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Roger Cicala at lensrental.com tested the brand new EF 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens (he tested eight copies of the lens.) The impressions are more than positive, and in the title of the post, Roger is asking “how did they do that?“. Imatest MTF 50 was used to test the lens.

My first impression was the build quality was better than I expected. It has a metal mount, not plastic. The aperture blades appear more curved than most of the Canon 7 blade aperture rings, making a more circular opening. The little STM motor is not silent, but it’s pretty quiet.

The (very good) results were consistent over all tested copies, showing that Canon is able to produce such a high quality yet affordable lens in batch. The conclusion of the test says it all:

Overall, though, I’m extremely impressed. I’d be impressed if a lens this size and price was just decent, but this one is excellent. I might as well go ahead and get in trouble with the business manager: if you think you want this lens, just go ahead and buy it. At this price, unless some of the more thorough reviewers find something I missed on this quick overview, you can’t go wrong.

The EF 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake can be bought for $199, and it is in stock at Adorama (click here), B&H (click here) and Amazon US (click here). DigitalRev (click here) also has the pancake in stock. Note: due to high request there may be shipping delays, and the lens may soon be temporary out of stock.

[via dpreview]

World-wide EF 40mm f/2.8 STM availability and price check:

Australia: Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Digitalrev, eBay.au
Austria: Amazon.at, DigitalRev, eBay.at
Belgium: Amazon UK, DigitalRev, eBay.be
Canada: Amazon.ca, DigitalRev, Adorama, B&H, eBay.ca
China: Amazon.cn, Digitalrev, eBay
Denmark: DigitalRev, eBay
Finland: DigitalRev, eBay
France: Amazon.fr, DigitalRev, eBay.fr
Germany: Amazon.de, DigitalRev, eBay.de
Hong Kong: Amazon, Adorama, Digitalrev, B&H, eBay
Ireland: Amazon.uk, DigitalRev, eBay.ie
Italy: Amazon.it, DigitalRev, eBay.it
Japan: Amazon.jp, Rakuten, DigitalRev, eBay
Netherlands: Amazon, DigitalRev, eBay.nl
Norway: DigitalRev, eBay
Poland: DigitalRev, Redcoon.pl, eBay
Singapore: B&H, Adorama, Digitalrev, eBay
Spain: Amazon.es, DigitalRev, Redcoon.es, eBay.es
Suisse: Amazon.de, DigitalRev, eBay.ch
Sweden: DigitalRev, eBay
Thailand: Amazon, DigitalRev, B&H, Adorama, eBay
United Kingdom: Amazon.uk, Warehouseexpress, DigitalRev, eBay.uk
USA: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, Canon USA, J&R, Digitalrev, eBay, rent it at Borrow Lenses