The title of this post is a total and complete misnomer because it's all about camera lenses and not at all about pancakes. The basil might have been the first to throw you, yes? Here's the deal. I finally pulled the trigger and bought a much-needed lens for work this week. Look. I love nice things, but I absolutely loathe spending money on myself. It's nearly impossible for me to do it. I have been in such a creative/photographic/blogging rut lately, and this is such a story for another day, but one thing I continue to come back to is the fact that I need to be willing to invest in myself. In gear, in education, in time, the works. We can talk about that later. Let's talk about lenses. This post is not about the lens I just bought. It's about another lens I want.

And herein lies the trouble with buying things. There's always something more, yes? Yes.

Anyhoo.

I mentioned a few weeks back that a friend from my photography group loaned me his 40mm pancake lens. It's this guy, in case you're interested in taking a peek. Look how wee! I adore my 50 mm lens and use it a lot. It's my go-to and it's on my camera 75% of the time. In fact, you might remember that I recently upgraded from El Cheapo to this baby, and we have since become very close. However. Even on a full-frame camera, 50 mm can be a bit tight. Inside, you can need to back way the heck up to get all you want in your shot, and outside can be a pain too. Here's an example, shot this weekend of the window at Can Can.

Me no likey.

So I want something a bit wider, and generally when I want to open things up, I can use my favorite zoom lens, the 28-135mm. This guy. We're also close. But the truth of the matter is that while my zoom can be very versatile, it does have it's limitations. One of which is the fact that it's heavy and cumbersome, especially when attached to my already heavy camera. So it seems to make sense that I should add another, wider telephoto to my arsenal of lenses, and here's why. I'm hoping to continue to add more architecture work to my portfolio, and the 50 mm is too tight for that. Also, we'll be traveling this summer, and the 28-135 mm is too heavy for that. (People, don't let them fool you. It's not the camera that's the investment. It's the lenses.)

Enter the 40 mm pancake. I'm so glad I got a chance to borrow it, and it was a ton of fun to play with, but really, I'm not closer to a decision. Let me show you the differences and you can tell me what you think.

We'll start with the basil.

Same angle, same location. See the diff? What do you think? The pancake would travel great and for the price ($150) it's an awesome lens, but is it enough of a difference from the 50 mm that I already have?

Let's make it a little easier and use my family room.

You can really see the difference here, can't you? A lot more room top to bottom and side to side on the 40 mm. But just for fun, I set my 28-135 to 35 mm, so we could see what we'd get if I went that route. Same spot, different day.

And Violet hiding behind the coffee table (totally hate that table, by the way and want a new one)! Even more room top to bottom and side to side.

So where am I? If it were just a vacation piece, I'd lean toward the 40. Like I said, awesome lens for the price. But for work and play? I'm tempted to put that $150 toward the $350 price tag of the 35. But gulp. What think you, my lovelies? Help a sister out!