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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Features

Four Low Profile Pancake Lenses That Are Perfect for Candid and Street Photography

Chris Gampat
No Comments
07/10/2017
2 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Panasonic 20mm f1.7 II review lead image (1 of 1)ISO 4001-30 sec at f - 2.8

One of the best things about pancake lenses isn’t necessarily just their low profile, but the fact that they encourage you to carry your camera everywhere with you. That mean that at all times, you can be ready to capture candid moments as they happen in front of you. They’re not going to stick out in a crowd and the performance of many of them are really terrific.

So with that said, we’ve gone through our reviews index and looked at a number of great pancake lenses that we’ve tested.

Fujifilm 27mm f2.8 R

In our review we state:

“Luckily, we didn’t have much of a problem autofocusing with this lens. It is slightly faster than the much older Fujifilm 35mm f1.4 R in some situations, although you really have to be looking for the extra performance. Even in low light situations, as long as the reticule was placed over a high contrast area and dialed into being the right size we didn’t see much of an issue.”

Buy Now: Amazon ($449)

Sample Images

Sony 20mm f2.8

In our review we state:

“We’ve tested loads of Sony lenses, and although this isn’t the sharpest one that they make by a long shot, it’s still better than most of the company’s zooms. Of the APS-C E mount prime lenses, this lens is perhaps the softest and fast behind many of the f1.8 offerings. But this lens isn’t really about the numbers–or at least we think it isn’t. It’s more about an experience. It turns your Sony E mount camera into something that you can tote around nearly anywhere with you and it will give you good enough images to make you in awe of.”

Buy Now: Amazon (Usually $322)

Sample Images

Sony 28mm f2 FE

Editor’s Note: This is pretty darn close to being pancake…

In our review we state:

“The Sony 28mm f2 has incredible image quality, and it goes to show that folks that tend to snub their noses at Sony lenses should give them another look. The Sony 28mm f2 is not only sharp, but offers very good color, beautiful bokeh for a lens this wide, and very little in the way of image quality issues. Wide open, it will vignette a bit, but you can creatively embrace this. You’ll also face some distortion which will need to be eliminated in post-production or through camera settings. But that’s what you need to expect with a lens like this.”

Buy Now: Amazon ($448)

Sample Images

Pro Tip: Though it’s frowned upon by some photographers, try shooting from the hip. No one cares about how you got the image, they only care about the end result in street photography.

Panasonic 20mm f1.7 II

In our review we state:

“Over our review period, we’ve come to really appreciate the 20mm f1.7 II lens. It’s built and feels super solid with a metal exterior that works well with both the OMD EM5 and the GH4. When it comes to manually focusing though, you’ll only be working with a small sliver of a focusing ring. Granted, this lens isn’t weather sealed nor does it really need to be.”

Buy Now: Amazon (Usually around $267)

Sample Images

autofocus camera candid fujifilm panasonic Photography sony street photography
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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