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Technique
EF 40mm f2.8 STM lens
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Reproduced from EOS magazine October-December 2012
Reproduced from EOS magazine October-December 2012
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Out and about with EF 40mm lens
The EF 40mm lens is not really a landscape lens.
It doesn’t match the versatility of my EF 17-
40mm f4L USM and the focal length isn’t wide
enough to create the really dramatic, sweeping
landscapes you can make with something like
a 21mm or 24mm lens. The lack of a distance
scale is a hindrance when it comes to focusing,
although you can work around it.
I think of the EF 40mm lens as a moderate
wide-angle, because I mostly use it on my EOS
5D Mark II. On an APS-C camera it becomes a
short telephoto, potentially useful for isolating
elements within the landscape.
On the plus side, the sharpness of this lens
is breathtaking and the fact that I can use a long
lens hood helps reduce flare. I see this lens as a
good all-rounder that happens to be suitable for
scenic views as long as you are not trying to take
in a wide expanse.
Long exposure photography
One of my favourite techniques is to use a nine
stop neutral density filter on a lens to obtain
shutter speeds of a minute or more. This blurs
any moving elements, such as water, within the
scene for a surreal effect. If you combine this
with the beautiful light found after sunset, you
can create some moody and dramatic images.
I often convert my long exposure images to
black-and-white (right). These photos become
more effective with a minimalist composition.
The 40mm pancake lens helps me here as the
relatively narrow field-of-view forces me to crop
the scene in front of me to the most interesting
elements.
Intentional camera movement
Intentional camera movement (also known as
ICM) is a technique where you take photos with
a hand-held camera using slow shutter speeds
up to around four seconds. The idea is to move
the camera during the exposure to create an
impressionistic style image that captures the feel
of the scene.
You can use this technique with any focal
length, but for some reason the 40mm focal
length works particularly well. I put it down to
the same reasons that this lens works well for
long exposure photography – it fits just the right
amount of the scene into the frame to make an
interesting composition.
Above top
The EF 40mm is a general-purpose lens, ready for any subject in its view.
EOS 5D Mark II, 1/90 second at f4.5, ISO 400.
Above centre
A long exposure with an ND filter has smoothed out the water background.
EOS 5D Mark II, 194 seconds at f11, ISO 50
Above bottom
A long exposure at twilight gives characteristic car light trails.
EOS 5D Mark II, 30 seconds at f16, ISO 200.
Left
A long exposure blurs the moving subject, with added effect from a hand-held camera.
EOS 5D Mark II, 2 seconds at f8, ISO 400.
Portraits with EF 40mm lens
The appeal of the 40mm pancake lens as a
portrait lens, for me, is that it’s like having two
lenses in one: a moderate wide-angle on my full-
frame EOS 5D Mark II, and a short telephoto on
my EOS 40D with its APS-C sensor.
On the EOS 5D Mark II the focal length was
wide enough to let me get close to my model
and give the photos a sense of intimacy without
the distortion that wider lenses would give.
Using the lens on the EOS 40D allowed
for a tighter crop that excluded more of the
background.
On the whole, the lens is a great portrait lens
on both cameras. The maximum aperture is
wide enough to get an appealing bokeh*, and the
image quality is superb. I preferred to use it on
my EOS 5D Mark II as it allowed me to include a
little more of the background and create more
dynamic compositions.
* Bokeh describes background blur – not how
much the background is out-of-focus, but the
quality and character of the blur.
Build quality and autofocus
The EF 40mm pancake lens is built to last with a metal
mount and metal body. It’s a much more convincing lens
than the plastic EF 50mm f1.8 II or EF-S 18-55mm kit lenses.
It comes with gear type Stepper Motor (STM) drive
autofocus, which promises near silent performance for
movie servo autofocus (so far the EOS 650D is the only
model with this feature) to avoid the camera’s built-in
microphone picking up noise from the autofocus motor.
My first impressions of the STM autofocus are good.
It’s not as fast as the ring ultrasonic motor (USM) on my EF
17-40mm lens, but it’s a huge improvement on the micro-
motor autofocus used in lenses such as the EF 50mm f1.8 II.
A curious feature about the STM autofocus is that, even
in manual focus, it only works when the camera is switched
on (and not asleep). Turn the focusing ring at the front of
the lens when the camera is off and nothing happens. That
means that even in manual focus mode, the autofocus
motor is engaged when you turn the focusing ring.
Despite Canon’s claims, the STM autofocus is not silent
and if you’re shooting in a quiet environment the camera’s
microphone will pick up the focusing noise. On the plus
side, the focusing ring is incredibly smooth – ideal for
transferring focus smoothly and evenly from one point to
the other.
According to the Canon website, the EF-S 18-135mm IS
STM lens, released at the same time as the 40mm pancake,
has a lead-screw type STM motor that is quieter than that
on the 40mm pancake lens (this type of motor is too large
to fit inside a pancake lens). So if you’re buying an STM
lens specifically for shooting movies with the EOS 650D,
the EF-S 18-135mm STM lens is the way to go.
(Editor’s note: EOS magazine has just bought the EF-S
18-135mm STM lens and can confirm that the focusing is,
to our ears, silent – and amazingly fast.)
Right
The EF 40mm is a moderate wide-angle lens on a
full-frame camera, allowing a close-viewpoint while still
including some of the background. EOS 5D Mark II, 1/180
second at f2.8, ISO 800.
Below
The EF 40mm is a short telephoto lens on an APS-C
format camera. EOS 40D, 1/125 second at f6.7, ISO 400.