Canon 40mm 2.8 Pancake Lens Review

There seems to be this trend to move towards thinner and smaller lenses known as Pancake lenses. Canon put out a 40mm 2.8 Prime lens that I picked up at AllensCamera to play with and review. I have been using this lens on the Canon T4i and have come to a simple conclusion.

This lens is a $200 no questions asked winner. The reason I say its no questions asked is the fact that its very inexpensive for what you get. The build quality is top of the line from the metal mount to the feel in your hands. With that said this is a very very small and light weight lens, thus the pancake design.

Canon tries to market this as a discreet lens for when you don’t want people to know your taking pictures. I think thats a marketing joke and not something I would ever promote a lens for.

This lens is fast focusing, sharp all the way through and very very light. Sometimes you may think its to light and small. For example when you are shooting video its not out of the question that your finger finds its way into your frame while trying to focus the very very thin focusing ring.

The question is going to be asked, should you get this lens or the Canon 50 1.8 plastic fantastic? One clocks in at $200 while the other is $109. Even though the 50 is a 1.8 I think the build quality of the 40 2.8 would have me leaning towards it for a more versatile lens especially on a cropped sensor.

Like I said up top, you should not fret to long about purchasing this lens or not. It was a pleasure to use and the results were very much to my liking. You can download the FULL RES exports RIGHT HERE. All images are corrected as I feel that is the best way to judge a product.

If you would like to pick up one of these lenses and you are in the USA please check out AllensCamera.com or call 215.547.2841.

CLICK HERE to see the full set of sample images.