Has it ever been confirmed why there aren’t any good full-frame pancake lenses for the E-mount?
I use the Viltrox 28mm f/4.5 on the A7C II because of the form factor. Logistically, it changes everything for me: it lets me fit the camera, with the lens attached, into a front pocket. But the lens definitely has its drawbacks. First, it’s slow at f/4.5. Second, it has a fixed aperture, so you can’t stop it down further. Third, it vignettes like crazy.
For the money, it’s great. But it can’t compete with the Canon 28mm f/2.8 or the Nikon 26mm f/2.8, those lenses are in a different league altogether.
So why can’t anyone make a pancake lens of that caliber for E-mount? I tend to believe those who say it has to do with the mount diameter being too small, nothing else really explains it. It’s certainly not due to a lack of demand for a high-quality pancake lens, because clearly there is demand (or Sony wouldn’t have made the A7C line of cameras in the first place).
I think you gave the answer - the mount seems to make it more difficult. Wide angle lenses are also hard to design for E-mount without relying heavily on software corrections.
A pancake lens for E-mount always seems to come with compromises in sharpness, aberrations, maximum aperture or otherwise.
For what it's worth I'm fairly happy with the Samyang Remaster Slim pancake set: 21mm f3.5, 28mm f3.5 and 32mm f2.8 in one package. They don't handle flare as well and sharpness and contrast don't hold up to my other lenses. Pancake lenses serve a different purpose though: unintrusive and easy to carry. I use the above primes to fill gaps in my lens loadout.
I would love a series of pancake lenses; 3 true pancakes of 18/4; 28/2 (or 2.8) and 40/2 (or 2.8) and then a short telephoto - perhaps 85/2.8 - the size of the 40/2.5G. Possible the mount makes it hard, but Sony generally has some of the smallest, high quality lenses, so not sure why that would be the case.
j4nu wrote:
There's the Samyang Slim Remaster series available...
True, but aren't they quite bad optically?
The Viltrox is actually great for what it is, but it's only 15mm thick, compared to 25mm for the Canon and Nikon equivalents. If someone were to make a new one around 25mm (10mm thicker than the Viltrox), they could probably make something really decent.
