The advantage of interchangeable lens cameras like DSLRs and mirrorless cameras is that you can change lenses for different kinds of photography. There are many different types of lenses, often with specific names. Lenses are usually characterised or grouped by their focal length. It might be more useful to use their angle of view instead, […]
Pancake lens
This is a lens that's designed to be as slim as possible so that the camera/lens combination is lighter, more compact and more unobtrusive. Pancake lenses are usually fixed focal length, or 'prime' lenses, but it's possible to get a few pancake zooms too. Making a lens this small does bring compromises. With prime lenses it usually means a smaller maximum aperture and with zooms in may need a more complicated retracting mechanism or electrical 'power zoom' which also retracts the lens when the camera is switched off.