This Lens Changes Everything- Canon 40mm Pancake Lens

I now have 2 favorite lenses for my Canon 6D DSLR. Okay, I only have 2 lenses for it, but I love them both equally for different reasons.

My Sigma 35 1.4 is a dream. It’s sharp, it’s fast, it takes stunning pictures inside my home, even in tight spots.

It’s also really heavy and pretty expensive. So it doesn’t make it out of the house very often when I’m out with the kids.

I sold my beloved 50 1.4 because it just seemed glitchy on my 6D. I couldn’t always rely on it to focus, for some reason. It’s possible it needed another tune up, but instead of paying for that, I let it go for a steal, and used part of that to fund a lens I’d heard a ton of great things about, the Canon 40mm  2.8 pancake lens.

Now, on paper it doesn’t seem that stellar.* The aperture is definitely far from the 1.4 of my 50 and 35. But what it lacks there it makes up for in the lack of size.

In the words of my daughter, “Awww! So wittle, tiny, cuuuuute!”

This thing makes my camera feel like a point and shoot. It’s so small that I don’t have to worry about knocking against things as I walk with my camera slung over my shoulder.

And so cheap (relatively, in the world of lenses) that I don’t worry too much about it getting damaged. Amazon has it listed for $191 right now.

It also takes pretty great pictures. Here are a few from around the house.

And here are some I snapped in New Orleans last weekend, where I wouldn’t have even bothered lugging my camera with me with my 35 1.4 on it.

All of these were shot at 2.8, with slight adjustments made in Lightroom, like some noise reduction and minor sharpening.

I am so excited about this little powerful lens. It makes me feel so much more free to take the “fancy” camera out of the house.

My Sigma 35 1.4 will still be my dream lens (for now), and will still live on my camera most of the time I’m in the house, but the 40 mm has certainly earned it’s place in my camera bag.

*Aperture affects the amount of light that comes into the lens. The smaller the number the more “wide open” the aperture is, and the more light that can get in. So a 1.4 aperture lets in more light than a 2.8, and is better in lower light situations, like indoors. This isn’t a huge issue for me with the 40 2.8 lens because my 6D camera body allows me to shoot at higher ISO without too much noise, and 2.8 is plenty wide for most outdoor shots I take.

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