Lack of up to date pancakes in M43?

alwinvrm wrote:

I own a Fuji X system, but I notice that I prefer to take my Fuji x100 or Nikon 1 system for street / general photography.

So the thought came that an Olympus E M10 with a pancake and sometimes a portrait lens might be a flexible alternative for the x100 that is smaller than the Fuji X system.

When researching I found that the Pana 20mm 1.7 has outdated focusing speed, while the Pana 14mm and Oly 17 mm had less than stellar IQ. The Pana Leica 25 mm, Pana 25mm, and newer Oly 17mm are nice lenses but no pancakes.

I was somewhat surprised that there seem to be few modern pancakes for M43 while small size is apparently an argument used in favour of M43. For all practical purposes is my XE2 wit 35mm 1.4 as big as am Olympus om with the Pana Leica 25mm.

I want to try M43 but the system gives me no obvious roadmap or compelling argument for my simple and no tele desires.

I hope I am wrong and missing a few things; please point out what (products) I missed because I real feel drawn to M43.

Just like the hobby shop downtown - a huge range in their stock and the particular requirement is missing.  This is one of the imponderables of buying things ....

M4/3 has to be the most developed of the new mirrorless systems when it comes to the vast range of lenses that are available for it.  Furthermore a number of pancake lenses are available but apparently not good/fast/modern enough.  I presume that they were when first announced and a lot of them have been sold, used, and appreciated.

The manufacturers are presently releasing more exotic capability lenses now that most niches have been filled with quite capable ones.  High performance lenses tend to be large and expensive and without them the whole system is going to get a reputation as a “poor man’s mount format”.  Nobody is going to criticise Canon or Nikon (even Sony) for making “unaffordable lenses” for pro-level use.  What must be taken into account is that one day there will leading quality “pancakes” for M4/3 but I expect that they will be criticised for being too large (for a pancake) and too expensive for M4/3.

So all we have to offer are quite capable pancake versions of lenses that at least are no older than the M4/3 system itself - and that is hardly “ancient”.  Many dslr lenses are based on 30+ old designs.  So how come any lens made specifically for M4/3 is not “modern”?

I do know from experience with legacy MF lenses that even old lenses can perform well if they are adapted to the M4/3 mount.  Even the Canon EF 40/2.8 pancake is not expensive in its own right and can be focal reduced to M4/3.  It is sweet and an impeccable performer on M4/3 bodies.