What are all the cheap pancake lenses for Fuji X Mount?

Forgot to mention the Lomo T43 40mm which I have 8,000 miles away. That just about counts too on an L39 adapter. Might grab another as it's awesome.

a_c_skinner wrote:

I'm wondering what you are thinking. A single pancake lens or a selection of focal lengths?

A kit of pancake lenses as I just switched my XE3 for an X Pro 2 (in love already and only got it 2 hours ago). So that I keep the weight around 600g.

The 27 is excellent and the 18/2 is good too, though it isn't cheap. It may be when the 18/1.4 produces some second hand upgrades of course.

Got the 27, perfectly good lens, as good as the 23mm f2. Had 4 18mm's, but never tried them, just got from Thailand on grey market to resell in UK. Made about $1000 with one or two other lenses too. 😉 bit more in Vietnam but will be able to find cheap probably.

If you are looking for small, light and a range of focal lengths then the 15-45 zoom is worth adding in.

Good point. Used to have it and loved it at 15mm. Nowhere near a pancake especially in use but probably only weights 113g. I would definitely superglue both rings so I would be tempted to zoom in, as that frustrated me and I have the 16-50mm which is better as a lightweight zoom. But the 15mm f3.5 (thinking of it as a prime) is a very good poor mans 14mm f2.8 as it also has OIS and is just as wide. Great lens for landscapes.

Rod McD wrote:

Hi,

If you have a Canon LTM adapter (as per your second post) why not consider Canon LTM lenses? They're not all pancakes, but they are all small for the FL, and some of them are very good.

Cheers, Rod

Good point. I will start with that mount. There is a silver collapsing lens which isn't too expensive or big: Industar 22 50mm f3.5, 80g. Not sure if it can collapse though without touching the sensor. I did fancy one of the Canons but I would want the Jupiter 3 50mm f1.5 more, as I love the heavy bokeh and it's remarkably small still. Will ask in the Manual Lenses forum and there is a list of LTM lenses somewhere.

Jianfei WANG wrote:

Laowa just showed off its new 10mm F/4 'Cookie' lens for APS-C this month, you could wait a while for its release if you are interested in UWA pancake.

Oooooh, that looks interesting. Haven't ordered the Pergear 10mm yet and already have a fisheye. 10mm by Laowa would be great for landscapes and certain specific street shots. Might be less than their usual ~$500 too. Will hold off or maybe get both. Thanks Jianfei 🙏👍

Street_Photography wrote:

As I am buying a heavier camera I am buying some pancakes. Here is the list so far:

- Pergear 10mm
- 7Artisans 18mm
- Fuji 27mm
- Industar 69 28mm

Counted out the Voightlander 21mm f4 as its not cheap and may have issues with focusing/adapter, also the Fuji 18mm is usually a rip off, but may get it cheap if the 7Artisans 18mm is terrible.

Anyone actually use Fuji's 24mm toy lens or is it too bad? From the few posts I have seen about it I assume most people have a bit of fun with it then hardly ever use again.

Anyone know of other pancakes? Wouldn't mind a longer manual focus one, but the old pancakes need a big adapter. Needs to still be a pancake with the adapter like the Industar 69 is (L39 mount). The Konica 40mm is the smallest found so far but still not pancake as the adapter is fairly big.

The Fujian 25mm f1.8 II is a pancake size but usually a bit dodgy, so may consider the Pergear 25mm instead, but its a bit close to 27 and 28.

Thanks

Fuji need to be looking at the Pentax 40mm (think there has been a few versions) a lens that has been around since the 70`s, if Fuji could build something similar it would be on my list.

Got a few pancakes but alas they would all need adapters so defeating the object and crop factors make them a little long for what I want.

Having a lot of fun with the Pergears at the mo, F8 can be quite limiting but it does force you to be more creative, that in itself is not really a limitation.

chaimav wrote:

Are you focused more on size/weight or optical quality?

Both. Love the IQ of the Fuji 27mm, but occasionally use the pretty terrible Industar 69 28mm as it has a unique vibe (kind of like "so bad it's good"). If the 18mm f2 had been the size of the 27mm I probably would have ordered that instead of the 7Artisans 18mm, so it's a personal balance. 18mm isn't a good focal length for me as I get sloppy.

There are several brands out there who make inexpensive lenses (although many are just clones of each other)

Meike 25mm f/1.8

Neewer 32mm f/1.6

Yep, the Pergear 25 also has some hype this year and I used to have the 7Artisans 35mm f1.2 which is almost a pancake. I think it's good you added those two so we get them all in one thread. Personally the 35 1.2 was a bit hard to focus and a bit of an inbetween fo al length. I would rather use a wider lens with zone focusing or 50 or 55mm at f1.8 to f2.4 for bokeh.

Having f1.2 was too tempting to use all the time and it was much slower for me to focus because of the body. Whereas something like the Minolta Rokkor PF 55mm f1.8 I can focus very quicky (nowhere near a pancake). The Sigma 30mm f1.4 should be on the way so I won't be buying anything else around this range. Also the Fuji 35mm f1.4 is tempting.

A 40mm pancake would be interesting as mentioned above (although I have a modified Lomo 40mm f4, not great for fast focusing but sharp) and something like the 21mm f4 Voightlander. But there are some quirky lenses in pancake form that continue to surprise like the Laowa above. I found another that Blunty reviewed on YouTube but it seemed too bad to me (almost like the horrific Olympus 15mm f8, which I found silly to use when even an iPhone 5 is far superior).

Lensbabay probably have some small options which should be worth trying for this less serious side of photography. These are definitely lenses for fun and casual shooting. For anything serious, proper Fuji lenses are obviously a far better choice. I like the idea of taking 2 lenses out as I never wear a bag, just shorts and keeping the overall weight low so I have no excuse to leave the camera at home.

I am going to research whether the Fed 50mm f3.5 collapsing silver lens is safe to use on Fuji (Industar may do one too).

Looks like the collapsing lenses should be OK:

Source: http://forum.mflenses.com/fed-50mm-f3-5-t79840.html

Street_Photography wrote:

chaimav wrote:

Are you focused more on size/weight or optical quality?

Both. Love the IQ of the Fuji 27mm, but occasionally use the pretty terrible Industar 69 28mm as it has a unique vibe (kind of like "so bad it's good"). If the 18mm f2 had been the size of the 27mm I probably would have ordered that instead of the 7Artisans 18mm, so it's a personal balance. 18mm isn't a good focal length for me as I get sloppy.

There are several brands out there who make inexpensive lenses (although many are just clones of each other)

Meike 25mm f/1.8

Neewer 32mm f/1.6

Yep, the Pergear 25 also has some hype this year and I used to have the 7Artisans 35mm f1.2 which is almost a pancake. I think it's good you added those two so we get them all in one thread. Personally the 35 1.2 was a bit hard to focus and a bit of an inbetween fo al length. I would rather use a wider lens with zone focusing or 50 or 55mm at f1.8 to f2.4 for bokeh.

Having f1.2 was too tempting to use all the time and it was much slower for me to focus because of the body. Whereas something like the Minolta Rokkor PF 55mm f1.8 I can focus very quicky (nowhere near a pancake). The Sigma 30mm f1.4 should be on the way so I won't be buying anything else around this range. Also the Fuji 35mm f1.4 is tempting.

A 40mm pancake would be interesting as mentioned above (although I have a modified Lomo 40mm f4, not great for fast focusing but sharp) and something like the 21mm f4 Voightlander. But there are some quirky lenses in pancake form that continue to surprise like the Laowa above. I found another that Blunty reviewed on YouTube but it seemed too bad to me (almost like the horrific Olympus 15mm f8, which I found silly to use when even an iPhone 5 is far superior).

Lensbabay probably have some small options which should be worth trying for this less serious side of photography. These are definitely lenses for fun and casual shooting. For anything serious, proper Fuji lenses are obviously a far better choice. I like the idea of taking 2 lenses out as I never wear a bag, just shorts and keeping the overall weight low so I have no excuse to leave the camera at home.

I have a few of the original lensbabys the most interesting to me today would be the Lens Baby Trio but its not what I would consider cheap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s2R8A72SRY&ab_channel=barparildar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKNoJkqX9Jc&ab_channel=BachImageryLLC

I am going to research whether the Fed 50mm f3.5 collapsing silver lens is safe to use on Fuji (Industar may do one too).