Canon Cameras US 6310B002 EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Lens - Fixed Black

The first, obvious, aspect of this lens is its tiny size. You might wonder what the point is in pairing a tiny lens with a large heavy dSLR (I have it on the 7D), but it's great. The point isn't to make the package lighter or even, really, smaller. Rather it makes the camera _flatter_. On my 7D, this lens hardly extends out from under the viewfinder/flash "hump" on the top or the grip on the right. That moves the camera from an awkward 3D object toward something with the profile of a lumpy, dense book. Much easier to place in a standard shoulder bag or backpack. Having this lens sitting on your camera makes it that much more likely that you'll throw it in your bag when you go out (and then have it on you when you see that great thing you want to photograph). It isn't going to make a big dSLR portable, but it will make it _possible_ to take it with you many times when you otherwise couldn't.So, if it's going to be sitting on your camera, how good is it? Will you regret that it was the only lens you had with you when you went out? As a prime lens, you obviously won't be able to zoom, but don't forget that modern dSLRs have a lot of resolution to burn in cropping. 40mm is a decent all around lens. On crop sensors (Rebels, 60D, 7D, etc.) it acts as a slightly wide portrait lens or a slightly zoomed in standard (acting about like a 64mm) and on full frame cameras it will give you a nice slightly wide standard. Some people have expressed doubt about the utility on crop sensors, but I think it's pretty good. It's a good length for head and shoulder portraits at comfortable distances and while you won't capture a full room with it, it is wide enough that you can get two or three people in frame if you have some room to back up. You'll find it a bit tight as a walk around lens if you like to take pictures of large features on buildings on the same side of the street as you (like stairs or doorways), but it is a great length for capturing smaller details while still being wide enough to be useful at capturing a more distant vista across the street (just don't count on showing a full building). In short, a compromise, but a decent one.At f 2.8 you won't be taking pictures in the dark without high ISO, but it is entirely useable indoors at night, and if you are capturing a close portrait it will blur the background nicely, but there is no competing with a 1.4 or even 1.8. The better news is that it is quite sharp all the way open at 2.8. Certainly sharp enough that you won't notice any problems unless you really go hunting for them. Any trade-offs made to make it so small are less than those needed to make zoom lens. If you are used to a kit zoom, you will find this incredibly sharp. Similarly the quality of the background blur is a decided step up from entry level. Optically, you won't find anything to fault unless you go looking for it.Likewise, the build quality is great for the price. With so little length there isn't much room for flex. The focus ring is small, but solid, and it turns easily without making any rubbing sound. The STM motor is quiet, but definitely not silent. It's similar to a USM motor, but with more of a "zip" sound rather than the stuttering beeping slipping sound of USM. It is fast enough that, again, you won't notice. If you are taking video and you move the focus ring very, very, slowly, it will move silently or with just an occasional click, but if you turn it quickly, it will produce a zip that will be audible with the internal mic.Little details: The aperture adjusts slowly when in video mode on my camera, making it silent (one of my other lenses, snaps between aperture settings with an audible click) and presumably less sudden in lighting transition. Full time manual focus is a little strange due to focus by wire. If you have your camera controls set up in the default fashion, you can't just grab the ring at any time and have the lens move, you have to engage focusing first. So, for instance, if you push the shutter half way and allow it to lock focus in one shot mode, you can then move the focus while you keep the shutter pressed. In other words it will work great for post-autofocus adjustments, but not for pre-focusing to start the autofocus from a reasonable point. This is mostly frustrating in video where in order to manually adjust your focus, you will need to switch to manual mode, making it hard to pre-focus with autofocus, then manual focus while recording without hitting the switch (and probably moving the camera in the process). That said, you can fix this (at least on the 7D) by changing the half-pressed shutter to something like "metering start" instead of "AF start" and using the back AF-on button to focus. In that mode, manual focus works truly full time. To take advantage of this, I have one of my Custom User Mode settings set up for video, including that control change so that video mode allows constant focus override while normal picture taking is unaffected.Bottom line: At a price that makes it one of the cheapest Canon lenses available, this provides an interesting choice against the cheapest lens, the 50mm 1.8. With this lens you get a similar, but slightly wider, lens with somewhat better optical quality, vastly better fit, finish, and durability, much better background blur quality (though less quantity), and even better portability (almost flat package and no fear of snapping off that plastic mount putting this in a bag). What you lose is that wide open 1.8. Personally this makes the 40mm the winner for the spot of "default low cost lens that sits on my camera." For a wide open lens, I'll save for one of the 1.4s instead.

My other equipment: t4i, 24-70L, 70-200L, Sigma 10-20, & nifty-50. Saying that to tell you what I'm comparing this purchase against in case you are in a similar situation. There's no question that I already had everything I needed before buying this 40mm pancake. My only gripe is, having thousands of dollars of capable equipment, I couldn't actually use it on a daily basis. After all, the best camera is the one you actually have with you at the moment. All my gear sat at home on my desk while I went about my business. I mean, have you actually seen or held the 24-70L? I believe that it is really a hollowed-out gold brick painted black. I've been on vacation and had fellow tourists stand around and gawk at my rig rather than the surrounding scenery. After walking around with that lens all day, you have to go to the doctor to get a muscle relaxer/pain killer combo because your lower back hurts so bad. No doubt it takes great pics, but there's no way you can practically take it everywhere with you. Even the nifty-fifty sticks out too far to put the camera in a flatter laptop/briefcase/meassenger-style bag like I prefer to walk around with. I'm too old and distinguished to be carrying a backpack to work--wouldn't be very professional, either. Not sure I'd want the 50mm lolling around free in a backpack anyway with its plastic mount. So, I was unhappy because I was missing a lot of photographic opportunities. If I wanted to use my camera, it had to be a deliberate photo excursion where I lugged around heavy equipment. I found myself admiring my wife's little $99 Powershot, even though I can't stand the delay after you press the shutter button while it hunts for focus, typical of point-and-shoot cameras.Enter the 40mm pancake into my life, and I'm happy as a lark now. I took the battery grip off my camera for daily use also, and now my rig isn't much larger than a point-and-shoot. I can easily throw the little combo in whatever bag I'm carrying or comfortably wear it around my neck all day without attracting much attention. In short, I now have my camera with me always, and although I don't walk around with it stuck to my eyeball, it's very pleasurable to have it there when the inspiration does hit. This doesn't mean the really good glass is going away. I keep it in a Canon backpack at home for when I do want to go on a purposeful photo excursion--just grab and go--or when I'm more or less shooting in one place (studio work) or out of my vehicle. In those situations, I don't mind dealing with the heavy equipment. The point of this review is that there is an appropriate time and place for both types and sets of lenses, and if your photography lifestyle is in anyway similar to mine, the 40mm pancake could very well earn its keep in your toolkit.All the discussion about 35 vs 40 vs 50mm and 1.4 vs 1.8 vs 2.8 is irrelevant in my opinion because EVERY lens has some limitation. In other words, no lens is appropriate in every situation. There is no perfect lens--there is always some trade-off. You just have to know what you're doing and what you're trying to achieve in any given situation. Nothing really need be said about the IQ of this lens--the images on Flickr et al. and past reviewers' comments speak for themselves, and I'm totally satisfied. This little lens saved me from buying a less-capable point-and-shoot to walk around with, allows me to use my awesome camera everywhere I go, and takes fabulous photos. Highly recommended!