to enter into my first job anyway). I thought that the Black M205 pretty much fits the bill. The white and red M205s are too loud. My opinion is that the pen you use make a strong statement about yourself. It is part of your wardrobe, personality and individual branding. Apart from a nice shirt, tie and shoes, a pen can really give an impression and the kind of impression given depends largely on the looks and attributes of the pen.

Out of the box writing

I ink the pen with Aurora Blue colour ink. It is my favourite colour as it is an intense blue and i love its subtle violet hues. It looks like a "serious" blue. I have read negative reviews about its out of the box writing qualities and people usually raves about it getting worked by Mr. Richard Binder. I was completely surprised when its out-of-the-box writing qualities is nothing but a smooth nib. Don't get me wrong, its not the smoothest nib i tried before (my Pilot Prera has the smoothest nib, believe it or not), but its smooth with a little bit of feedback and would make most people very very satisfied. As predicted, the nib writes pretty wide for an EF nib and its more like my Pilot Prera M nib or my Platinum Preppy fine nib. It seems like Pelikan isn't very confident about the size of the package at the end of their pen and rated them rather small. To top it off, the nib has great flow and it is wet but not too wet. It starts instantly when i put the pen down for a good five minutes. Overall, I think that its a great quality nib that writes fantastically. For fans of flexy nibs, this nib is hard as a nail like the Lamy Safaris.

Handling of the pen

Then pen is rather small when it is capped. When you uncapped it, the size seems a lot bigger and like most medium size pens. The size of the M205 uncapped is as big as my Sailor Procolor (thus the Sailor 1911 too) and the Platinum Preppy. The width is pretty large that would fit most medium size to large size hands decently. For me, the pen width is more important than the length as I like only a certain kind of grip. I do understand that the pen length will affect its balance, but it usually can be solved by just posting the cap. Otherwise, its just aesthetic issues.

The pen feels pretty balance with my usual gripping stance. I usually grip my pens about 3 cm from the point of the nib touching the paper. Thats about where the cap barrel threads are. Although the pen is made of shiny plastic, it is not slippery and provides pretty good grip. The pen is nicely balanced unposted at my sweet spot. I like the ink window, it makes the pen looks interesting as different colour inks would look differently through the ink window and I don't care about its functional use though.

This is a piston filler pen and the piston mechanism works really really smooth. At first, i thought that the pen is broken as it doesn't feel like anything is moving, until i see it through the ink window. I tried a Mont Blanc 146 piston mechanism and that seems a bit more rough, requires more strength to move the piston and just feels like the piston is inside a pen that is too small for it. The M205 piston works really really smooth and just tells me one thing - superior German technology, engineering and precision.

I made a comparison with the Mont Blanc 146. Upon handling both, I can say that the quality of the craftsmanship, manufacture and finishing of the M205 is on par if not better than the Mont Blanc.

Finally

I highly recommend this pen to all who wants a good, reliable and understated pen. The pictures are below.

For some reasons, I cannot make the photos from my Flickr account to appear directly on the post. So here is the link to the pictures.

Link to photos.

Edited December 13, 2010 by zquek

December 13, 2010

I agree that it looks more like a fine. Thanks for the review!

December 13, 2010

Thank you for the excellent, in depth review. My, albeit limited, understanding is European and American manufactured nibs are a bit bigger, ie one size, than Easter, SEA, manufactured nibs. So an Western F is an Eastern Medium in line width. To solve my, I like a 0.5 mm line or thinner issue, I chose a Binderized XXF Waverly nib. IIRC it was $60.00 in steel, came pre adjusted and was a simple screw out and replace swap for my XF Pelikan nib. I now have an excellent writer, with a nib width I like. I commend you or your philosophy for attire in the work place. Not something I expect to see in the younger generation, but much appreciated none the less. Jim

December 26, 2010

I'm love with this pen, I'll order mine in white along with a clear demonstrator...

It looks really nice!

p.s. Thanks for the review.

January 11, 2011

Thanks for an excellent, well-written review. Very astute observations about understatement versus ostentation - this is where I often fall down! Beautiful looking pen, really made me want to buy one!