ExperimentalOptics have launched a Kickstarter campaign for a 35mm f/2.7 pancake len, dubbed "The Smallest Fastest Pancake Lens in the World!".

ExperimentalOptics Press Release

35mm f/2.7 – The Smallest Fastest Pancake Lens in the World!  

We’ve got the smallest lens in the world! It’s a 7mm thin pancake lens that fits most any camera, covers full frame, and is ready when you are! Never miss a moment again!  

ExperimentalOptics is back. The geeks from Berlin that brought you the fastest lens in the world, the 50mm f/0.75, are back to bring you something even bigger…   

…well, not actually bigger.  

Actually it’s the smallest lens in the world! A super flat, super sturdy, super fast and super high image quality pancake lens.  

It covers full frame  

It has a focal length of 35mm  

It has a fast aperture of f/2.7  

It has an absolutely bokehlicious Bokeh  

It is a joy to handle  

It is razor sharp  

Plus it is the thinnest fastest lens ever – not just the thinnest 35mm lens, nor just the thinnest f/2.7 (or faster) lens.   

The tool to express yourself 

This is not a cheap, low quality, low speed toy lens! It is a high quality, fast lens, giving you the utmost creative possibilities of speed, selective focus and bokeh – and all in an unobtrusive and uncompromisingly compact body that never gets in the way of your creative expression:   

Small. Ultra compact, it fits into any shirt pocket. In fact, your camera with the lens attached will fit into almost any pocket: no protruding parts anymore. This lens gives you the most versatile point-and-shoot setup when paired with your camera!  

Fast. A carefully selected super fast permanent aperture of f/2.7. On close ups, this gives dreamy bokeh and an emphasis on your main subject. Yet you retain plenty of depth of field to easily focus the lens, and ample light for handheld photography with fast shutter speeds. For subjects at greater distances, such as landscapes, groups of people, or architecture, the depth of field is expansive enough to render all elements of the scene in crisp detail.  

Sharp. Really, really sharp! See for yourself.  

Ready. It’s ready to shoot when you are. No collapsing after shooting, and no setting up beforehand. That’s what we call creative freedom. Yet, with a helicoid adapter, it focusses down to 30cm (1 ft) at one turn of your wrist (see technical details below). 

Agile. The ideal travel lens, the ideal lens to always have on your camera. It’s as thin as a lens cap. Only it takes pictures. Great pictures.   

Freeing. Capture your world your way: This lens puts the least bit of glass possible between you and your world. The least bit of glass between you and your creative expression.  

Croppable. Thanks to its very high centre sharpness, images also lend themselves ideally for cropping. Even at a crop equivalent to an angle of view of a 70mm or 80mm lens, pictures taken with our pancake are sharper than many travel zooms at their 70 or 80mm setting. On top of that, you retain the fast f/2.7 aperture. This way, you get a virtual 35~80mm f/2.7 zoom – all you’ll ever need for travelling.  

Bokehlicious. Look at that Bokeh! It’s round, it’s creamy, it’s soap bubbly. Yet it’s not obtrusive. And the depth of field is always manageable.

Characterful. Images have rich colours and a high colour reproduction accuracy. The lens does not add a ‘look’ or a ‘style’ as so many ‘creative’ lenses do – a look you will soon tire of, and a style that isn’t yours. Our pancake doesn't add anything, it takes away: it leaves you with the pure, raw joy of immortalising the world the way you see it.

Sees the world like you do. Angle of view and depth of field are very close to the visual impression our eyes and mind make of a scene. The lens captures a scene the way you remember it and conveys its mood. The easy use makes sure you always get to capture the perfect moment, undisturbed by technicalities.

Versatile. 35mm is just the ideal focal length, whichever camera you use: 

The lens fully covers 35mm full frame. Most of our extensive testing was done with a full frame mirrorless camera. 

It really shines, though, on APS and smaller cameras, with their less optically critical sensors and where its native 35mm focal length opens fascinating perspectives: On APS-C (and APS-H, such as a Leica M8), the lens becomes the equivalent of around 50mm, the preferred angle of view of generations upon generations of photographers – amateurs and professionals alike. 

On Micro Four Thirds, you get the smallest portrait lens in the world, at an equivalent of 70mm and thus perfect for emphasising a person, yet retaining an impression of their surroundings. 

And on cameras with smaller imaging chips, you enter the realm of the short telephoto lens – up to an equivalent of 200mm on a Pentax Q – perfect for nature and animal photography. 

Up close. Most other compact lenses have a very limited close up focus range or reduced sharpness up close. This one, combined with a focussing helicoid or Live View, gives you true close-ups! It focusses down to 30cm (see technical details below) and stays razor sharp. Bokehlicious Selfies anybody?  

Desirable. Our pancake lens is a beautiful object in itself, somewhere between sexy tool and seductive jewellery, high end, exquisite, handmade. It’s a tactile pleasure, and a great tool of creative expression for the expert photographer and the casual shooter alike. But let’s not blabber. 

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