4/3 delivering on the small/light promise...

[rovanpera]

The  shallow "lens mount to body back" distance combined with the pancake lens (none such available for EF-S or DX) reduces the total depth of the body with lens, the dimension that is probably most important to the "pocketability" of a camera.
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There is Voigtlander 40mm f/2 pancake for Nikon mount. Metering works with the small nikons too, and A and S modes. Nikon also has Nikkor 45mm F/2.8 pancake lens.

Also you can get the really small nikkor 20/4 AI-S or slightly larger nikkor 20/2.8 AI-S for compact wide angle needs.

[BJL]

There is Voigtlander 40mm f/2 pancake for Nikon mount. Metering works with the small nikons too, and A and S modes. Nikon also has Nikkor 45mm F/2.8 pancake lens.

Also you can get the really small nikkor 20/4 AI-S or slightly larger nikkor 20/2.8 AI-S for compact wide angle needs.
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I said "DX or EF-S" lenses for a reason: for DX bodies those 40mm amd 45mm pancake lenses give far narrower than normal FOV, so only the (non-pancake) 20mm options are relevant in comparison to the normal FOV of the Olympus 25/2.8 pancake. The Nikon 20/2.8 is 42.5mm long and weighs 270g (I cannot find the spec's for the 20/4) compared to about 25mm and 95g for the Olympus 25/2.8. Other Nikon options include the 24/2.8 and 28/2.8, closer to normal FOV in DX. The 28/2.8 is lighter than the 20/2.8 at 205g, but the 20/2.8 is the shortest "near normal" option.

Also, the Nikon F mount has a distance of about 46mm from flange to focal plane, compared to about 38mm for FourThirds mount. So the distance from focal plane to front of lens is about 63mm for a FourThirds body with 25/2.8 compared to about 88mm for a Nikon mount body with the 20/2.8. So the Nikon options do not come close to the low camera depth and weight of the E420+25/2.8.


P. S. I found the specs for the Nikon 20/4. Apart from being a long discontinued manual focus lens, it is longer still at 47mm, but lighter than the 20/2.8 at 205g (still over twice the weight of the Olympus 25/2..

[DarkPenguin]

I want that e-420.  Is May still the launch date?  I've seen signs they are getting out and about but that could just be a flood of cameras to review sites.

[rovanpera]

Olympus 25mm x crop factor 2 = 50mm
Voigtlander 40mm x crop factor 1.5 = 60mm

Also Pentax has a nice range of new pancake lenses, 21mm, 40mm and 70mm.

And some of us prefer manual focus lenses with good distance and Dof scales. Especially on wide angle lenses.

This is the Nikkor 20mm f/4

[BJL]

Olympus 25mm x crop factor 2 = 50m
Voigtlander 40mm x crop factor 1.5 = 60mm

Also Pentax has a nice range of new pancake lenses, 21mm, 40mm and 70mm.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=180972\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

No major 35mm format SLR system ever had a 60mm "normal" lens, or any 60mm prime except one macro lens, and for a good reason: if anything 50mm is already a bit narrow compared to normal lenses for other formats, with focal length about image diagonal length being a rule of thumb. That would be 43mm for 3:2 shape, about 40mm for crops to traditional print shapes like 8"x10" and 11"x14". In fact, that 40mm pancake might well have been intended as a a roughly normal FOV with 35mm format.

About Pentax: do I need to say for the third time that was referring to Nikon's DX and Canon's EF-S systems lacking a compact normal FOV prime lens, with no claim about Pentax's system? I agree about the nice array of Pentax small prime options, particularly the wide-normal 21mm. It is a pity that recent Pentax DSLR bodies have got bulkier, in particular compared to the E-410, E-420 and E-520, but also compared to earlier Pentax models like the *-ist DL. Maybe the Pentax in-body I system adds significant bulk. Also, the longish 46mm or so flange to focal plane distance of Pentax K mount cramps the options for a shallow lens+body combination.

[rovanpera]

Now I only mentioned the Pentax because I think it's an interesting lens range. I would love to see a 21mm mf pancake for Nikon or Canon or a 15mm for Oly...