Pancake lenses

[Stephen Coates]

Anyone here got any pancake lenses for their cameras? They seem to have been quite popular recently.

Canon introduced a pancake EF 40mm lens a while back which looks good, but I already have the EF 50mm/1.8 which is small and light, so I don't really have any use for a 40mm. I was pleased to see recently that they are releasing a 24mm EF-S pancake lens. This will be excellent for APS-C digital cameras, as it will give a field of view similar to a 40mm lens (full frame), so should be a good general purpose lens, and of course, being a pancake lens, it will be small and light.

I reckon the pancake form factor will be nice for digital SLRs to make them a bit smaller and lighter, as they are rather heavy compared to modern film SLRs.

Should be quite affordable as well at about £180.

I do have an old manual 28mm lens, with an EF adaptor. This is a nice lens, but being limited to manual focus can be a bit awkward on a modern DSLR due to the small viewfinder, and lack of focusing aids.

I'm quite tempted to get one of these 24mm pancakes when its released next month.

[Harrison]

I don't use pancake lenses as I prefer to have a slightly longer lens for better weight in the hand. But the Canon 40mm f/2.8 STM has been getting some really good reviews and is highly recommended for its good quality optics, and would be a huge step up compared to the cheap feeling and very plastic 50mm Canon prime, which does actually take very good images for the price, but always feels very cheap to use.

I also don't tend to use primes much these days as I'm normally taking pictures that require a lot of different ranges, so when out tend to use a 18-200mm lens most of the time these days.. unless doing macro work then I use my 100mm Canon L lens which I love.

[Tiago]

I don't use them.
I have a 50mm macro just for macros, also have a 300mm for long distances and some other lens like 18-70 or 28-105.
most of this lens are manual as they came from my old D70 that has a motor in camera. My new D3200 don't have motor in body so it can only use motor in lens. So old lens i have to focus manually.

As SLRS are quite big and heavy, is not a pancake lens that will make the full pack lighter.
did you ever use a adapter ring to use 2 lens at same time? I did use a macro 50mm+300mm together with the 300mm inverted.
The result is a super macro. But very hard to focus as a 1mm distance to target can change everything.

[Stephen Coates]

I've not used adapter rings to invert lenses, but I have sometimes done macro shots just by holding a lens backwards up against the mount. My Chinon 28mm lens is quite good for this.

I quite like my cheap Canon 50mm/1.8. It isn't as nice to use as a better built lens, but the cheap construction does give it the advantage of being very light .

I recently acquired a Canon EF 75-300mm lens. I carted it all the way up to Sheffield with my EOS 500D (putting strain on my shoulders)... and I forgot to bring an SD card .

[Tiago]

You should try to use an invert ring.
Here is one i shoot some time ago: It's a 50mm macro + ring + 300mm inverted

http://olhares.sapo.pt/formiga-cabeca-foto4876958.html

It is very difficult to focus. The ant in the photo, lets say that it was not very alive... had +/- 3 or 4mm so i had to put the camera plus the 2 lens, with a total size of +/- 35 cm... in a table (tripod can't hold the 2 lens, very unstable) e put the and in front of final lens. Then instead of moving the camera, i had to move the ant... 1 mm more or less made e huge difference. Notice that head of ant is not totally focus, just one area, the head is about 1 or 2 mm in size...

[Harrison]

Extreme macro photography is amazing to me and so fascinating to see a small world so close up.

I've only tried adapters and reversed lenses a couple of times and as you say focus is really fiddly to get just right. You also have to have really good lighting.

Canon make a macro lens that I would love to own, the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo. This takes amazing macro images. Canon have some demo videos somewhere showing this lens in use. Quite amazing.

The one I use is this one. I wanted this lens for a long time and it didn't disappoint once I obtained it.

[Harrison]

I wouldn't buy a dslr without a dedicated display like that. It's so much faster being able to directly see the manual settings for iso, shutter speed, aperture etc, and also the light meter, so you can set the correct settings for the next shot before you even look through the camera.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

[Stephen Coates]

I reckon it could sometimes be useful having a simple display for things like that, but some argue that because the details are also on the main large LCD, the top LCD is pretty much redundant.

[Harrison]

On higher end cameras you don't often use the main screen until you take the shot to review them (stays blank).. you don't tend to use them for settings like you do an entry level one. And if you are not using the top display you use the display within the viewfinder to see the same settings and light meter.

[Stephen Coates]

I bought the EF-S 24mm this morning from Jessops for £171.

Its a neat little lens, and fits nicely on my EOS 500D. I haven't had chance to use it much yet, but I took a few sample photos out of the window and it looks nice and sharp, even when wide open. I wasn't sure about the manual focusing (with the ring simply activating the motor, rather than being mechanically coupled to the lens), but it actually seems to work nicely. Also, the new Canon lens cap is good .

Here are some photos of the lens on my camera, and shown in comparison to an EOS 300 with an EF 50mm.

efs24_500d.jpg

24_vs_50.jpg