Canon 40mm pancake lens first impressions

[pluto]

I've just got a new Canon 40mm f2.8 STM pancake lens and I'm pretty impressed so far.
I wanted it as it's very small and light and I wanted a walk around lens for my 5DmkII so that the camera+lens is small enough to just chuck in my shoulder bag rather than having to carry a camera bag.

Of course I've only had a quick play with it but so far I think I like it better than the nifty fifty. Comparing the two I think the 40 is a bit sharper at f2.8 and as I find the image quality from the nifty not great wide open I usually stop it down to f2.8 anyway. It was $160 delivered from DWI and it arrived from Hong Kong in under 48 hours!

Here is a quick test image from my office. The second and third images are a 1:1 crop from the centre and left edge (about 1/3 of the way from the top) respectively. Taken at f2.8 ISO400 and a bit underexposed, hence the grain.

[iceman]

Looks pretty good! Look forward to seeing a night test shot!

[pluto]

As soon as these clouds depart!

[acropolite]

I've had on one the wish list for quite a while, I'll be interested to see how it performs in the dark.

[pluto]

I should also add that the build quality is HEAPS better than the nifty fifty and the focusing is faster and more precise. I'd say that if you're looking for a cheap prime it'd be hard to choose the 50 f1.8 over this unless you really need speed at the expense of quality.

I'll update when I have a chance to shoot the stars. :)

[LewisM]

I was about to sell one of my spare f/1.4 50's :)

[lacad01]

There's an interesting write-up here:
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/06/canon-40mm-pancake-how-did-they-do-that

[pluto]

Thanks, I actually read that before buying.
This review (with sample images) was what sold it to me: http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff/752-canon_40_28_ff

[pluto]

Just though I'd post an update as I finally used this lens for a night shot!

This is a stack of about 50 images and is a crop of the full frame at 1:1. 5DmkIII, ISO3200, f2.8, no darks or flats.
http://hughsblog.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/nova-delphini-2013/

This is an unprocessed full frame JPG (warning: about 10Mb)
http://hughsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/1k7a6425.jpg

I'm pretty impressed, the stars are nice and tight with only moderate CA and flaring near the edges, though there is quite a lot of vignetting.

I can't think of many lenses of this price (~$170) that perform this well wide-open. I think it's sharpness at f2.8 is probably better than the 50mm f1.8 at f2.8 and as you pretty much have to stop the 50 down to at least 2.8 if you want sharp stars I think makes it a genuine alternative.
Not sure if I could choose between the 50mm f1.8 and this 40mm, the 40 is definitely a better lens but then sometimes you need speed over quality.

Oh and the 40 makes an excellent walk around lens, better than the nifty fifty, so small/light and 40mm is a great length on a FF :)