# School me on pancake lenses!



## The Kathmandu Cat (Dec 25, 2017)

I want to get one or maybe two really nice pancake primes for my Olympus E-PL8 body. I want to use this rig for everyday walk around street photography, family and vacation photos and to shoot temples and old monuments here in Kathmandu. I know regular sized primes offer more options but want to go the pancake way to keep it compact and portable.

I’m new to photography and don’t know much about pancake lenses. I’m looking for recommendations on some good ones for my purpose. Thank you!


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## BrentC (Dec 25, 2017)

You'll probably want the 17mm f2.8 and the 20mm f/1.7 to cover your lower light situations.


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## Derrel (Dec 25, 2017)

BrentC said:


> You'll probably want the 17mm f2.8 and the 20mm f/1.7 to cover your lower light situations.



I recently saw some very fine pictures taken by the 17mm f/2.8 on a mirrorless web forum, and the images were going back for several years. Really had a nice look to its pictures. Some lenses create photos that  look, shall we say, "Mehhhh," but the 17mm f/2.8 had a very nice lens drawing style to a wide variety of pictures.

I've owned a couple of "pancake" normals over the years (Nikon Lens Series E 50mm f/1.8 and the Nikkor 45mm f/2.8-P),and had a few 35mm rangefinders with ultra-compact pancake-sized lenses (Canonet cameras with pancakes, Zeiss Ikon Contaflex with the 45mm f/2.8 Pantar, Oly-Pen half-frame),and it's really nice to have a lens that is SMALL on a camera that you carry or wear around the neck or over the shoulder.


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## beagle100 (Dec 27, 2017)

The Kathmandu Cat said:


> I want to get one or maybe two really nice pancake primes for my Olympus E-PL8 body. I want to use this rig for everyday walk around street photography, family and vacation photos and to shoot temples and old monuments here in Kathmandu. I know regular sized primes offer more options but want to go the pancake way to keep it compact and portable.
> 
> I’m new to photography and don’t know much about pancake lenses. I’m looking for recommendations on some good ones for my purpose. Thank you!



I don't know about Olympus but "pancake" style lens are smaller and lighter and very nice for 'portability'
*www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless*


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