What is a pancake lens

[Pudding]

I was just looking to make a Christmas list... and wondered what i could get new for my camera
and i see the Pancake lens.... i am not sure what they do... and how it would benefit me
any one know   

[Misty Roan]

No idea. But have you got a lens baby, they are good fun.

[Pudding]

oh whats that... i have the Lumix G1 ... i bet they dont fit it ?

[Tiramisu]

pancake lens are lens which are thin.... so make the camera more portable...
bear in mind pancake lens are really basic - so no zoom, no stabilisation etc
but it's good if you want your camera portable

so for me, i always have 42-200mm on my PINK GF2, but if i need to have something ultra portable, i use my pancake lens!

[JohnMcL7]

As above it's basically just a very small lens, the term has kind of surfaced unofficially.  For example, the two Panasonic pancakes which can fit your G1 are the 14mm F2.5 and the 20mm F1.7:

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/panasonicdmcgh2/page5.asp

http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/panasonic_20_1p7_o20/

And you can see a selection of pancakes here:

http://a.img-dpreview.com/previews/PanasonicdmcGH2/images/14/pancakes.jpg

The Panasonic 45mm F2.8 is not a pancake though, it's a single focal length but it's nowhere near as small:

http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/panasonic_45_2p8_o20/

The advantage of the pancake lenses is simply the small size and weight, they're barely bigger than their lens caps making them extremely portable.  You do lose image stabilisation though and there's no zooming either which makes them more restrictive in use.  As for the 14mm vs 20mm lenses, it depends on what you want to shoot - the 14mm lens is a wide angle (28mm equivalent) making it better for 'fitting everything in' whereas the 20mm lens is better at shooting a certain subject.  If you have the 14-45mm or 14-42mm you can see what the field of view will be like on the pancake lenses by turning the zoom to either 14mm or 20mm and see which one suits you better.

I'd be inclined to recommend the 20mm F1.7 lens assuming you already have one of the 14mm-xx kit lenses as you'll get a much more noticeable benefit primarily from the wider aperture, the F1.7 means the lens lets in a lot more light than the zoom lens and therefore you can take pictures in lower light.  The lens is also sharp and produces decent photos, I find it's very useful when shooting in dimmer conditions as the zoom lenses are just too slow.  The little 14mm lens is very handy for the smaller Panasonic GFx and Olympus E-Px bodies where the normal zooms are too large and its autofocus is very quick and silent but I don't think it would add as much to your kit.  Before the 20mm F1.7 was released I really missed having a decent low light lens and had to go with the bigger 4/3 lenses as a stopgap but was delighted with the little 20mm.

John

[Pudding]

Thank you very much John... that was a fab explanation........
I have been into a shop a got a booklet albout the leans now
and i am going to get the 20mm F1.7 .... so i can have a lot more of the background out of focus
I am also thinking of taking a course so i can learn more

[Jane S]

Another thank you from me - I was just looking at the 20mm F1.7 yesterday and debating whether I could justify the expense (don't think I can at the moment but there are a couple on Ebay I'm keeping an eye on)