Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Lens Review

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Handling and features

Despite being compact and lightweight, this lens is very solidly built. The lens barrel is constructed from high quality plastics and the lens mount is made of metal. When mounted on a camera, such as the Canon EOS 1Ds MkIII used for testing, the lens only protrudes from the body by around half an inch, which should make it the perfect companion for smaller full frame bodies, such as the EOS 5D series cameras, or even compact entry level models. Here the 1.6x crop factor will result in a field of view equivalent to a short telephoto 64mm lens.



Autofocus is very swift and precise. A feint noise is made by the motor during focusing, which sounds not unlike what robots do in sci-fi films, but it is certainly quiet enough to cause very few issues. Unlike Canon's USM lenses, full time manual override is possible by keeping the shutter button half depressed whilst focusing, rather than just grabbing the focus ring at any time. A thin manual focus ring, which is damped just enough, provides control for this. A small switch on the side of the lens allows switching between manual and autofocus quickly.

Focusing isn't performed internally, but the 52mm filter thread doesn't rotate either, making this lens ideal for use with polarising and graduated filters.

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