Last Updated on 03/14/2025 by Lara Carretero
If you have been reading The Phoblographer for some time now, you must know that we love our pancake lenses. These cute little optics were part of the SLR era, but when digital took over, they pretty much vanished. As we step into the mirrorless camera era, we still see more zooms and primes than pancake lenses. Fujifilm and Nikon are two companies that have recently focused on giving us a lighter setup with their Fujifilm 27mm f2.8 R WR and Nikon Z 26mm f2.8. And now, it seems that Canon may be catching up with their latest patents showcasing pancake lenses for RF mount.
Canon Patents a New f8 Pancake Lenses
Per Canon Rumors, the company has registered a new patent that showcases different pancake lenses. The design is extremely small, but they are really, really slow. Here is a look at them:
RF 20mm f8
Per the information, these are the following specs:
| Focal length | 20.39 mm |
| F-number | 8.00 |
| Angle of view | 46.70° |
| Image height | 21.64 mm |
| Total lens length to sensor | 29.41 mm |
| Actual lens total length | 14.42 mm |
| Total lens protrusion | 9.41 mm |
| Back focus distance | 14.99 mm |
RF 26mm f8
| Focal length | 26.25 mm |
| F-number | 8.00 |
| Angle of view | 39.49° |
| Image height | 21.64 mm |
| Total lens length to sensor | 31.98 mm |
| Actual lens total length | 11.98 mm |
| Total lens protrusion | 11.98 mm |
| Back focus distance | 20.42 mm |
RF 21mm f8
| Focal length | 21.04 mm |
| F-number | 8.00 |
| Angle of view | 45.80° |
| Image height | 21.64 mm |
| Total lens length to sensor | 26.85 mm |
| Actual lens total length | 12.17 mm |
| Total lens protrusion | 6.85 mm |
| Back focus distance | 14.68 mm |
According to Canon Rumors, these lenses will be inexpensive, which means a lot of people can afford them. However, the f8, per the article, will result in a “deep” depth of field, which means your images will be sharp but not as sharp as the other offerings in Canon’s lenses.
Why Canon Needs Pancake Lenses, And Soon
In 2020, we reported that Canon was considering a patent for an 18-24mm f4 pancake lens; however, that patent never saw the light of day. Before Canon’s shift to mirrorless, the company had some great pancake lenses for their EF mount, such as the 40mm f2.8 STM, which was a great lens for just $150. If the company has already achieved this in DSRL days, it is imperative that they do the same now with Mirrorless. After all, the entire point of these cameras is to make them lighter and easy to travel with. In fact, a few pancake lenses could really increase the RF mount’s appeal to travel photographers and emerging photographers.
However, f8, on the other hand, seems a bit too much. F2.8 is an ideal fstop range for anyone, as people shooting in low light will not have to crank up the ISO as much. Anything above that wouldn’t make sense for anyone wanting to separate the background from the foreground or wants to shoot in really low light. Furthermore, there is also hope that the lenses will be weather-sealing, which will be a must in 2025.
There is a possibility that Canon is only researching these lenses, and we may not see anything until a few years later. We hope we are proved wrong.