If you want to look for something special, a lens with a small, cheap, and fun design. Then you need to invest your money in pancake lenses.
Today, I will recommend pancake lenses to you. Whether you are looking for an affordable and interesting camera lens, or you want to expand on your experience with photography, the pancake lens is the best choice for you. Also, the pancake lens can take some interesting pictures and easy to clean.
Before introducing these items, we need to answer two questions:
What is the pancake lens?
Why would we use it?
The pancake lens is quite strange to some photographers, especially beginner photographers. What does the pancake lens look like?
This Is the pancake lens.
What is the pancake lens?
“A pancake lens is a colloquial term for a flat, thin lens (short barrel), generally a normal or wide prime lens for a camera.” It has the same features, functions as other camera lenses. But it stands out because of its pancake-shaped design. (from Wikipedia). Also, check the below picture to see what it looks like.
There is nothing special about this camera lens, except its design.
Why would we use it?
Due to the mirror-less camera design, pancake lenses gaining popularity in the digital camera market. The small camera lens is perfect for various shooting situations, like wedding situations.
Here are some advantages the pancake lens has:
Size. The pancake lens’s weight and size are obvious. Small and easy to carry. It also makes you hold the camera steady. Let’s look at these two pictures. One is a standard lens and the other is a pancake lens.
Price. Photographers know that getting a brand-new camera lens may over a thousand dollars or more. It will break your bank. But for this simple and interesting design, pancake lenses are. For this simple and tiny design, the pancake lens I recommend is an affordable price. Only $150 or less will make your dream come true.
Quality of Images. Some people believe that cheap camera lenses mean low-quality images. It is wrong. Although its images are not good as prime lenses, it is good for this price. Below is an image was taken by pergear 10mm pancake lens. The image quality is sharp and clear.
Now I came up with a list of our high-quality and affordable pancake lenses to help make your shopping a little easier. All features of these pancake lenses will help you to capture some perfect images in different conditions and its small size allow you to carry easily compared with other competitors.
#1
Pergear 10mm F8 Pancake Lens
If you have a tight budget and want to try a pancake lens. I think that pergear 10mm F8 pancake lens is an affordable and best option for many people. For its aperture, it has a maximum f8. You cannot change the aperture and control the aperture to f16 or below the f8. But it is good for some beginners’ photographers.
This pancake has an interesting lever, which makes beginner photographers or armature photographers learn to focus on a subject you want to shoot. Weighing 70 grams, it is easy for people to carry.
This pancake lens is good for landscape lenses and street photography lenses. You can focus up close or you can have an infinity focus. In the middle of the images, it is very sharp and no color fringing and good contrast. The pergear 10mm F8 pancake lens is the cheapest and smallest pancake lens. If you use a camera Sony a6000 or Sony 6100, pergear 10mm pancake lens offer your good and attractive images. But it is also good for fuji, Sony, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, or m4/3.
Below are sample photos
Specifications:
Type:10mm F8
Lens construction:5 elements in 4 groups
Focal length: f=10mm
35mm format equivalent: （15mm(SONY-E）15（FUJI-X）20（M4/3) 15(NIKON-Z）
The angle of view: 150°
Max. aperture: F8
Min. aperture: F8
Focus range: Approx. 30cm/0.98ft - ∞
External dimensions: ø55mm x10mm
Weight (excluding caps and hoods): Approx. 80g
【Kindly note】the manual focus lens can't be recognized by the camera automatically, please change the camera setting to "release without lens" before using this lens.
2#
7artisans 35mm F5.6
If the price is not your concern or you only want a high-quality and nice design pancake lens for your camera, the 7artisans 35mm F5.6 Manual-focus Pancake Lens is the way to go. Its small size means that you can Its small size means that you can take your camera everywhere. The 7 artisans 35mm is a manual focus mode, which gives you room to grow when you learn to take pictures and allows you to take some good-looking images you like.
This pancake lens has an interesting knob, which makes it one of the easy-to-use camera lenses in its class. When it comes to its image quality, it is very sharp in the middle of the pictures and there is no color fringing and good contrast. It can deliver a high-quality picture.
Plus, 7Artisans has added some Chinese styles into the pancake lens, which is attractive and different. It only costs $135 but if you want a lens which is compatible with the Lecia mount, it costs $195.
Specifications:
Type:35mm F5.6
Lens construction: 5 elements in 4 groups
Focal length: f=35mm
Max. aperture: F5.6
Min. aperture: F5.6
Focus range: Approx. 30cm/0.98ft - ∞
External dimensions: ø60mm x13mm
Weight (excluding caps and hoods): Approx. 128g
"Please kindly note the manual focus lens can't be recognized by camera unless coming with the camera setting "release without lens"
Below are sample photos
Final Words
Pancakes lenses are a good fit for your cameras and whether you are a beginner photography or advanced photographers, this pancake lens will bring you a different experience. When you take some beautiful images with this lens and then share these images with your friends, family, and Instagram followers, it is an enjoyable experience.