Why a 2009 Olympus Pancake Lens Still Earns a Spot on a New OM System PEN

The Olympus 17mm f/2.8 pancake is old, slower than most modern primes, and easy to find used for very little money. On Micro Four Thirds, where much of the appeal is keeping the camera small, that raises a fair question about whether a lens this modest still deserves a place on a current body.

Robin Wong answers by pairing the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 17mm f/2.8 with an OM System PEN and walking through a wet market in Kuala Lumpur. The lens launched in 2009 with the E-P1, one of the first two Micro Four Thirds lenses Olympus ever made. Wong is upfront that it doesn't lead in sharpness or autofocus speed. What he values is the size, along with the way the silver pancake suits a small rangefinder-style body. The f/2.8 aperture also helps in the darker stalls of the market, where a little extra light makes a real difference. You get an honest look at how a lens with no standout spec performs when you're working fast in a crowded space with mixed light.

Autofocus turns out better than you might expect from 2009 glass. On the PEN, using continuous AF, Wong finds the lens quick and dependable, a noticeable step up from his memory of using single AF on older bodies like the E-PL7 and the original E-M5. On image quality, he calls the results decently sharp. The corners hold up well enough, and he doesn't see serious trouble from chromatic aberration, distortion, or flare. A newer camera body can change how an old lens behaves, and that's useful to remember the next time a cheap used prime shows up in a listing. The street frames he brings back from the market show what that combination can do.

On Micro Four Thirds, the 2x crop turns 17mm into roughly a 34mm field of view, and f/2.8 gives about the same depth of field you'd get at f/5.6 on full frame. For street work, that sits right where a lot of people want to be. Enough of the scene stays sharp to keep context around your subject, and you can still get some separation when you move in close. The other mounts have been heading back toward this kind of lens, too. Canon released the Canon RF 28mm f/2.8 STM in 2023, and Nikon put out the Nikon Z 26mm f/2.8 that same year. Fujifilm has offered the Fujifilm XF 27mm f/2.8 R WR for years. Each of those makers accepted a modest aperture to keep the lens close to the body. If your camera stays home because it's too bulky to carry, a pancake can be what gets it into your jacket pocket. The habit Wong shows in the market is easy to copy: pick a fixed focal length, stop chasing the shallowest depth of field, and let the size of the setup decide how often you shoot.

Wong also lays out the other 35mm-equivalent choices on the system, and there aren't many. The Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7 ASPH, a lens he uses and likes, lands closer to a 28mm equivalent, and he treats it as a different tool, since the two focal lengths ask you to work a scene in different ways. The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 17mm f/1.8 is newer, sharper, brighter, and quicker to focus, but he dislikes its flat rendering and prefers the look of the older f/2.8. The Yongnuo YN 17mm f/1.7, which he has reviewed, is among the best 17mm lenses on the system in his view, though it can't match the pancake for size. The OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 17mm f/1.2 PRO brings weather-sealing and a much brighter aperture, but it's also larger and heavier, and it costs a lot more, so he doesn't think it suits a camera as small as the PEN. Wong wants Panasonic and OM Digital Solutions to update their pancake lineups with weather-sealing, better coatings, and refined optics, since the current pancakes are showing their age. In his view, lenses this small are what Micro Four Thirds was built around.

Six stretches of the video follow Wong through the market from his point of view, so you can watch the pancake at work between his notes on it.