These are the best Olympus pancake lenses, chosen for how they deliver pocketable size, quiet autofocus (or simple manual focus), clean color, and everyday versatility on Micro Four Thirds bodies—perfect for EDC street, café travel diaries, gimbal clips, and jacket-pocket carry with OM SYSTEM/Olympus cameras. The classic autofocus pancakes start with the M.Zuiko Digital 17mm f/2.8: true pancake profile, silent AF, natural 34mm-equiv view for street and travel, and a thin 37mm filter thread that keeps kits featherweight; pair it with the Olympus M.Zuiko 14–42mm f/3.5–5.6 EZ “electric zoom” pancake for a flat, power-zoom walkaround that covers city to portraits while staying flat enough to slip into a pocketable bag—great for video walk-throughs on tiny rigs. Panasonic’s ultra-slim duo are standouts: the Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 ASPH is a stealthy 28mm-equiv prime with quick AF, tidy flare control, and a 46mm filter seat—ideal for interiors and travel—while the legendary Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 II ASPH isn’t the thinnest but is “pancake-ish” and brings real low-light power with crisp micro-contrast and quiet focusing for night streets and cafés. For wide and ultra-light zoom carry, the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12–32mm f/3.5–5.6 is a tiny, sharp pancake-style collapsible zoom (24–64mm-equiv) that pairs beautifully with IBIS for handheld cityscapes and vlogs. Creative pocket primes include the Olympus 9mm f/8 Fisheye Body Cap (BCL-0980)—a super-thin fun lens for dramatic 140° looks and social clips—and the Olympus 15mm f/8 Body Cap for daylight snapshots with fixed focus that encourages composition over gear; manual pancake specials round it out: the 7Artisans 18mm f/6.3 II (36mm-equiv) is a flat, metal, zone-focus plate that’s perfect for hyperfocal street, Pergear 10mm f/8 gives a tiny ultrawide “always-on” look for travel and POV, and TTArtisan’s slim manual pancakes (varies by stock) offer clicky simplicity and vintage-leaning rendering in pocket size. What makes these the “best” to carry daily: truly thin barrels that keep an OM-5, E-M10, or PEN body jacket-friendly; quiet AF that stays invisible in cafés and museums; restrained distortion and fringing so lines and windows remain credible; coatings that hold contrast under backlight; and small, common filter threads (37–46mm) so one slim CPL and 3–6 stop ND cover the set; combined with Olympus IBIS, even slow pancakes stay sharp at dusk. Technique turns small glass into big results—set Auto ISO with a minimum shutter (1/250 for people, 1/500 for motion), use hyperfocal/zone focus on the manual pancakes (f/5.6–f/8 for deep DOF), ride exposure compensation for backlit streets, keep a low-profile hood to guard contrast, and standardize to one step-up ring so a single filter kit rides along; for video, pick the EZ 14–42 or 12–32 for smooth first-party power zoom or gentle manual pulls and set a 1/50–1/100 “cinema” shutter with a slim variable ND. Practical pocket kit recipes are simple: ultra-flat AF duo—M.Zuiko 17/2.8 + 14–42 EZ for street-to-walkthrough coverage; low-light pancake set—Lumix 20/1.7 II with 14/2.5 for interiors and night; tiny zoom travel—Lumix 12–32 as the one-lens roam (add 20/1.7 for evenings); creative pocket—9mm fisheye body cap + 7Artisans 18/6.3 for hyperfocal fun; minimalist EDC—15mm body cap for sunny day journaling. Whether you’re slipping a camera into a jacket, running a micro gimbal through markets, or keeping a silent prime for museums and cafés, the best Olympus pancake lenses deliver stealth, clean color, and pocketable ease that make everyday moments look intentional, spontaneous, and effortlessly polished straight out of camera.