Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

The main reason is to camouflage the camera. People who love the pancake are usually street photographers and want to be as unobtrusive as possible. People tend to become shyer when someone points a camera with a professional lens at them. I don't buy that size and weight are a factor since the size and weight of a 50 mm 1.8 or 2.0 aren't heavy.

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

Jerry! You finally get it!

Loren - in Beautiful Baguio City

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Cool, those are good examples of pancake lenses for other than FF. I only described one size, that for FF or 35mm film cameras. The ones I was thinking of for my own personal use were Pentax pancakes in 40mm or 43mm.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Well, my compact lens is perfect for photographing compact cars.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

That is a better technical answer than mine. But I have unfortunately never owned a Leica so my thinking is via Pentax, Canon, Nikon, Minolta film cameras.

Sinewsworn Loc: Port Orchard, WA

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

Yes, I think it should Fit! (couldn't resist)

Loren - in Beautiful Baguio City

Bill_de Loc: US

On topic ... I think?

https://expertphotography.com/pancake-lens/

...

stenstromk Loc: Los Angeles, CA

Pancake is just a term to scribe a very short lens, one shorter than is normally associated with that focal length. The pancake lens is designed to be short and usually there is some compromise in quality - perhaps not much but a landscape photographer would never use a pancake lens. But they are really useful when you want to travel light,
say putting you full frame camera in a briefcase, or fitting an extra lens is a full camera bag, or most importantly,
not being so noticeable to the folks or facility you are photographing. Sometimes a pancake or small lens is used for street photography. The focal length of such lenses is normal or shorter, since the goal is to make the lens small.
There are no telephoto pancake lenses although there are telephotos that are larger and smaller.

Nikon has just announced a Z mount short 28 mm lens that could be considered a pancake lens. There are several that are available for Micro 4/3s. The new Hasselblad 907 system comes with a wide angle lens (about 35 mm in
35mm camera terms) that is quite short and is sometimes called a pancake lens.

So one could summarize by saying that a pancake lens is a short lens that you use in situations where a full size
lens would make photography prohibitive. Having pictures with a less that optimal lens is better than having no
pictures at all.

mks

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

My "nifty fifty" hardly is going to scare anybody. And my G16 certainly won't, when I want to use it. Perhaps the best solution, though, would be the right-angle lens attachment!

Loren - in Beautiful Baguio City

stenstromk Loc: Los Angeles, CA

I haven't see one of those for sale in maybe 30 years.

mks

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

We seem to live in a time when folks like to use all sorts of "lingo" and make up terms to describe all sorts of things. I do think that the term "pancake lens" is pretty cute and quite descriptive of a lens that is round and flat. As a person with some background in physics and optics, though, I would not be much inclined to use a pancake lens, especially for critical applications. The reason is pretty simple. With a short lens, it becomes necessary to deflect rays of light, especially those from the edges and the corners of the frame, through larger angles in order to direct them where they need to go on the target (film or sensor). The greater the angle that light is refracted, the greater the likelihood and effect of some really bad things like chromatic aberration and spherical aberration and corner/edge vignetting. And with short distances from the lens elements to the target, the more likely that plain old geometric distortion will be introduced.

With a lens of more normal dimensions, additional elements can be added to make corrections, or the refraction can be distributed among several lens elements to limit the effects. But with a pancake lens (or any other short-bodied lens), there is no room to accommodate these additional elements to minimize or correct lens errors.

So while I see the potential attractiveness and the undeniable cuteness of these lenses, I'd really want to try before buying, in as many different situations as possible.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

I have the pancake kit lens for my Olympus cameras. It is nice to use for on camera flash as it doesn't block my small unit.

My 25mm and 17mm lenses work well too.

User ID

Its the normal lens FL for APSC, like the 40/2.0 mentioned earlier for the Z6ii.

The ubiquitous 50 for 24x36mm is really longer than normal. It doesnt scale up relative to the normal lenses for larger formats. Being a mini format, in early days 24x36mm benefited from the larger details projected by the longer FL. Same story with the 38 and 42mm "normals" for the Pen-F film SLR.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Thereis nothing bad about analyzing photographic terminology, slang, and nomenclature. It's part of the language of communication we all share in talking and writing about photography. Every technology and art has its etymology, definitions, idioms, and colloquialisms. As technologies advance, improve and diversify, new words emerge, old words reemerge and words are borrowed for other technologies. There's nothing wrong with folks asking for definitions, clarifications, and detailed explanations of all these words, terms, and their origins and usages.

There is nothing bad about sincere, honest, and vigorous debate. Some humor helps take the edge and potential unpleasantness out of the debate. Logical, normal, and well-meaning people can disagree on any topic, weird, detail technical fact without animosity, foul language, and name calling. Sadly, this continually reoccurs on this forum. It only takes a few folks engaging this way to distract from time conversions and discourage others, perhaps new members, to join the conversation.

As for MY take on lens acquisition and usage. I do not "collect" lenses just for the sake of owning them. I select my lenses based on the required usage, focal lengh, speed, and sometimes physical size. I studied optics in school but I am not an optical engineer, designer, or even a repair tech. I know how lenses and their elements work but I can not alter any of this, design my lenses, or worry too much about the technicalities of the construction of any given lens. So, when I need a lens of a specific type, I do my research, and buy wherever possible, from my local source. I test the lens and if it does the work as required, I keep it! If not, my dealer will gladly change it up for another model. I have exchanged 2 lenses in 25 years. Optical specifications are great but visual results are better!


Y'all have probably heard the expression "you don't bring a knife to a gunfight". "you don't kill a flea with an elephant gun", and " the right tool for the rig job". All good logical philosophies! The caveat is, however, YOU have to decide what is right for you and what and how you shoot. For example, do you need a small, black camera lens to do street photography? Must you be incognito while shooting on the street? Perhaps- depending on the neighborhood, the culture, and the conditions. The famous Weegee (Arthur Felig) shot street photograhy " The Underbelly of New York City, back in the day, with a 4x5 Speed Graphic and enormous flashbulbs! Alfred Eisenstadt preferred a tiny Erminox camera- smaller than a Leica! When the twin-lens Rolleiflex was at its height of popularity, street shooters painted toilet paper cores black and affixed them to the focusing knob on the side of the camera to mimic a telephoto lens. The actual lens was pointed sideways to capture activities on the street. Different strokes for different folks! Differet times!

In some cultures, photographers and other artists working on the streets are commonplace and will mostly be ignored by passers-by. Perhaps in other cultures and conditions, street photograhers are considered sleazy voyeurs who are invading everyone's privacy or extracting folks' souls! In some places, the photographer may fall victim to thieves and thugs- a low profile camera may not be of any advantage- a weapon or some savvy in marshall arts may be more advantageous. Anyway- any expectation of privacy on the street, in most Western countries, is not provided by law, and if the proliferation of closed circuit TV cameras progresses at the present rate, there will be cameras lashed to every, storefront, building, lamppost, fire hydrant, bus, train, phonebooth, garbage can, and park bench! Privacy in public places-forget about it!

If one prefers a smaller lighter low-profile camer, a smaller body a "pancake" lens may be ideal, And...something old has become new again. Back inthe 1950s, and through the 1980s there were dozens of fixed-lens 35mm cameras with 40 to 50mm "normal" lenses. Old-timers will remember, Argus, Minolta, Balda, Kodak, Yashica, Konica, and countless others on the market. WOW- they were all mirrorless because of the incorporated rangefinders! So nowadays you can have your cake and eat it too- a sophisticated DSLR or nice mirrorless camera with a small, sharp, fast LITTLE lens!

At end of the day, street photographers are not a hoard of invasive peeping toms. The average person is not a celebrity being pursued by the Paparazzi. I any of y'all are afraid of "people" going the opposite way and using a very large lens and shooting from a distance may be the solution. A 600mm with a camouflage paint job mounted on gunstock support could be an excellent choice- ain't nobody gonna bother you- except teh POLICE!


My choice of PANCAKE CAMERS is my cellphone- can't get much flatter than that!