Comments on: Canon 40mm Pancake – How Did They Do That??

By: ernesto

ernesto — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 18:23:54 +0000

I have a Panasonic AF 100 with a Kipon EOS-m4/3 Canon EOS to Micro Four Thirds Lens Adapter w/ Aperture Control
Does anyone know if this lens works with this adapter? It seems that I would need an adopter that would have to power the lens electronically.

By: bip

bip — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 11:38:39 +0000

Great to read constructive comments and a v helpful review… Has to be said. Bip.

By: Tor-Arne

Tor-Arne — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 12:33:24 +0000

I own this lens myself. And I can verify the focus issue.
But now I know that Canon already has issued an FW update for the 7D to remedy this issue. And we’re already seeing FW updates rolling out to remedy the issue on other models as well.
But so far I found the only solution is to unmount and remount the lens again.
A minor niggle in the grand scheme of things.
Whenever I’ve used the lens in AF mode I always switch it to MF and roll it back before putting on the lens cap. This has kept the issue from reappearing for me.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 20:52:13 +0000

I found some explanation in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIGbY3UNN_w&feature=related

It seems as though it goes to sleep before the camera itself goes to sleep, and it does need power from the camera to use manual focus. So it goes to sleep too soon.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:44:27 +0000

I sent Canon an email.

I thought about buying this lens then gave up after reading the comments about focus.

By: zemitch

zemitch — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 17:30:18 +0000

Focus blocked after two shoots… Mounted on 5D2.

By: bullmoon

bullmoon — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 06:22:13 +0000

I cannot repro the focus problem. I have had the lens for over 2 weeks and shot quite a bit with it – often “manually” retracting/pushing in the lens after powering off the camera – almost always in fact. Just tried it again following the steps Vu gave and no repro.

I like it – handy lens, pictures look fine, 40mm works well for casual shooting out and about for a compact setup.

Canon 5D MKII / latest firmware: 2.1.2

By: Sasham5

Sasham5 — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:11:09 +0000

In my totally “unscientific” tests, I found it much superior in sharpness to 50mm 1.8, especially wide open, but also at 2.8. No comparison…

but it’s got a tiny hole, so the amount of light is an issue.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 08:22:57 +0000

Hi Robert,

Do you think the 40mm pancake is better optically than the 50mm 1.8?

Thanks.

By: mrkgoo

mrkgoo — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 03:42:53 +0000

Airquotes: I’m suspecting it’s a weird quirk… that is, since the motor is not engaged with the focus ring, if the focus has shifted (by force for example) since the last time it stopped or was asleep or whatever, it requires a complete power down and reset (ie remount).

That said, if that were the case, it should be fixable in a firmware for the lens, I would imagine. Otherwise, I wonder if firmware for teh cameras can be adjusted to ‘fix’ it?