Pancake lens(es)

<p>Hi All, <br>

I recently bought, and so far love, the Canon 40mm pancake lens. Well, Canon also has patents on several other focal length pancakes.<br>

Anybody heard any rumors about a 28mm pancake being released any time soon in a EF or EF-S mount?<br>

JD</p>

I am still wishing for a 15mm EF-S lens. Well, no, I've given up all hope on that one.

<p>I don't waste time on rumors, but I do enjoy shooting with the STM 40. It's sharp, portable, and distortion is well controlled. According to DXO, the focal length is actually 43 mm making it an excellent wide-normal alternative to 50 mm lenses.</p>

Hard to go wrong with the 40 mm lens for the size and price. IQ is much better then you would expect for such a low

price. I cannot remember any priorCanon pancake lens so I would not expect too much.. The old rangefinder 35 F1.5

was a very compact lens but not technically a pancake.

<p>They have the 22mm f/2 EF-M lens for the mirrorless EOS M. A 28mm EF-mount pancake is not really possible because the flange distance is 44mm, so it has to be a retrofocus design (like Canon's recently launched 28mm f/2.8). Although the EF-S mount allows the rear lens elements to protrude further into the camera body, I think they are still more than 28mm away from the sensor so a simple pancake design is unlikely to work.</p>

<p>The Voigtlander 28/2.8 is pretty well is a pancake as is their 20/3.5, so it is quite possible - it's not like retrofocus designs are some radical departure as they have been around at least 50 years.</p>

<p>I was using 'pancake lens' to refer also to the lens design, as being a simple Gaussian type or some variant thereof - but you are right that Cosina have managed to produce retrofocus lenses which are physically small, so perhaps the connection between size and optical formula no longer holds. (My Olympus 21/3.5 is also pretty tiny.)</p>

<p>Canon holds patents on the following pancake lenses: 45mm f/2.8, 40mm f/2.8, 35mm f/2.8 and a 28mm f/2.8. Presumably they are doable, whether or not we'll actually see any of them, 40mm excepted, is an unknown.<br>

I like the 40 quite a bit, but would like something to use on a crop body (T3i) that would be slightly wide (35mm equivalent). I'm considering the 20mm Color Skopar but am not in a hurry so I'll wait and see what Canon does in the next little while.<br>

JD</p>

<p>I also considered the 20mm Color Skopar to go with my 40mm pancake. Voightlander makes very good lenses, they also have a 40 2.0 that is very good but manual focus is not for me. Overall I am very happy with the 40mm pancake, I've gotten some great shots with it but I really don't mind using a heavier lens most of the time so it usually sits home. </p>

<p>Canon went to some R&D expense to bring out a truly compact Rebel body. The 40mm would be perfect to carry on an SL1, but that focal length is only of limited usefulness on crop sensor. C'mom, Canon, how about an 18mm, which would crop to a useful semi-wide on APS-C? For now, my Pentax K-r with its 21mm is my crop sensor carry-along. It is a fine little coat-pocketable SLR.</p>