[shuttertalk]

Now this is pretty interesting - Canon is bringing the pancake lens (so ubiquitous on M43 cameras) to its range of DSLRs. It's supposed to be coming next month around $300, and will be an EF mount so it will support full frame cameras.

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/05/22/cano...g-in-june/

[NT73]

All well and good but what about my 16-400 f2 IS L EFS. When is that coming?

[Zig]

At that price it should undercut the Voigtlander(Ultron?): if so, should be interesting.

[matthew]

I like that Petapixel made no real effort to hide the fact that the source image is a Panasonic 20mm f/1.7.

I'm all in favour of seeing new lenses developed, and I know I lack imagination, but I'm not seeing the appeal of a small, inexpensive lens that's best used on a $3500 mid-sized SLR. If it actually was an EF-S 20mm lens – 32mm-e – even at 2.8, I could see a lot of Rebel/Kiss/X00D owners being interested. Especially when people figure out that the cheap-and-cheerful 50/1.8 is way too long for video…

[shuttertalk]

I'm not seeing the appeal of a small, inexpensive lens that's best used on a $3500 mid-sized SLR. If it actually was an EF-S 20mm lens – 32mm-e – even at 2.8, I could see a lot of Rebel/Kiss/X00D owners being interested.

I thought about it a bit more and I tend to agree with you. On a 7D a pancake lens isn't going to save you that much in terms of compactness or weight.

The pricing as well is not that inexpensive - it's almost 3x the price of a 50mm f1.8 which all round would probably be a better, more useful lens.

[shuttertalk]

These babies are now shipping and real world reviews are starting to trickle in. One such review of from LensRentals, who tested a batch of 12 of the 40mm pancake lenses.

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/06/...ey-do-that

The review is pretty positive about the lens - one of the best things about it is that it is near peak sharpness wide open, whereas many primes only reach peak sharpness after they've been stopped down a bit.

Overall, though, I’m extremely impressed. I’d be impressed if a lens this size and price was just decent, but this one is excellent. I might as well go ahead and get in trouble with the business manager: if you think you want this lens, just go ahead and buy it.

For me, I still don't "get" a pancake lens especially on a monster 5D or 7D but perhaps on a smaller DSLR body like a 650D it would make more sense. Still, the price is low enough for some people to try out on a whim.

[matthew]

I have to say that I've softened my opinion of this lens since I've seen it in person. It still doesn't make a huge amount of sense objectively, but it would be a fun lens to have. And with the reports of it being much better than its price would suggest, there's not much to lose by buying it.

The one catch with the lens is that it's not silent when it focuses, so the camera mic is likely to pick up the noise when it's used for video. And this lens always uses its motor – manual focus is actually focus-by-wire, just like 4/3 and m4/3 lenses, so switching to manual focus doesn't silence the lens.

[Kombisaurus]

I'm glad to hear this lens performs well, but I'm still not sure I see the point of it. I see it as a slightly missed opportunity. If it were a 40mm f/1.8 then I'd be lining up for one, as there are lots of times when I go out at night that I want to take a good low-light camera with me that is as small as possible.

But at 40mm f/2.8 it's not "enough" of anything to be compelling to me. It's not small enough (when mounted on a DSLR) to be super-portable and it's not fast enough at f/2.8 to be a fast prime. I have the Canon 35mm f/1.4 to use when I want a fast prime, and when I want compactness I would still reach for my GX-1 with 20mm f/1.7 pancake every time (with 40mm equiv focal length).

But I guess any new optically-decent prime for this price is a good thing, and I do like the idea of pancake lenses. I love that primes are coming back in fashion and manufacturers are putting R&D into them.

[matthew]

I have the Canon 35mm f/1.4 to use when I want a fast prime, and when I want compactness I would still reach for my GX-1 with 20mm f/1.7 pancake every time (with 40mm equiv focal length).

The thing is that in the world that Canon lives in, the 20/1.7 doesn't exist. In fact, Panasonic doesn't exist. Neither does Olympus, Sony, or any other camera company except for Nikon – and their information about Nikon is entirely from photographic magazines, and tends to be three to six months out of date. (They have heard rumours of Pentax, but aren't sure who owns them any more.)

I'm glad to see Canon working to create new lenses, and their two new wide IS primes are excellent. I'm also very happy to see the reports of very consistent quality control across the 40/2.8 samples that Lensrentals tested. So there is lots of good news out there, and I can only hope that these lenses will find their niches.

[Zig]

Quite a conundrum of a focal length, and I often wonder if it's been perceived never in its own right but as if "coming from" either 50 or 35mm...and given the apertures achieved by such examples out there, f2.8 seems fairly self-defeating, even if the pancake's traditional trump card is it's street-friendly, quick-draw design.