What is a pancake lens, and what are its pros and cons?
Asked 8/9/2010
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I keep seeing the term “pancake lens” and I’m not sure what it actually means. Is it a different kind of lens optically, or just a size/form-factor description? What are the main advantages and disadvantages of a pancake lens compared with a more conventional lens, especially on a camera like the Panasonic Lumix GF1?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
16y ago
2 Answers
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A pancake lens is designed to be physically very thin and compact, being relatively pocketable when combined with a slim body.
Current pancake lenses have a fixed focal length in the middle of the spectrum (neither wide nor telephoto), and they are relatively slow for a prime lens (often f/2.8) although exceptions exist. The image from a pancake lens looks the same as an image from a bulkier lens of the same focal length; they have no special effect.
Although the pancake design is quite old, it has been popularized lately by mirrorless systems. Currently produced pancake lenses include:
- Canon EF-M 22mm (35e) f/2.0 STM
- Canon EF-S 24mm (38e) f/2.8 STM
- Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM
- Fuji XF 18mm (27e) f/2
- Fuji XF 27mm (40e) f/2.8
- Lomography LC-A Minitar-1 32mm f/2.8 (M mount)
- Lomography New Russar+ 20mm f/5.6 (L39, M mounts)
- Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 17mm (34e) f/2.8 (Micro Four Thirds)
- Olympus Zuiko Digital 25mm (50e) f/2.8 (Four Thirds)
- Panasonic 14mm (28e) f/2.5 Asph (Micro Four Thirds)
- Panasonic 20mm (40e) f/1.7 Asph (Micro Four Thirds)
- Pentax DA 21mm (32e) f/3.2
- Pentax DA 40mm (60e) f/2.8
- Pentax DA 70mm (105e) f/2.4
- Samsung NX 16mm (24e) f/2.4
- Samsung NS 20mm (31e) f/2.8
- Samsung NX 30mm (46e) f/2.0
- Sony E 16mm (24e) f/2.8
- Sony E 20mm (35e) f/2.8
- Voigtländer Color-Skopar 21mm f/4.0 P (M mount)
- Voigtländer Color-Skopar 25mm f/4.0 P (M mount)
- Voigtländer Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 PII (M mount)
- Voigtländer Ultron 40mm f/2 SL-II
Here is an example of a pancake lens:
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Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens. Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA
Originally by user75. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user75
16y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
A pancake lens is mainly a description of the lens’s shape: it is very thin relative to its width. It’s a form-factor term, not a special optical type, so a pancake lens does not create a unique “look” by itself.
The main advantage is compactness. A pancake lens keeps the camera smaller, lighter, and easier to carry—often making a mirrorless camera much more pocketable.
The trade-offs are mostly design limitations. Because the lens is so thin, it’s generally harder to make pancake lenses that are very fast (large maximum aperture) or telephoto. Many pancake lenses are moderate focal lengths and relatively modest in aperture compared with larger primes.
So the pros are portability and convenience; the cons are that you may have fewer choices in focal length and maximum aperture than with bulkier lenses. In normal use, image results should be comparable to any other lens of the same focal length and aperture.
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