More On The Pancake Lens

First iteration: Fujifilm 27mm F 2.8 lens

For the most part, I've been happy with my old Fuji 27mm pancake lens, in spite of its lack of an aperture ring. To the good, it's been a very sharp lens. To the bad, it close focusing ability have been less than stellar. But it stands out as the "King Of Compact Lenses", sitting so close to the camera that it looks like a body cap. For that reason it, it makes any Fuji X body very easy to carry and equally easy to hide in the folds of a loose fitting shirt, if required. 

In my case, this lens' raison d'être was to provide a normal lens option when I carry my minimal Fuji kit. Here, I have an X-100T with a wide angle adapter for most work, and an X-E1 body with an 50mm f/2 lens for tight head shots. But if the wide angle X-100T conks out, I would be difficult to make a picket fence shot with that modest telephoto lens on the X-E1. I wanted a compact "normal" lens to carry as a backup, and at the time, the Fuji pancake was the only viable option. I found it comforting to know that the lens was there if I ever needed it.

Lens Hood Fixation: I'm a big fan of lens hoods, not so much for their ability to prevent glare (few work really well) but for their roll-bar ability to keep wayward fingertips off the glass. One of my gripes about the original 27mm lens was its lack of a dedicated lens hood. That shortcoming had been remedied in the 27mm lens' reboot, introduced in 2021, which sported a hood similar to the one found on the Fuji X-70, only smaller.

     Chameleon's fused-lid eye                                     Nikon 45mm pancake lens                          Fuji 27mm 2.8 lens, Second Iteration  

The evolution of a compact, somewhat functional lens hood for the pancake lens started a while back. The first evidence of the bowl-shaped hood came from a chameleon, an unusual lizard native to Madagascar island and best known for its ability to change color. Assuming this was the first domed lens hood, a timeline might appear as follows:

• 60 million B.C.: Chameleons appeared on earth. In time, the eyelids would fuse together leaving a small round opening through which the lizard sees.
• 2001 A.D.: Nikkor 45mm 2.8 Lens introduced with the HN-35 hood, which measures 52mm across the threads.
• 2021 A.D.: Fujinon 27mm 2.8 lens reboot includes the FLH-XF27P lens hood, which measures 39mm across the threads.

It suffices to say that the new Fuji lens hood follows a parallel development from the chameleon to the Nikkor pancake. For the moment, I've postponed my purchase of the Fuji 27mm reboot, but I did buy the hood for the my current lens.

Get yours here.

Proliferation: It seems that Meike has offered its own pancake lens, a 28mm 2.8 since 2017. It was the compact, manual focusing lens I wanted with the aperture ring I needed for a price ($60.00) that screamed "buy me", which I did. The lens hasn't arrived, but I'll present an update when I've had a chance to play with it a bit.

This whole experiment may be for naught if the lens turns out to be a dud. But it has an important attribute: It's as compact as my precious Fuji 27mm, which considering how much I paid for it, it truly is. So if it doesn't do the job, I'm not out a ton of money.

More will follow.