Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 Pancake Coming [CR3]

[Zlatko]

I would love to have a 40/2.8 pancake lens, as long as the AF is the quiet USM type.  A pancake lens is the perfect way to "shrink" a large DSLR like the 5D3 and make it more portable for trips and family photos.  This way you can carry a very high quality DSLR with a very useful focal length, but without the size & weight of a big lens.  A new 35/2 would be fantastic too as the old one has the noisy non-USM autofocus.

[wickidwombat]

Odd focal length. My only guess is APS-H, puts it at around 50mm. I seem to remember Canon saying they were done with the H sensor though.

I'm also curious about the speed. Maybe someone who knows more about lens design could comment on it. Is it harder to make a useable pancake with speeds greater then 2.8? I've been reading about micro 4/3rds lately and they all seem to complain about slow prime pancakes.

Either way it will be curious to see what happens with this. I was so close to getting a Pen E-P2 with a 17mm for a compact street shooter, but decided to wait and see what Canon does here instead.

i'm hoping it heralds anew APS-H camera

[Zlatko]

Odd focal length. My only guess is APS-H, puts it at around 50mm. I seem to remember Canon saying they were done with the H sensor though.

I'm also curious about the speed. Maybe someone who knows more about lens design could comment on it. Is it harder to make a useable pancake with speeds greater then 2.8?

On a full frame camera, 40mm is closer to a true normal lens than a 50mm.  A true normal would be 43mm.  A 35mm is a bit on the wide side of normal, and a 50mm is a bit on the telephoto side of normal.  The point of a pancake lens is its smallness.  It should be very, very small.  Pentax has an amazingly small pancake lens.  A faster aperture would make it bigger and likely compromise the whole "pancake" aspect of it.  Canon already offers a bunch of excellent (but big) fast primes, so a pancake is for when you want to carry something much lighter and don't need the speed.  That said, I would still love to see an updated 35mm f/2 with USM, and perhaps a high quality 50mm f/1.8 or f/2 with USM.

[coldcaption]

Good; Canon needs smaller gear! I started shooting film a few months ago and find that my Minolta X700 is far superior to my 30D and 50mm f/1.4 for the actual purpose of taking pictures. It's not in my way when I'm not shooting and it barely is when I am. Size isn't the only reason I like it more (ask me about focusing!), but it's a big reason. What's the use in having awesome gear if it's too cumbersome to facilitate shooting?

[clarkia]

perfect pocket lens if you don't want to carry around a zoom. i agree, a 2.0 would be nice but it would no longer be pancake-ish in design. those who say, "why wouldn't you just carry a 2.8 zoom instead" are missing the point - small, less intrusive (to the subject), lightweight and a good focal length. we'll see how it compares to the voightlander. could be a great street photo lens. carry this and an 85mm 1.8 for a nice street package.

[Drizzt321]

This is dumb. F/2 or faster for primes otherwise, WHATs THE POINT?! Just use good zooms.

Because it makes it really cheap. Although, they did manage to make the 50mm an f/1.8. But, I'm not sure it's considered a pancake.

[nikkito]

Hmmmmm pancakes (read it with homer's voice)


 

[EchoLocation]

i don't understand this at all. Why do I need a 40mm 2.8 when I can already buy a 35mm 1.8 for 1/3rd the price(as someone said earlier.)
Pancake or no pancake, the 35 1.8 isn't exactly big, especially on a 5D. This lens makes zero sense to me unless a mirrorless camera is coming with it. And even so, 40mm is kind of an odd focal length. I feel like anything from 24 to 35 would be more useful.

[Nassen0f]

Sounds like a nice walkaround lens realy, Specialy for that price.

Not all of us has the money for big bad zooms 

[BillyBean]

This is dumb. F/2 or faster for primes otherwise, WHATs THE POINT?! Just use good zooms.

I think the canon mirrorless will suprise us with a EF mount system with 1.3X crop factor. It will be not a low end entry level, but a mid-range camera like the fuji X-pro 1. This would make sense for them not to cut into the rebel sales or the G1X sales.

Fingers crossed that its a optical rangefinder style camera... Or has a VERY VERY good LED viewfinder. 

I reckon you are right. Canon are not dumb. Greedy, maybe, but not dumb. This lens has only one point: SIZE. And that only makes sense on a tiny camera. So I'm thinking Leica M9 or Fuji X-Pro sort of size. Pancake makes a lot of sense on that, and with an EF mount (EF-S) could shift a lot of units. The f2.8 doesn't sound so stupid then.

Let's see.

[maxxevv]

It will indeed be a jaw dropper if the mirrorless comes out as an APS-H ... !

Leica would have to be really worried if it has all the controls of a full-fledged DSLR and the form factor of a rangefinder !

I definitely would want one !!!! 

[Stuart]

I feel like anything from 24 to 35 would be more useful.

Agreed.
The Nifty Fifty is a no brainer purchase, and if there was an equivelent priced one in the range above. +1 more lens for me.

I like the mirrorless APS-H idea with the 40mm. But wow that would be an expensive sensor. Maybe they had some 1Dmk4s ones spare.

It seems like an age since Canon released any new affordable consumer lenses.

[trulandphoto]

I'm excited. I'm going to put off selling my last 5D and pair it with one of these for street. Can't wait.

[Haydn1971]

40mm on a 2x crop would be 80mm...  I'm not expecting the mirrorless to be anything more than APS-C, it is just as likely to be the same size as a 4/3rds sensor, EF-M ?  (micro) in a way of beating Nikon on sensor size (Nikon 1), but not suffering a problem of having to build masses of new lenses, as it would be EF or EF-S comparable.

So, could we also expect a cheap 12mm and 24mm pancake too ?, giving 24mm and 48mm focal lengths ?

[pwp]

As a photographer people are always asking me what sort of camera they should get. So the conversation continues with questions about their needs, wishes and budgets. The Canon S100 has the highest hit rate at the moment. Some people who have had fairly decent compacts but want the very small form factor with very good IQ. Think in terms of APS-C & pancake...

I've offered a solution to a few people that has cost a lot less than a Leica M9. It's a small Pentax DSLR with the 40mm pancake. What a winner! Or a small Olympus DSLR with the 25mm pancake. There is a definite market for this sort of ultra compact APS-C package. And with all the obvious benefits of a DSLR.

Paul Wright