Nikon Rumors Forum » Topic: How come Nikon doesn't make Pancake Lens?

NSXType-R on "How come Nikon doesn't make Pancake Lens?"

NSXType-R — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:18:48 +0000

Yeah, I mean, with a pancake lens, my D40 would disappear, literally. Imagine a lens with half the footprint of the 35mm 1.8? That'd be awesome!

adamz on "How come Nikon doesn't make Pancake Lens?"

adamz — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:47:08 +0000

everything is more discrete than d3x :)
I also would love to see a pancake lens for d90 - could be a 35mm/1.8 lens, don't care about the corner performance, as most of the times my main subject is closer to the center than to corner.

Willis on "How come Nikon doesn't make Pancake Lens?"

Willis — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:15:44 +0000

I'd happily sacrifice some corner performance for a smaller footprint. I'm happy to buy expensive pro lenses for serious work, but there has to be a pretty substantial market for folks who just want decent shots with something a little more discrete than a 70-200 f2.8 mounted on a D3X.

ted2001 on "How come Nikon doesn't make Pancake Lens?"

ted2001 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:18:16 +0000

I think the Zeiss Hologon (16mm) is a pancake lens and yes it did vignette without the supplied filter, but everything about the optics were stellar.

heartyfisher on "How come Nikon doesn't make Pancake Lens?"

heartyfisher — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:39:49 +0000

The pancake lense are a very very very old design. Corner performance is not as good as the modern lenses. Probably not worth the effort...

mb on "How come Nikon doesn't make Pancake Lens?"

mb — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:38:51 +0000

AF and especially AF-S with built in motor makes it difficult to produce thin pancake style lens.
It has a little to do with SLR design, look at Voigtländer Nikon mount manual focus lenses, especially Ultron 40mm.
http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/voigt/english/sl2-e.html

ted2001 on "How come Nikon doesn't make Pancake Lens?"

ted2001 — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:24:15 +0000

I always thought that "pancake" lenses were a rangefinder camera phenomenon and the reflex mirror made their design impossible. My favorite was the 16/8 hologon (Contax G2).

NSXType-R on "How come Nikon doesn't make Pancake Lens?"

NSXType-R — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:56:06 +0000

I've seen in the past that Nikon had one or two pancake lenses. How come they don't make them anymore? It would certainly allow the D40/D40x/D60/D3000 to look even smaller and allow Nikon some time to perhaps make a Panasonic GF-1 or Olympus EP-1 competitor. I'd certainly be interested in a fast pancake lens. The 35mm 1.8 could still be even smaller! That would be pretty awesome.

And for those of you with Nikon pancake lenses, how do they match up to the regular focal length lenses? How rare are these pancake lenses anyway?