I was thinking about this the other day - it seems like a glaring hole in the lens lineup. Something which would turn the 450D into teh high quality small format camera so many looking for. Would be a tessar @ around 40mm equivalent and f2.0 or so with the quality in build and optics (and price) of the 35 2.0 or the 50 1.8. Nothing special, just a solid prime to make the 450D into a good P+S.
So why not?
Justin D wrote:
I was thinking about this the other day - it seems like a glaring hole in the lens lineup. Something which would turn the 450D into teh high quality small format camera so many looking for. Would be a tessar @ around 40mm equivalent and f2.0 or so with the quality in build and optics (and price) of the 35 2.0 or the 50 1.8. Nothing special, just a solid prime to make the 450D into a good P+S.
So why not?
I wouldn't call it a glaring hole--maybe a pinhole? A pancake is a speciality lens and only a tiny minority of EOS shooters would buy it. Besides, I use the EF 35 2.0 and it's pretty damn tiny. It's so small every time I reach for the frickin' MF ring I grab air. I keep it mounted on a gripless (no BG-E2) 40D and it feels like a deluxe point 'n shoot. With the EW-65 II mounted it looks like its wearing a miniskirt.
I happen to have a Nikkor 45 2.8P I bought as part of a kit with a Nikon FM3A in 2002. Cute little lens: sharp but so tiny as to be awkward to focus and set apertures. I rarely use it and greatly prefer my Nikkor 50 1.4 AIS. It's only a little larger but much easier to operate and much faster.
Oh well. I'd buy it. And I suspect those Canon shooters who might buy the new Panasonic G1 or the touted Oly Micro 4/3 camera would, too. Same with the people who shoot Olympus/Pentax for their size. I'm ultimately going to get something like the Oly when it comes out, but I'd much rather have a tiny camera with a tiny lens which can ALSO use my EOS lenses.
I've used the aforementioned 45/2,8 nikkor on a 20D. I would buy a Canon pancake too!!
If Canon/Nikon only would release a non-slr crop/ff digital camera....
The 450D is really a bit too big to be pocket sized IMHO, plus Canon's pop up flashes tend to extend quite a way forward, pretty much eliminating the advantage of a pancake lens anyway, I find it quite hard to get a hold of my 50 1.8 on the 40D because of how far forward the flash "hump" goes.
