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.

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.DPReview forum: Re: Why is a pancake lens a big deal? , Photomonkey, 10:01:14 PM, Thursday, September 14, 2006

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 long.

Body-cap lenses

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.

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.

In 2024, Viltrox released the thinnest autofocus pancake lens ever produced for full-frame sensors: a 28mm F4.5 lens that is only 15mm thick. It is closer in size to a body-cap lens than to other pancake lenses.

Model Lensmounts Focallength Aperture Aperturering OIS Weight Length Releaseyear Availability Samsung 9mm F3.5 NX-M 24mm 3.5 31g 13mm 2014 Discontinued Nikon 10mm F2.8 1 27mm 2.8 77g 22mm 2011 Discontinued Samsung 17mm F1.8 NX-M 46mm 1.8 55g 28mm 2014 Discontinued Panasonic 14mm F2.5 II MFT 28mm 2.5 55g 21mm 2014 Current Olympus 17mm F2.8 MFT 34mm 2.8 71g 22mm 2009 Discontinued Panasonic 20mm F1.7 II MFT 40mm 1.7 87g 26mm 2013 Current Samsung 10mm F3.5 Fisheye NX 15mm 3.5 72g 26mm 2013 Discontinued Sony 16mm F2.8 E 24mm 2.8 67g 23mm 2010 Current Samsung 16mm F2.4 NX 24mm 2.4 90g 24mm 2011 Discontinued Leica 18mm F2.8 L 27mm 2.8 80g 21mm 2017 Discontinued Sony 20mm F2.8 E 30mm 2.8 69g 20mm 2013 Current Samsung 20mm F2.8 NX 30mm 2.8 89g 25mm 2010 Discontinued Canon 22mm F2 EF-M 35mm 2.0 105g 24mm 2012 Current Fujifilm 23mm F2.8 WR X 35mm 2.8 90g 23mm 2025 Current Nikon 26mm F2.8 Z 39mm 2.8 125g 24mm 2023 Current Fujifilm 27mm F2.8 WR X 41mm 2.8 84g 23mm 2021 Current TTArtisan 27mm F2.8 E, X, Z 41mm 2.8 88g 29mm 2022 Current Viltrox 28mm F4.5 E, X 42mm 4.5 60g 15mm 2024 Current Canon 28mm F2.8 RF 42mm 2.8 120g 25mm 2023 Current Samsung 30mm F2 NX 45mm 2.0 85g 22mm 2010 Discontinued Nikon 26mm F2.8 Z 26mm 2.8 125g 24mm 2023 Current Viltrox 28mm F4.5 E 28mm 4.5 60g 15mm 2024 Current Canon 28mm F2.8 RF 28mm 2.8 120g 25mm 2023 Current

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 Lensmounts Focal length Aperture OIS PZ Weight Length Releaseyear Availability Wide Tele Wide Tele Samsung 9-27mm F3.5-5.6 NX-M 24mm 73mm 3.5 5.6 73g 30mm 2014 Discontinued Nikon 10-30mm F3.5-5.6 PD 1 27mm 81mm 3.5 5.6 85g 28mm 2014 Discontinued Nikon 11-27.5mm F3.5-5.6 1 30mm 74mm 3.5 5.6 80g 31mm 2012 Discontinued Panasonic 12-32mm F3.5-5.6 MFT 24mm 64mm 3.5 5.6 70g 24mm 2013 Current Olympus 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ MFT 28mm 84mm 3.5 5.6 93g 23mm 2014 Current Panasonic PZ 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 MFT 28mm 84mm 3.5 5.6 95g 27mm 2011 Current Sony 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 E 24mm 75mm 3.5 5.6 116g 30mm 2012 Current Sony 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 II E 24mm 75mm 3.5 5.6 107g 31mm 2024 Current Samsung 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 NX 24mm 75mm 3.5 5.6 111g 31mm 2014 Discontinued Nikon 16-50mm F3.5-6.3 Z 24mm 75mm 3.5 6.3 135g 32mm 2019 Current

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 Lensmounts Focallength Aperture Aperturering OIS Weight Length Releaseyear Availability Nikon 18.5mm F1.8 1 50mm 1.8 70g 36mm 2012 Discontinued Panasonic Leica 15mm F1.7 MFT 30mm 1.7 115g 36mm 2014 Current DJI 15mm F1.7 MFT 30mm 1.7 115g 36mm 2015 Discontinued Olympus 17mm F1.8 MFT 34mm 1.8 120g 36mm 2012 Current TTArtisan 14mm F3.5 E, X 21mm 3.5 98g 31mm 2025 Current Fujifilm 18mm F2 X 27mm 2.0 116g 34mm 2012 Current Samyang 24mm F2.8 E 24mm 2.8 93g 37mm 2018 Current Samyang 35mm F2.8 E 35mm 2.8 86g 33mm 2017 Current Sony Zeiss 35mm F2.8 E 35mm 2.8 120g 37mm 2013 Current

The Canon RF 50mm F1.8 designed for full-frame sensors nearly qualifies at 40.5mm in length.

List of older pancake lenses

NameTypeFormatLengthCanon EF 40mm F2.8 STMPrimeFull frameCanon EF-S 24mm F2.8 STMPrimeAPS-CIndustar-22 51mm F3.5PrimeFull frameIndustar-50 52mm F3.5PrimeFull frameIndustar-69 28mm F2.8PrimeHalf frameKonica Hexanon AR 40mm F1.8PrimeFull frameNeewer E 28mm F2.8PrimeAPS-CNikon 45mm F2.8 AI PPrimeFull frameNikon 50mm F1.8 E AISPrimeFull frameNikon Auto GN Nikkor 45mm F2.8PrimeFull frameOlympus 25mm F2.8 EDPrimeFour ThirdsOlympus E. Zuiko Auto-S 38mm F2.8PrimeHalf frameOlympus Zuiko Auto-S 40mm F2PrimeFull framePentax DA 21mm F3.2PrimeAPS-CPentax DA 40mm F2.8PrimeAPS-CPentax DA 40mm F2.8 XSPrimeAPS-CPentax DA 70mm F2.4PrimeAPS-CPentax FA 43mm F1.9PrimeFull frameVoigtlander 20mm F3.5 Color Skopar SL IIPrimeFull frameVoigtlander 40mm F2.0 Ultron SL IIPrimeFull frame

Gallery

Other uses The term pancake lens also refers to a specific type of image forming lens used in virtual reality and mixed reality headsets. This type of lens uses the principle that circular polarization is flipped at reflections at optical boundaries to lengthen the light path across the lens. This enables shortening the distance between the eye and the screen, therefore making the goggles more compact.

Notes

See also Immersive virtual reality Kit lens Standard zoom lens

References

External links List of all pancake lenses by camera format