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Pentax Lens Review Database » Film Era Pentax K-Mount Lenses » M Prime Lenses
SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8 Review RSS Feed

SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8

Sharpness 
 8.1
Aberrations 
 8.3
Bokeh 
 7.4
Handling 
 7.8
Value 
 7.8
Reviews Views Date of last review
42 216,744 Sun October 29, 2023
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Recommended By Average Price Average User Rating
79% of reviewers $94.21 7.87
SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8

SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8
supersize
SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8
supersize

Description:
Also known as the "pancake," this is the smallest SLR lens that Pentax ever produced. It includes all the features of any other M lens.

In 2006, it was superseded by an even smaller DA version, but that version did not feature an aperture ring.



SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8
© www.pentaxforums.com, sharable with attribution
Image Format
Full-frame / 35mm film
Lens Mount
Pentax K
Aperture Ring
Yes (no A setting)
Diaphragm
Automatic, 5 blades
Optics
5 elements, 4 groups
Mount Variant
K
Check camera compatibility
Max. Aperture
F2.8
Min. Aperture
F22
Focusing
Manual
Min. Focus
60 cm
Max. Magnification
0.08x
Filter Size
49 mm
Internal Focus
No
Field of View (Diag. / Horiz.)

APS-C: 39 ° / 33 °
Full frame: 57 ° / 48 °
Hood
RH-R49
Case
Hard case HA-90B
Lens Cap
Plastic clip-on
Coating
SMC
Weather Sealing
No
Other Features
Diam x Length
63 x 18 mm
Weight
110 g
Production Years
1976 to 1984
Engraved Name
smc PENTAX-M 1:2.8 40mm
Product Code
20167
Reviews
User reviews
Notes
Lens was sold without hood. The folding rubber hood RH-A49 fits
Features:
Manual FocusAperture RingFull-Frame SupportDiscontinued
Price History:



Add Review of SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8
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Sort Reviews by: Date | Author | Rating | Recommendation | Likes (Descending) Showing Reviews 31-42 of 42
Forum Member

Registered: August, 2009
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Posts: 62
Review Date: December 9, 2009 Recommended | Price: $150.00 | Rating: 7 

 
Pros: Size; "Perfect" aspect ratio on film
Cons: Tiny focus ring

I love this lens for its size, and it is pretty good value when you weigh in the size of the lens, weight, speed, and field of view. 50mm is a little "too" normal for me personally and I feel that 40mm is the ideal normal lens. For most daytime shooting f/2.8 is plenty of speed, and mounted on a small body such as a SuperProgram, with zone focusing, it's a great setup.

That said, the focus ring is tiny, so tiny that I now only rely on zone focusing for the lens. I've shifted the aperture ring more than once instead of focusing. While others have complained about image quality, I haven't noticed anything very negative about it -- but I might not be making as large prints.

I do wish that they made an SMC-A version.
   
Veteran Member

Registered: March, 2009
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Posts: 509
Review Date: November 7, 2009 Recommended | Price: $100.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Small, light, and decent IMQ
Cons: Focusing ring is a bit small.

I had this pancake 10 some years ago when I used it on my ME super. It was not on my camera for very long, since the focal length was a bit odd on a 35mm camera. I was not a street photographer by any stretch of the imagination. So the importance of convenience was not valued. I sold it and have not used it for close to 10 years.

I bought another one recently to take pictures of my kids. It works well on my K10D (which is not very good at AF), even though it does not support P-TTL. It is not good for using with flash. The image quality was much better than I expected and remembered. Contrary to what have stated above, I am quite pleased with the image quality. While the contrast and the resolution are ever so slightly lower at f2.8, it is quite usable wide open. It clearly fares better than my zoom lenses. Since there are fewer glass elements, the IMQ is good. It would be better to use with a lens hood. However, the hood would reduce the meaning of a pancake.

No regret what so ever. But I suspect that the DA would be better in terms of value (performance/ price).
   
Junior Member

Registered: April, 2008
Location: Hayward, California
Posts: 40
Review Date: October 22, 2009 Recommended | Price: $85.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: very compact.
Cons: focus ring hard to use. so thin it is hard to mount/unmount.

I actually liked this lens. Bought it recently for my Italy trip. Very small to carry with my DL; great travel lens. Not necessarily pocket-able but reduced the bulk quite a lot. Feels like you are wearing a range finder around your neck.

Effective angle of view for the 40mm focal length on the DL is a little narrow for my taste for shooting in close quarters.

The pictures it produced at f/5.6 were very good. Color rendition is good too. Better than I expected, after having read other reviewers' comments about this lens. It is a keeper for me for portability purpose.
   
Inactive Account

Registered: December, 2008
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Posts: 7
Review Date: July 6, 2009 Recommended | Price: $50.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: size, ease of use on film and dslr, ideal diagonal size for film.
Cons: focus/ aperture rings cramped

I have used this lens on both film and digital. It's sharp across the frame at f5.6 -f9.
It has great flare resistance and in my experience a lower contrast. This makes it seem less 'punchy' but is great for shadow detail.

I like the colour rendition very much on film and digital.
Its main attractions are the ideal focal length for 35mm film, a natural perspective which combines the best attributes of wide angle and normal view, and it works really well on digital. My k100D is a much more portable when needed, and gives an almost normal perspective.
Its 2.8 aperture makes focussing reasonable on digital's smaller viewfinder.

Compared to exotic glass like 50mm 1.7 or 1.4 which I also have, its not razor sharp. But it's pin sharp, which means why worry about it?
All pancake lenses have similar attributes and have some compromises optically to make them so small. But colour rendition is great. I'm never selling mine!
   
New Member

Registered: April, 2009
Location: Poland
Posts: 1
Review Date: April 16, 2009 Recommended | Price: $150.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Great on film camera
Cons: Do not use with a DSLR

I love the pancake lens when I use it with an old ME Super for BW photography. I find the 40mm focal length very useful on film as it is wider than the 50mm standard and yet it has little distortion, less than other wider angle primes (28, 35).
It is so small when attached to my ME Super body that I can carry it with me most of the time.
I wouldn't recommend using it with DSLR though. It is hard to get accurate focus with small viewfinder of a DSLR (compare K10 and ME Super's viewfinders and you'll know what I mean).
Because of the crop factor it's great focal length is not an advantage on DSLR's
I often shot stepped down to f 8 or so and the photos are really sharp.
Built quality is great and after so many years of usage it still works like a charm.
   
Senior Member

Registered: September, 2008
Location: Norway
Posts: 127
Review Date: September 17, 2008 Not Recommended | Price: $70.00 | Rating: 5 

 
Pros: very small, good build quality, fun ?
Cons: could be sharper

The original pancake is a classic. Once again it seems like I did a good buy. It was bundled with a couple of other lenses, but if I split it up it was somewhere around $70 for this one.

It's a bit fun to use, and I don't have a problem with focusing. The focus ring is small, but well defined for you fingertips. To me it feels like it very quickly gets into hyperfocal range. Build quality seems good with metallic construction like other m-lenses.

It really looks sexy on my MG film camera - they are a great pair. However I don't think it is quite as good as a lot of the other m-lenses on a modern digital SLR. I have used it on a K100D, and produced a couple of nice pictures in the golden hour with results a bit like a typical 70s photographic wallpaper

It's fun and easy to find for sale, but don't put too much work into getting one. It feels a bit harsh to say that I don't recommend it. It's not bad, but unless you want it for it's small size, there are probably better lenses out there to spend your money on.
   
Senior Member

Registered: January, 2008
Location: Bondi, Australia
Posts: 206
Review Date: January 29, 2008 Not Recommended | Price: $70.00 | Rating: 4 

 
Pros: small, good optically stoppeddown a bit
Cons: hard to use focus ring

Like nearly all Pentax lenses, it is soft wide open and hits its straps down 2 stops. I found it very hard to use the focusing ring - too small. Quite credible optically, good replacement of a 50mm as a standard lens for those that like it a bit wider. Have a 35 f/2 , so sold off the 40mm while it stil had its cult status. The cult status is probably only for the extreme compactness. In general, I have found the M lenses to be not as good as the K lenses optically.
   
Veteran Member

Registered: November, 2006
Location: Belgrade
Posts: 656

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: December 26, 2007 Not Recommended | Price: $140.00 | Rating: 6 

 
Pros: Small, excellent focal length on film, good for MX/ME/ME Super
Cons: Low corner sharpness below f/5.6 (see the review)
Sharpness: 7    Aberrations: 7    Bokeh: 7    Handling: 4    Value: 5   

I mostly agree with previous comments: the lens is overrated and price should not go over $100 in my opinion.

The major negative aspect is that M40/2.8 does not reach very good corner sharpness until f/5.6 (tested with *istDS) but it is not bad either. Note that center sharpness is good to excellent at all apertures, while I would rate corner optical performance as average at apertures below f/5.6. At f/5.6 corner sharpness improves drastically and the lens performs very well over the range f/5.6-f/16 on both DSLR and film SLR (tested with Pentax MX and ILFORD XP2 film).

However, I would not recommend this lens for use with DSLRs. If you are looking for a compact DSLR lens consider DA40/2.8 Limited. My main reason for getting M40/2.8 is to use it with MX if I decide to shoot a roll of film without carrying my other M lenses: 40mm is very convenient "universal" focal length on film, the lens itself is much smaller and lighter than M50/1.4, and performs very well stopped down which is not a problem at all if shooting in normal daylight conditions (I keep it at f/8 most of the time).
   
Giveaway winner!

Registered: December, 2007
Location: beantown
Posts: 944

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: December 14, 2007 Recommended | Price: $118.99 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Small, fits in most of my pockets, sharp enough.
Cons: not as good as my 50mm, element delaminated.
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 8    Bokeh: 9    Handling: 8    Value: 9   

LpMM nit-pick... nonsense:
The test I ran long ago scored about 46lpmm at average in f4. The corners only 37lpmm and the high of 48lpmm... What does that mean? Nothing in real life.... the lens seems to do well enough and sure, not a stellar lens, it still get the job done.

Rear element Issues:
The original test was on my pre-repaired lens. Soon after the lens test it developed a de-lamination problem and grew from the sides in on the rear lens group.

Post repair:
I started to use it again and with newer emulsions as well a the digital (K20D) and found that the pictures were much better than I recalled. The cement was a recommended type for lenses and claimed not to change the dynamics of the lens to any degree that could be noticed. On the plus sides I'll disagree!

Originally a so-so score, I've found it seemingly a bit more higher.
The center was about 55-56 and the corner on a full-frame is 39-45lpmm, this is from the Ektar and TMax film in the test... sorry, no Tech-Pan.
On a APS-C format, the test is a little tricky to compute for results, but the numbers are similar at center... 52-55 lpmm and the corners 49-52. Using film style test on a digital is difficult to do and I don't have the standard digital targets so take this with a grain of salt.
(compared to: M50/1.4 @ f2.8 and a top score of 61-64lmpp @center / 52-54 @ corner)
And now, what does these numbers mean? ...nothing... It still is a nice lens for its size.


Wide open the lens is good for most applications and still is a bit mushy, at f4.0 the lens is as good as many lenses, at f8 it is harder to tell one from another lens in sharpness. I tested at up to f8 and it seems to hugged near the acceptable results and it seems that f11 to f22 your getting less contrast.

What is really important in all?
Post repair, a better utility lens than one would think.
Original form with no de-lamination problems, it is a good value due to the size. A slip into the rain coat or any medium large pocket or narrow bag.

Colors are very good and the glare resistance is very good in more general situations, but you should shade in high brightness situations.

The one big gripe is the weak rubber grip. One thin strip of rubber prone to damage and near impossible to replace with the same. A nice suggestion of using an equivalent size rubber O-ring.

The DA 40mm is a sort of successor, but only in the APS-C format... not had the chance to test it.

Summing it up:
Reality is that most versions out there will not have a major optical repair applied to it. So the thing to remember is that this lens is mostly a small handy lens and it is a super match to any of the M-Series film bodies when small is what you need. Remembering that it functions much like a "Snap-Shot" lens, I'll forgive the short comings because its the compact size that I am happy about. Similar or smallish might be a M28 or M30, but the M40 fits in my pocket... jacket pocket.
   
Site Supporter

Registered: March, 2007
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 486
Review Date: May 5, 2007 Recommended | Price: $80.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: light weight, super compact, good image quality
Cons: can be hard to use because of its size, not the sharpest lens

I really like this lens, even though it's not the sharpest and there's a good amount of purple fringing wide open.

It makes my K100D very compact and easy to carry around. I also like the 40mm focal length, which is a comfortable length for me to take pictures of people. A lot of Pentax users seem to like this lens for street photography because it makes their cameras look less invasive.

My copy of the lens is pretty worn, but it still works great. I liked it enough that I bought the DA 40mm Limited so I can have autofocus again. Comparing the two, I like the colors of the DA 40mm better, but it also seems to be worse with fringing in high contrast environments.
   
Veteran Member

Registered: September, 2006
Location: Tokyo
Posts: 962
Review Date: February 7, 2007 Not Recommended | Price: $250.00 | Rating: 5 

 
Pros: small size, light
Cons: difficult to focus, so-so image quality

I bought my 40mm pancake lens with a (very) used MX body. I find it a good combination for street photography, as they make a lightweight combination and the 40mm size is just right for the sort of urban shots I like.

I have also used it on my *istDS body since I added the DSLR to my collection, where its 60mm-equivalent field of view puts it into the far end of 'normal'.

That said, I use this lens less and less with time.

For one thing, the focusing ring is quite difficult to use, as it is very thin. I've found myself with my finger on the ring and my thumb on the aperture ring as often as not. Also, the lens is so short that on the *istDS body the focusing ring is actually tucked under the flash cowling, further jamming things up.

My second reason for ignoring this lens is that it seems to drain a bit of the life from my shots. I don't get the colour or contrast I expect, either in film or digital. Sharpness is not an issue, but I've been disappointed with shots from this lens on a few occasions.

Price
-----
Ouch. What can I say, I live in Tokyo.

P.S.
----
If you're looking for a small and light street photography combination for digital, get a point-and-shoot. For film, I recommend an old rangefinder. No TTL, it's true, but they're tiny and kinda fun.

===
edit [2007/03/26]
I sold this lens, as I was no longer using it. I've bumped it down a notch to a '5', as well, because this is nowhere close to the SMC 28mm lens I use as my 'normal', and I only gave that one a '7'. 8)
   
Veteran Member

Registered: September, 2006
Location: North Idaho
Posts: 696

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: January 9, 2007 Not Recommended | Price: $100.00 | Rating: 5 

 
Pros: small, exceptional construction quality
Cons: difficult ot find focus ring when used to 'normal' sized lenses

The SMC Pentax-M f/1:2.8 40mm is the original Pentax "pancake" lens. At the time, it was the only one produced (by Pentax) and was highly desirable for the M bodies. The combination made it the first "pocketable" SLR camera. (But, you needed a large pocket.)

The construction quality is typical of K and M series lenses. All metal and glass. No plastic here! Optically, it was not anywhere as good as the 50/1.4 or 50/1.7 lenses. Probably on par with the 50/2.0 lens. The lens attained 'cult' status and was desirable only because of its size, not because of its optical qualities.

Only rated at 5 because of the fair optical quality. Given a 'no' recommendation because of the price/performance ratio. Today, you should only purchase this lens for the 'collector value', and only if you have a MX or ME body to mate with it. The DA40/2.8 is a much better lens if you want to actually take pictures. This lens still sells for a premium price on the used market, and in my opinion, not worth the cost! It is an "okay" lens, just not worth the premium prices asked and paid.
Add Review of SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8



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