Pancake lens

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A DSLR camera with a pancake lens PentaxK7 7.jpg
A DSLR camera with a pancake lens

A pancake lens is a colloquial term for a flat, thin camera lens assembly (short barrel). The majority are prime lenses of a normal or slightly wider angle of view, but some are zoom lenses.

Contents

Motivation

Pancake lenses are primarily valued for providing quality optics in a compact package. The resulting camera and lens assembly may even be small enough to be pocketable, a design feature which is usually impractical with conventional SLR bodies and lens assemblies. Pancake lenses can be very short and flat because they do not need large amounts of optical correction, i.e. extra lens elements.

The problem arises when such lenses have too short a focal length to fit in front of the retractable mirrors used in reflex cameras. In such a situation, a pancake lens focuses in front of, rather than on, the focal plane (film or light sensor) of the camera. This has necessitated the design of retrofocus lenses that refocus the image farther back, which is why such lenses are longer and bulkier than their "pancake" equivalents.

Pancake-style prime lenses are generally simpler to manufacture than pancake zoom lenses like Sony E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 due to the general lack of an internal micromotor and fewer image correcting elements, allowing for a thinner profile. Because of this limitation, pancake zoom lenses are much less common.

While there is no specific size and weight in defining a pancake lens, most are light-weight and no more than a few centimeters in length. This varies greatly depending upon the lens' build quality, focal length, and maximum aperture.

History

In the 1960s and 1970s the Nikon GN lens was a notable example, while in the 1970s and 1980s pancake lenses were used in compact single lens reflex (SLR) cameras. [1]

Throughout the 2010s, the design has seen a resurgence due to the growth of the mirrorless interchangeable-lens digital camera market. Pancake lenses have increasingly become lighter and feature thinner profiles than years past. An extreme example of this trend would be the Pentax DA 40mm F2.8 XS, released in 2012 and measuring only 9.14 millimetres (0.360 in) long.

Body-cap lenses

Olympus 15mm F8 body cap lens Olympus Body Cap lens 15mm F8 n01.jpg
Olympus 15mm F8 body cap lens

A body-cap lens is an extreme type of pancake lens that is designed to both protect the camera internals as a body cap normally would, yet still allow the user to take photos. These lenses are manual focus only and generally have no more than a couple of optical lens elements, no image correcting elements, a very-slow fixed aperture, an extremely thin focusing ring (if any), and a retractable lens element cover. Due to this compromise in design, body-cap lenses generally suffer from numerous image quality issues such as heavy vignetting and poor image sharpness.

Examples of body-cap lenses include the Olympus 9mm F8 Fisheye and Olympus 15mm F8 for Micro Four Thirds and the Fujifilm XM-FL 24mm F8 for Fujifilm X-mount. [2] [3]

Panasonic released a manual-focus lens for the L-Mount that is nearly the size of a body cap, but it does not have a retractable lens cover: the Lumix S 26mm F8.

List of pancake lenses

This is a list of autofocus prime lenses designed for mirrorless cameras that measure less than 30 millimeters in length — limit one per brand and focal length combination.

Model Lens
mounts
Focal
length
[lower-alpha 1]
Aperture Aperture
ring
OIS WeightLengthRelease
year
Availability
1.0-type ("1-inch")
Samsung 9mm F3.5 NX-M 24mmf/3.5NoNo31g13mm2014Discontinued
Nikon 10mm F2.8 1 27mmf/2.8NoNo77g22mm2011Discontinued
Samsung 17mm F1.8 NX-M 46mmf/1.8NoYes55g28mm2014Discontinued
Panasonic 14mm F2.5 II MFT 28mmf/2.5NoNo55g21mm2014Current
Olympus 17mm F2.8 MFT 34mmf/2.8NoNo71g22mm2009Discontinued
Panasonic 20mm F1.7 II MFT 40mmf/1.7NoNo87g26mm2013Current
Samsung 10mm F3.5 Fisheye NX 15mmf/3.5 iFn No72g26mm2013Discontinued
Sony 16mm F2.8 E 24mmf/2.8NoNo67g23mm2010Current
Samsung 16mm F2.4 NX 24mmf/2.4 iFn No90g24mm2011Discontinued
Leica 18mm F2.8 L 27mmf/2.8NoNo80g21mm2017Discontinued
Sony 20mm F2.8 E 30mmf/2.8NoNo69g20mm2013Current
Samsung 20mm F2.8 NX 30mmf/2.8 iFn No89g25mm2010Discontinued
Canon 22mm F2 EF-M 35mmf/2.0NoNo105g24mm2012Current
Nikon 26mm F2.8 [lower-alpha 2] Z 39mmf/2.8NoNo125g24mm2023Current
Fujifilm 27mm F2.8 WR X 41mmf/2.8YesNo84g23mm2021Current
TTArtisan 27mm F2.8 E, X, Z 41mmf/2.8YesNo88g29mm2022Current
Canon 28mm F2.8 [lower-alpha 2] RF 45mmf/2.8NoNo120g25mm2023Current
Samsung 30mm F2 NX 45mmf/2.0NoNo85g22mm2010Discontinued
Nikon 26mm F2.8 Z 26mmf/2.8NoNo125g24mm2023Current
Canon 28mm F2.8 RF 28mmf/2.8NoNo120g25mm2023Current

List of pancake zoom lenses

This is a list of autofocus zoom lenses designed for mirrorless cameras that measure less than 33 millimeters in length.

Model Lens
mounts
Focal length [lower-alpha 1] Aperture OIS PZ [lower-alpha 3] WeightLengthRelease
year
Availability
WideTeleWideTele
1.0-type ("1-inch")
Samsung 9-27mm F3.5-5.6 NX-M 24mm73mmf/3.5f/5.6YesNo73g30mm2014Discontinued
Nikon 10-30mm F3.5-5.6 PD 1 27mm81mmf/3.5f/5.6YesYes85g28mm2014Discontinued
Nikon 11-27.5mm F3.5-5.6 1 30mm74mmf/3.5f/5.6NoNo80g31mm2012Discontinued
Panasonic 12-32mm F3.5-5.6 MFT 24mm64mmf/3.5f/5.6YesNo70g24mm2013Current
Olympus 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ MFT 28mm84mmf/3.5f/5.6NoYes93g23mm2014Current
Panasonic PZ 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 MFT 28mm84mmf/3.5f/5.6YesYes95g27mm2011Current
Sony 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 E 24mm75mmf/3.5f/5.6YesYes116g30mm2012Current
Samsung 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 NX 24mm75mmf/3.5f/5.6YesYes111g31mm2014Discontinued
Nikon 16-50mm F3.5-6.3 Z 24mm75mmf/3.5f/6.3YesNo135g32mm2019Current

List of near-pancake lenses

This is a list of autofocus prime lenses designed for mirrorless cameras that measure between 30 and 38 millimeters in length.

Model Lens
mounts
Focal
length
[lower-alpha 1]
Aperture Aperture
ring
OIS WeightLengthRelease
year
Availability
1.0-type ("1-inch")
Nikon 18.5mm F1.8 1 50mmf/1.8NoNo70g36mm2012Discontinued
Panasonic Leica 15mm F1.7 MFT 30mmf/1.7NoNo115g36mm2014Current
DJI 15mm F1.7 MFT 30mmf/1.7NoNo115g36mm2015Discontinued
Olympus 17mm F1.8 MFT 34mmf/1.8NoNo120g36mm2012Current
Fujifilm 18mm F2 X 27mmf/2.0YesNo116g34mm2012Current
Samyang 24mm F2.8 [lower-alpha 4] E 24mmf/2.8NoNo93g37mm2018Current
Samyang 35mm F2.8 [lower-alpha 4] E 35mmf/2.8NoNo86g33mm2017Current
Sony Zeiss 35mm F2.8 E 35mmf/2.8NoNo120g37mm2013Current

List of older pancake lenses

NameTypeFormatLength
Canon EF 40mm F2.8 STM PrimeFull frame22.8 millimetres (0.90 in)
Canon EF-S 24mm F2.8 STM PrimeAPS-C22.9 millimetres (0.90 in)
Industar-22 51mm F3.5PrimeFull frame21.0 millimetres (0.83 in)
Industar-50 52mm F3.5PrimeFull frame20.0 millimetres (0.79 in)
Industar-69 28mm F2.8PrimeHalf frame13.5 millimetres (0.53 in)
Konica Hexanon AR 40mm F1.8PrimeFull frame27.0 millimetres (1.06 in)
Neewer E 28mm F2.8PrimeAPS-C29.0 millimetres (1.14 in)
Nikon 45mm F2.8 AI PPrimeFull frame17.0 millimetres (0.67 in)
Nikon 50mm F1.8 E AISPrimeFull frame28.0 millimetres (1.10 in)
Nikon Auto GN Nikkor 45mm F2.8PrimeFull frame20.0 millimetres (0.79 in)
Olympus 25mm F2.8 ED PrimeFour Thirds23.5 millimetres (0.93 in)
Olympus E. Zuiko Auto-S 38mm F2.8PrimeHalf frame14.0 millimetres (0.55 in)
Olympus Zuiko Auto-S 40mm F2PrimeFull frame25.0 millimetres (0.98 in)
Pentax DA 21mm F3.2 PrimeAPS-C25.0 millimetres (0.98 in)
Pentax DA 40mm F2.8 PrimeAPS-C15.0 millimetres (0.59 in)
Pentax DA 40mm F2.8 XS PrimeAPS-C9.14 millimetres (0.360 in)
Pentax DA 70mm F2.4 PrimeAPS-C25.4 millimetres (1.00 in)
Pentax FA 43mm F1.9 PrimeFull frame27.0 millimetres (1.06 in)
Voigtlander 20mm F3.5 Color Skopar SL IIPrimeFull frame28.6 millimetres (1.13 in)
Voigtlander 40mm F2.0 Ultron SL IIPrimeFull frame24.5 millimetres (0.96 in)

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 35mm equivalent.
  2. 1 2 Actually a full-frame lens.
  3. Power zoom.
  4. 1 2 Also sold under the Rokinon brand.

See also

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References

  1. DPReview forum: Re: Why is a pancake lens a big deal?, Photomonkey, 10:01:14 PM, Thursday, September 14, 2006
  2. "レンズ用アクセサリー | Accessories".
  3. "Fuji's New XM-FL is an X-Mount Body Cap Lens with Built-In Photo Filters". PetaPixel. 2015-02-06. Retrieved 2021-11-27.