RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: DA40XS Vs EF40STM on 5D3 (Full Frame Shootout Test)

Saturday, October 06, 2012

DA40XS Vs EF40STM on 5D3 (Full Frame Shootout Test)

Let's measurebate again! It's actually what I promised months ago and here we go! :-D

Testing conditions: All test shots were made in Manual exposure mode at f/6.7, 1/500s, ISO 100, Standard Picture Style with tuned down Sharpness, Contrast and Saturation by 1 step each, optimal focus as measured and indicated by the body's PMAF system. Pictures were all taken at almost the same time for the same scenes and compositions. Click on any of the thumbnails below, a Large image with Full EXIF in width of 3,999 pixels will be opened in a new tab. Go figure out all the differences by yourself!

DA 40/2.8 XS @ f/6.7	EF 40/2.8 STM @ f/6.7

Read Also (Latest First):-

My Canon EF40mm Pancake Brick Wall Test (on 5DIII FF)

K-5D Mark III: DA 18-55 II Converted to a 24-80 FULL FRAME Lens!

Canon Follows Pentax in Making Their 1st Pancake Lens

The "Canon" 40mm FF Pancake is Here! :-D

Compatibility of DA Lenses on Full Frame

Comments (20)

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Marq · 648 weeks ago

uh, cool..how did you make the XS fit the 5D MkII?

1 reply · active 648 weeks ago

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RiceHigh 110p · 648 weeks ago

See: http://ricehigh.blogspot.com/2012/05/canon-40mm-f...

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twil · 648 weeks ago

Da40 has more colors on top of mountains on far right. In terms of sharpness. Pretty close, maybe a tiny bit to the ef40.

So what Pentax said about da lenses being not suitable for ff is bunk?

9 replies · active 648 weeks ago

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RiceHigh 110p · 648 weeks ago

Check the image corners and see if you will still state the same.

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zosX · 648 weeks ago

Agreed. The corners are problematic. The image circle *almost* covers the full frame but the corners are horrible. FWIW the pentax glass has better contrast and color rendition IMO. Very nice sharpness too. The canon sensor taxes the pentax glass less than the k-5 sensor tho. It would be interesting to see how well pentax glass holds up on a d800.....

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jaad75 · 648 weeks ago

But Pentax stated XS image circle is smaller than the one of original DA40 Ltd.

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RiceHigh 110p · 648 weeks ago

You must be wrong then. All DA lenses are *official* told to be designed for APS-C sized sensor. It has never been stated officially for any difference.

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jaad75 · 648 weeks ago

It was officially told, that XS has reduced image circle comparing to original DA40 Ltd.

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RiceHigh 110p · 648 weeks ago

Please provide the source of your reference then. But I still wish to remind you that the *official* published *optical* specifications and parameters of the two lenses are *all* the same!

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jaad75 · 648 weeks ago

I don't remember where I read it first (some kind of announcement, but I can't find it now), but PF states the same here: http://www.pentaxforums.com/news/pentax-k-01-lens...
"Pentax claims that this is the thinnest interchangeable lens in the world, with a depth of only 9.2mm (less than a centimeter, abou 1/3rd of an inch). They accomplished this by taking the optics of the DA 40mm limited and reducing the image circle to APS-C only (the DA 40mm supports full-frame as it is in turn based on an old M-series lens)."

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RiceHigh 110p · 648 weeks ago

PF has been wrong then. My sample photos have already proven that the image circle of the XS lens is in Full Frame! There is no dark circle of any as seen nor there is any serious vignetting. But then whether the user is satisfied with its IQ is yet another issue.

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jaad75 · 648 weeks ago

PF quotes probably the same source as I mean. If XS image circle was reduced and still practically covers the full frame (excluding poor resolution in extreme corners), then maybe 40Ltd would cover a little more than that? Did you bother to check it?

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Wider · 648 weeks ago

XS is sharper.

6 replies · active 648 weeks ago

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jaad75 · 648 weeks ago

Definitely not.

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zosX · 648 weeks ago

You don't think so? It appears to be at least as sharp in my eyes. Maybe splitting hairs between the two. The XS has better rendering and microcontrast IMO which may give it the appearance of being sharper.

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jaad75 · 648 weeks ago

They are pretty close (in a center), but looking at fine details on distant buildings I think I can see a little more with the Canon. The problem is, those are downsampled JPGs, so you can't be 100% sure until you see some .CR2...

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zosX · 648 weeks ago

Agreed. The center is close and the distant buildings look slightly sharper on the canon. It could also be that the canon is better optimized for distant objects too. The buildings are closer to the edge where it would be cropped on aps, so this isnt a totally fair comparison. Also agreed about the jpeg. Rice may have processed these from raw. Considering that they are from the exact same comparison even jpegs should still be an apples to apples comparison if they were processed with the same settings.

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RiceHigh 110p · 648 weeks ago

The images are downsized automatically by the Photobucket server with the original full size in-camera jpeg files uploaded. Still, the downsized jpegs are in very large size.

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zosX · 648 weeks ago

Large enough to see the problems. Personally I never got why this was the lens for the k-01. It is a pretty tight focal length and not all that usable for general photography IMO. A 35mm or even a 28mm would have been better. I guess it was the easiest to make into an ultra pancake. 40mm makes a lot of sense on full frame, but its clear that this is not a FF compatible lens despite what people claim. The 40ltd is though.

+2 Vote up Vote down

Ricardo · 648 weeks ago

Conclusion: Canon made a very good pirate copy of the Pentax one.

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