Pancake lens is a type of prime slr or dslr lens which are very thin and flat. Pancake lenses generally offer wide angle for dslr or slr cameras. Pancake lenses generally do not offer optical zoom function for your camera however the wide angle they offer is very handy if you like taking wide angle pictures.

Where to use pancake lenses? What is the purpose of pancake lenses?

A pancake lens can be used anywhere! As these are thin and flat lenses, it will reduce the weight and the size of your camera. If you are into street photography or if you do not like carrying your gear around, you will love pancake lenses.

What are the advantages of pancake lenses?

A pancake lens’ biggest advantage is its size as I have mentioned above. Furthermore, I also noticed that when you point a camera fitted with a pancake lens to a person, they tend to be more relaxed and natural. Maybe this is something to do that a pancake lens fitted camera looks like more of an ordinary camera.

Compare to pretty standard 18-55mm lens, a pancake lens is thinner and lighter. You can fit your camera in your bag more comfortable or you can even fir your camera in your jacket pocket. Obviously this is more possible with a compact dslr. If you ask me what are pancake lenses are used for or what pancake lenses are good for, I would say specifically street photography especially in night. I am using a Sony Nex with a Sony pancake lens and I believe this is the perfect solution for street and night photography.

A pancake lens generally offer wide angle. So a pancake lens is great when it comes to take landscape shots. When it comes to landscape photography, my favourite is again pancake lenses. Also it is easier to fit everybody on your birthday party in to your photographs.

Another tip about the pancake lenses is for macro photography. Pancake lenses can focus better in shorter distances which help you in macro photography.

Can I use a pancake in manual or auto focus function?

Sure you can use your pancake lens in either manual or auto focus function.

Disadvantages of pancake lenses:

A pancake lens’ main disadvantage is lack of optical zoom capability. Also a pancake lens can be slower than a normal size lens. Pricewise a pancake lens can be more expensive than a normal size lens too.

Measurements of a pancake:

Size or the measurements of a pancake lense will be depending on the model and the make of your camera. For example here is the dimensions of this Nikon 40mm pancake lense.