Canon creates EF-S 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 IS STM and EF 40mm F2.8 STM: Digital Photography Review
"The EF 40mm f/2.8 STM is Canon's first EF pancake lens with a fixed focal length of 40mm and wide f/2.8 aperture, making it ideal for photographers who want a versatile, compact and lightweight lens for portrait, reportage, travel or landscape situations. Precision control over the circular, seven-blade aperture is enabled by the EMD, producing a beautiful bokeh effect and an aspheric lens with Super spectra coatings ensures optimal image quality from the centre of the lens to the periphery for stunning shots of practically any subject."
The official feature list:
- Portable pancake design
- Smooth, quiet STM focusing when shooting movies on compatible cameras
- Fast f/2.8 maximum aperture for low-light shooting
- Close focus to 0.3m
- Fast, quiet AF for pin-sharp results
- Great image quality right across the frame
Perhaps more importantly:
- 7 aperture blades (DA 40mm Limited has 9)
- Internal focus (unlike Pentax's)
- Minimum focus of 11.81" (instead of 15.7" for us)
Now, since they need to fit an AF motor in there, it's not as tiny as ours. But really, it looks pretty nice. The kicker, of course, is that the DA 40mm Limited is
$500 — but you can
preorder this for $200.
Dear Pentax: please come to grips with reality. The nine aperture blades and Limited construction can command some price premium, but this is a simple optical design, and no way is the DA 40mm reasonably priced at
two and a half times higher.