These are the best Voigtländer pancake (and near-pancake) lenses when you want featherweight carry, low profile, silky manual focus, and honest color for travel, street, documentary, and everyday hybrid work—and here’s what to look for as you buy: prioritize the ultra-compact Color-Skopar/Ultron designs with short flange mounts (VM/E/Z) that offer de-clicked apertures on many mirrorless versions, long smooth throws with hard stops, modest breathing if you film, close-focus helicoids, and shared small filter threads (39/43/52 mm) so one slim VND (and a gentle CPL used sparingly) covers the kit; favor all-metal barrels with positive hoods, and standardize step-ups to one front diameter for fast swaps on gimbals. Full-frame mirrorless “true/near” pancakes: Color-Skopar 21mm ƒ3.5 (VM/E/Z)—tiny, flare-disciplined wide for cityscapes and blue hour; Color-Skopar 28mm ƒ2.8 (VM/E/Z in various runs)—classic street/travel FoV with crisp micro-contrast; Color-Skopar 35mm ƒ2.5 (VM/E)—the quintessential flat “walk lens” that disappears in a pocket; Ultron 40mm ƒ2 (VM/E/Z)—not paper-thin but still pancake-small with beautiful rendering and handy close-focus; Color-Skopar 50mm ƒ2.5 (VM)—slim, neutral “normal” for everyday sets; Nokton 35mm ƒ1.4 Classic (VM/E/Z)—compact speed with character bokeh when you want a tiny low-light option. DSLR/SL II-S pancake classics (adapt beautifully to mirrorless): 20mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar SL II (Nikon F/Canon EF)—true pancake wide with clean lines; 28mm ƒ2.8 Color-Skopar SL II (thin, travel-ready), and 40mm ƒ2 Ultron SL II (iconic pancake “normal” with lovely micro-contrast). APS-C users can run the same VM/E/Z pancakes for stealthy walk rigs (28/2.8 ≈ 42-45 eq, 21/3.5 ≈ 31-32 eq) with gimbal-friendly balance. Practical buyer tips: build a two- or three-lens spine (21/3.5 + 35/2.5 + 50/2.5 for FF minimalism, or 28/2.8 + 40/2 for street + café portraits) and add the 40/2 Ultron if you want one small lens that does it all; carry a 39→49/52 mm step-up so one VND fits everything, keep a rubber hood or your hand ready to flag oblique streetlights, and if you film, add 0.8 focus gears and declick the aperture where supported—these tiny Voigtländers balance instantly on lightweight gimbals. Pancake-shooting tips: run Aperture Priority at ƒ2–ƒ4 for people and ƒ5.6–ƒ8 for scenes, set Auto-ISO with a minimum shutter (~1/160–1/250 s for motion), use focus peaking/magnification for precise MF, get close for foreground depth and let backgrounds sit 1–3 m behind subjects for clean separation, and shade the front element to keep veiling flare down; avoid heavy CPLs (they cost light and bulk), keep one slim VND for 180°-shutter video, and let the small footprint work for you—whether you’re slipping through markets, riding bikes at golden hour, or filming discreet walk-and-talks, the best Voigtländer pancake choices combine tiny size, metal-solid feel, and rich micro-contrast—so your kit stays invisible, your lines stay clean, and your images look polished without weighing you down.