Pancake lenses are important for many genres of photographers. They are small, easy to carry, and inconspicuous for genres such as street photography. While pancake lenses remain important, there are unfortunately not many options available today. Here is a look at the three that continue to win over.
Sony 20mm f2.8
Designed for APS-C cameras, the Sony 20mm is a 30mm equivalent on a cropped sensor. It has 7 aperture blades, but overall, the lens’ design is pretty plain. There are no lens controls; if you wish to focus manually, head to Sony’s menus. Moreover, the lens is thin, but more so sturdy. “With the right camera, this lens makes a Sony E-mount camera super pocketable. In fact, the combo can fit into a sports coat jacket or a winter jacket with ease if you don’t feel like wearing a strap,” we added about its size. The autofocus is quite quick, and we barely missed any shots. Similarly, the image quality is sharper than most zooms, and the bokeh is quite pleasing as well. The strongest quality of the pancake lens is also the color rendition, which is super vivid and punchy.
Fujifilm 27mm f2.8 (Original)
Fujifilm 27mm is also a small pancake lens that goes well with the company’s pocketable cameras. It does not have a hood, but it has a thin focusing ring. The design is also sturdy, and the lens can withstand being tossed around. The 27mm offers a fast focusing mechanism, and one that can even work well in low light. In fact, we found it faster than the older Fujifilm 35mm f1.4 R in some situations. It is sharper than the 18mm f2, 14mm f2.8, and the 60mm f2.5 lenses, and it is something street photographers will reach for. The colors are a bit more muted, but you can fix that in post.
Canon 40mm f2.8 STM
The 40mm is the last pancake lens offering, which offers a 64mm focal range on an APS-C camera. It has a simple design, but it features an AF/MF switch, which others lack. The design is sturdy for its price, and it is small enough to pair with Canon DSLRs or mirrorless cameras with ease. Its focusing system is not as fast as the ones seen today, but it gets the job done. And while focusing, the front element extends outward instead of rotating, so you have to be careful to not push it back. The pancake lens also offers sharp images from the center to the edge at f5.6, and the details are captured really well. “This is fantastic for fleeting moments, or for street / documentary type image-making, particularly on a full-frame camera like my old 5D MK II, the package is “relatively” small and very nimble,” we also explained.