Venus Optics has just announced a new ultra-compact 10mm f/4 pancake lens for APS-C camera platforms. The company says the new Laowa 10mm f/4 makes an APS-C camera compact enough to be kept in a pocket without sacrificing performance, which seems the perfect lens for every street photographer. Is so light and compact that the company says, “it’s almost like a body cap with function.”

Playing on the typical pancake lens nomenclature, the fully-manual lens is rectilinear and constructed of 12 elements in eight groups, including two aspherical elements and four extra-low dispersion elements. On an APS-C camera, it offers a 15-16mm full-frame equivalent focal length. The lens has a 109.3-degree field of view, which Venus Optics says makes it the widest rectilinear pancake lens in the APS-C category. The ultra-wide lens aspect ratio also keeps optical distortion at bay with horizontal and vertical lines being retained from corner to corner. Not only designed to combat distortion but also chromatic aberration, flaring, and ghosting effects.

The lens features a five-blade aperture diaphragm, has a minimum focusing distance of 10cm, uses a 37mm front filter thread, and has an aperture range of f/4 through f/22. As its Cookie nickname suggests, this lens is incredibly compact, measuring roughly 60mm in diameter by 25mm long, and weighs roughly 130g.

Here are some sample pictures: