These are the best pancake lenses for landscape photography when you want a pocketable kit, quick setup, and crisp edge-to-edge scenes on hikes, road trips, and city vistas—without hauling heavy glass—and here’s what to look for as you buy: prioritize wider focal lengths in small barrels (20–28mm full frame; 12–18mm APS-C; 9–14mm MFT), strong corner performance when stopped a notch, good flare resistance and a usable hood (tiny lenses are flare-prone), reliable manual-focus precision with a repeatable infinity point, close-focus for foreground interest, and weather sealing if you shoot in wind, sand, or drizzle; stabilization helps for blue-hour framing, but a light tripod beats IBIS for ultimate sharpness; standardized small filter threads (39–52mm or step-up to 58/67mm) make carrying one CPL/ND easy. Full-frame standouts: Nikon Z 26mm ƒ2.8 (ultra-thin, discreet, sharp stopped a touch), Nikon Z 28mm ƒ2.8 (compact, great “walkable” landscape field of view), Sony FE 24mm ƒ2.8 G (tiny, clean across the frame by ƒ3.5–ƒ4), Sony FE 40mm ƒ2.5 G (pancake-adjacent for layered landscapes and stitching), Canon RF 28mm ƒ2.8 STM (featherweight travel star), and Sigma 24mm ƒ3.5 DG DN Contemporary (near-pancake feel, excellent flare control and close-focus for leading lines). APS-C pocket heroes: Fujifilm XF 27mm ƒ2.8 R WR (weather-sealed, perfect everyday field lens; 40-eq for vista + detail), Sony E 20mm ƒ2.8 (30-eq pancake—great for lightweight hill days), Sony E PZ 16–50mm ƒ3.5–5.6 OSS (power-zoom pancake—use 16–20mm for breadth and stop down), Nikon Z DX 16–50mm ƒ3.5–6.3 VR (collapsible, surprisingly sharp wide), and Fujifilm XC 15–45mm ƒ3.5–5.6 OIS PZ (tiny with useful 15mm for sweeping scenes). Micro Four Thirds mini marvels: Panasonic 20mm ƒ1.7 II (pancake icon—stellar micro-contrast for layered landscapes), Panasonic 14mm ƒ2.5 (featherweight wide; stop to ~ƒ4 for corners), and Olympus 17mm ƒ2.8 (older but truly flat—best a stop down); if you want sealed, compact-not-quite-pancake, look at OM SYSTEM 20mm ƒ1.4 PRO for weather toughness in a small footprint. Practical buyer tips: pick ~24–28mm FF (16–18mm APS-C / 12–14mm MFT) for classic vistas; if you stitch panoramas, a small 35–40mm (FF) or 23–27mm (APS-C) pancake-adjacent prime yields flatter perspective and higher detail; bring a slim step-up ring to standardize filters—use a quality CPL for foliage/water and soft-edge NDs for skies; pancakes are slower, so plan blue-hour work with a mini tripod or use stacking; for coastal or alpine trips, choose weather-sealed bodies/lenses and keep a pocket cloth for spray. Landscape pancake shooting tips: stop down 2/3–1 stop from wide open (often ƒ4–ƒ5.6 on pancakes) to clean corners without hitting diffraction, set manual focus just short of true infinity or use hyperfocal at mid apertures for near–far sharpness, compose low with strong foregrounds—rocks, flowers, lines—and exploit close-focus to exaggerate depth, shade the lens with a hand or tiny hood to prevent veiling flare, bracket exposures for dynamic range and blend later, use a CPL sparingly (rotate to taste—too much kills reflections and depth), keep ISO low and use a 2–5s self-timer or remote on a light tripod, and consider vertical panos with compact 24–28mm lenses for big skies. Whether you’re packing for ridge walks, city rooftops, or quick sunrise runs, the best pancake lenses for landscape photography balance compact build, respectable corners, and flare control—so your scenes stay sharp, immersive, and travel-light.