Pancake Trip Report (Canon 40mm Pancake -- that is)

[BorisMD]

Here's a brief but graphically heavy trip report from this President's weekend. After seeing a review of the Canon 40mm 2.8 STM lens (commonly known as the pancake lens) on Disney Photography Blog (disneyphotographyblog.com) I decided that for $149 on Amazon, it was worth a go. My usual set up is a 7D with the 17-55 2.8 E-FS IS lens. That's a heavy setup and I thought it would be fun to use the pancake. So the pancake is the ONLY lens I used for this weekend.

My first impression was that this lens really made the 7D seem much smaller (and way lighter). I use a BlackRapid strap so the camera hangs upside down at my waist. With the larger lenses on, the camera tends to orient itself in a certain direction making it easy to blindly grab and shoot. With the smaller lens, the camera was freer to swing around leading me to have to look as I grabbed.

It was also interesting to get people's reactions as I was waiting in line. I got more "nice camera" comments with this little pancake on the camera than I do with the more ostentatious gray L glass. The camera kind of looks like an overgrown powershot.

This was a brief weekend trip with just my wife and me. As a result, most of my photos are of my wife -- she's usually a willing subject. Also, Sunday was REALLY cold -- we woke up to 38 degrees and brisk winds -- we made it to the MK and went back to the hotel after about an hour or two.

So without further ado, here's some representative shots from my Pancake tour de force.

This is our friendly Jamitors in Epcot.

Here's me and the Mrs.

Occasionally I let her have the camera!

I hate on camera flash, but with this low profile lens, I used the on camera flash at -2/3 to provide some fill light and some catchlights.

This shot gives you a nice idea of the bokeh from the pancake.

Decent color rendition

Here are some indoor shots from the new Test track

Frankly, at the risk of sounding like a retro guy, I really liked the older version of Test Track better. Much more entertaining both in the queue and on the ride. Granted, it needed an overhaul, but I think they could have done better.

This is the new bakery area in the France pavilion. We had breakfast there one morning (they open at 9am) and there are very few people over there at that hour as the rest of World showcase is still closed off. It's easy to walk over from the Epcot resort area. The food is good -- the quiche lorraine was delicious and the croissants are good too. Too many good choices.

If you see this shot in full, and enlarge, the detail and sharpness of the lens is very good.

A natural light portrait. Again, nice bokeh.

Did I mention it was COLD on Sunday morning??

Thanks for looking. I really enjoyed using this lens. I was never much of a prime guy before, but I really didn't miss being able to zoom. Some have criticized the lens as not wide enough or not long enough or not fast enough, but I really liked the stealthy (as stealthy as you can get with a DSLR) look and feel of this lens on the 7D.

Regards,

Boris

 

[bob100]

Here's a brief but graphically heavy trip report from this President's weekend. After seeing a review of the Canon 40mm 2.8 STM lens (commonly known as the pancake lens) on Disney Photography Blog (disneyphotographyblog.com) I decided that for $149 on Amazon, it was worth a go. My usual set up is a 7D with the 17-55 2.8 E-FS IS lens. That's a heavy setup and I thought it would be fun to use the pancake. So the pancake is the ONLY lens I used for this weekend.

My first impression was that this lens really made the 7D seem much smaller (and way lighter). I use a BlackRapid strap so the camera hangs upside down at my waist. With the larger lenses on, the camera tends to orient itself in a certain direction making it easy to blindly grab and shoot. With the smaller lens, the camera was freer to swing around leading me to have to look as I grabbed.

It was also interesting to get people's reactions as I was waiting in line. I got more "nice camera" comments with this little pancake on the camera than I do with the more ostentatious gray L glass. The camera kind of looks like an overgrown powershot.


This was a brief weekend trip with just my wife and me. As a result, most of my photos are of my wife -- she's usually a willing subject. Also, Sunday was REALLY cold -- we woke up to 38 degrees and brisk winds -- we made it to the MK and went back to the hotel after about an hour or two.

So without further ado, here's some representative shots from my Pancake tour de force.

[
This is our friendly Jamitors in Epcot.

Here's me and the Mrs.

This is the new bakery area in the France pavilion. We had breakfast there one morning (they open at 9am) and there are very few people over there at that hour as the rest of World showcase is still closed off. It's easy to walk over from the Epcot resort area. The food is good -- the quiche lorraine was delicious and the croissants are good too. Too many good choices.



Thanks for looking. I really enjoyed using this lens. I was never much of a prime guy before, but I really didn't miss being able to zoom. Some have criticized the lens as not wide enough or not long enough or not fast enough, but I really liked the stealthy (as stealthy as you can get with a DSLR) look and feel of this lens on the 7D.

Regards,

Boris

it's a nice inexpensive lens but I think it's more useful on the "M" mirrorless model for a true pocket size camera that includes the lens