The Pilot Prera is most commonly found in the clear demonstrator version at most U.S. retailers, and that had always put me off from buying this pen. Im also not a particularly big fan of the clear version, and at $56.00 at many online pen retailers, I find this pen is way overpriced. The heart and soul of a pen are the nib and feed, and the Prera has the same as nib and feed that come on the 78G, the Metropolitan, and the Penmanship. All of those pens retail for well under $20.00. I dont see anything in the Prera to justify more than double the price of the Metropolitan. So until recently, I never gave this pen a serious look.
Then I saw that Jet Pens not only had the Prera in solid colors not normally available to the U.S. market, but the price was a much more reasonable $32.50. I bought one in the brown finish with a medium nib. Mine came with a black cartridge and a CON-50 converter.
Then I saw that Jet Pens not only had the Prera in solid colors not normally available to the U.S. market, but the price was a much more reasonable $32.50. I bought one in the brown finish with a medium nib. Mine came with a black cartridge and a CON-50 converter.
The pen itself is made of a nice sturdy plastic. The plastic feels nicer than the plastic of the 78G or the plastic section of the Metropolitan. The Prera has two more advantages over its less costly cousins. First, the section is a more comfortable diameter, closer to what one would find on a Pelikan M200. Second, the slip on cap is really nice. It glides into place with a very satisfying and secure click. It feels a lot nicer than the slip cap on the Metropolitan.
The pen is quite small when capped easily fitting into any shirt pocket or pants pocket. Its so small that, like the Kaweco Sport, it really has to be posted in order to be an effective writer. Aided by the metal ring on the back of the barrel, the cap posts securely. Once posted, the pen is almost as long as a Pelikan M200 posted, and is longer than an un-posted Lamy 2000.
The pen is quite small when capped easily fitting into any shirt pocket or pants pocket. Its so small that, like the Kaweco Sport, it really has to be posted in order to be an effective writer. Aided by the metal ring on the back of the barrel, the cap posts securely. Once posted, the pen is almost as long as a Pelikan M200 posted, and is longer than an un-posted Lamy 2000.
The barrel unscrews to reveal the CON-50 converter. I really like this converter. This is one feature where the Prera excels over other small pens like the Kaweco Sport. The Kaweco Sport truly lacks a meaningful working converter. Even the newest push/pull converter available from Kaweco doesnt work all that well forcing the user of the Kaweco to use cartridges or fashion some other work-around solution for filling the pen. Pilots CON-50 converter, while not having a massive ink capacity (~.4ml), is generous enough to mean that, at least for my purposes, I get about a week of use out of this pen before needing a refill. The wide mouth of Pilots converter make it easy to rinse it out under a running faucet. A bulb syringe can be used to flush the section. I dont think Ive ever spent more than four or five minutes flushing this pen out, if that.
Now, to the heart and soul of the pen: the nib and feed. This is where things get slightly disappointing. The feed on this pen isnt particularly generous. My higher end pens, Pelikan M200s and a Lamy 2000, have much more generous feeds that lay down a nice wet line. The Prera has a somewhat stingy feed. Its not super dry, but you will never get a juicy line out of this pen. This pen tends to run best with wetter inks. Think Aurora, Waterman, Diamine, or Iroshizuku over Pelikan, Montblanc, or Parker Quink. Yes, I have run those dryer inks in this pen successfully, but I find the wetter inks more satisfying.
The nib itself had a little problem when the pen arrived. It had a slight case of babys bottom causing the occasional hard start, and the tipping was unevenly ground. I lived with this for quite a while before deciding to work the nib myself. I would never do this with a better quality nib, but because the cost of having a professional tune and grind a nib costs more than the pen itself, I decided I would do the work myself. The results were quite good. No more hard starts, and the nib writes smoothly with a touch of feedback. Even with the nib writing properly its not particularly inspiring. Its hard as a nail, which I actually find to be an advantage on rougher office copy paper, and simply utilitarian. It gets the job done without any pizazz.
Pilots medium nib here is very fine. I also have a 78G in medium, and my wife has a Metropolitan in medium, and all of them exhibit the same very fine line width that I would rate somewhere between an western fine and extra fine. I cant imagine how narrow the fine nib must write. If youre used to western medium nibs, you will find this medium surprisingly narrow. The very narrow nib combined with the somewhat dry feed actually make this a good pen for jotting notes on just about any paper. The pen wont drench cheap office copy paper, and it writes wet enough that your ink still looks decent on Rhodia.
The nib itself had a little problem when the pen arrived. It had a slight case of babys bottom causing the occasional hard start, and the tipping was unevenly ground. I lived with this for quite a while before deciding to work the nib myself. I would never do this with a better quality nib, but because the cost of having a professional tune and grind a nib costs more than the pen itself, I decided I would do the work myself. The results were quite good. No more hard starts, and the nib writes smoothly with a touch of feedback. Even with the nib writing properly its not particularly inspiring. Its hard as a nail, which I actually find to be an advantage on rougher office copy paper, and simply utilitarian. It gets the job done without any pizazz.
Pilots medium nib here is very fine. I also have a 78G in medium, and my wife has a Metropolitan in medium, and all of them exhibit the same very fine line width that I would rate somewhere between an western fine and extra fine. I cant imagine how narrow the fine nib must write. If youre used to western medium nibs, you will find this medium surprisingly narrow. The very narrow nib combined with the somewhat dry feed actually make this a good pen for jotting notes on just about any paper. The pen wont drench cheap office copy paper, and it writes wet enough that your ink still looks decent on Rhodia.
Overall, I find this to be a very good pocket pen. I probably wont be using this pen for extended writing sessions, but for jotting notes or shorter writing sessions, this a good little pen. There isnt a lot available in the world of low-cost pocket pens, and the Prera fills that niche nicely. I would personally like a wetter feed and a nicer nib, but all things considered, the Prera is a good buy if you can find one at a lower price. If you want a small, well made pocket pen that has a fully functional converter, give the Pilot Prera a try.