We are pleased to announce the release of a 28mm version of the popular MS Optical Super Triplet Perar 3.5/35: the MS Optical Super Triplet Perar 4/28.

The lens is available for pre-order now in our web shop. Orders will be served in the order received. Please note that as usual there might be a waiting period between receiving your order and fulfilment, due to the nature of the lens.

Japan Exposures has over six years of experience of selling MS Optical products, including several hundred of Super Triplets 35mm. This includes efficient and cost-effective shipping, handling of after-sale warranty & repairs and even intra-EU shipping to save on import duty. Thank you for your continued support.

The simplest optical design that is capable of correcting all of the seven Seidel aberrations over a wide field of view is the Cooke triplet, developed by H. Dennis Taylor in 1893. It is named after the optical company in York, England, for which Taylor worked at the time, Cooke and Sons (later to become Cooke, Troughton and Sims). Taylor’s designs, despite their antiquity, are close to optimum for the aperture and field he intended, given the glass types available in his day.

However, at around 1925 with the rise of the Tessar lens designed by Paul Rudolph of Zeiss the Cooke triplet was starting to be relegated to cheaper lenses such as those in compact cameras, due to its simple design affording low cost manufacturing.

Mr Miyazaki of MS Optical, a small independent manufacturer of lenses and camera accessories, believes that a well-designed triplet is superior to the Tessar. Only very few lenses in history exploited the full power of the formula, such as an early version of the Leitz Elmar 90/4 with three elements. He started researching and designing his own ideal triplet lens at the highest level possible, using 21st century materials and manufacturing techniques. The result is the MS Super Triplet Perar 4/28, which has just been released. (For those wondering about the origin of the lens name, in Japanese pera-pera means thin or flimsy.)

Despite it’s deceptively simple construction of three lens elements Miyazaki was able to design a lens of not only outstanding performance, but also with a very interesting form factor and at comparatively low cost.

Here are its key features:

• Very high optical quality triplet formula lens
• Ultra compact design, weight 45g, 55g with hood
• Premium quality Tantalum glass, superior to Trium and Lanthanum glass with best refractive qualities
• Refined triplet design with two double thickness positive lenses, superior to Tessar design
• 10 blade quasi-round aperture for smooth and pleasing bokeh (Made in Germany by Otto Niemann Feinmechanik GmbH, Berlin)
• Minimum focus distance 0.8m
• ALL glass surfaces multicoated, 97% light transmission
• Vivid, real and beautiful color reproduction, high contrast high resolution images
• Unique exposed front aperture (hood accepts 19mm size filters with 0.5 pitch)
• Initial lot of 180 lenses, designed, manufactured and hand-assembled in Japan by Mr Sadayasu Miyazaki
• Native Leica M mount

The MS Optical Super Triplet Perar 4/28 is available now in our web shop.

Just like MS Optical’s lens conversions, please be aware that this lens is slightly different in operation from “normal” mass-manufactured lenses. For example, the aperture scale rotates with the whole lens barrel when the lens is focussed and there are no aperture click stops. This is not a lens for photographers who want all their lenses to function in the same way and cannot adjust to a different way of working. This is a design for the connoisseur with an appreciation for optics and their history.

Regarding the exposed aperture: while it may appear as unusual to some people, exposed apertures are not uncommon in lens history. Aperture placement depends on the lens design and does not have to sit in the nodal point plane, only in the light path. For example, when the lens is too small i.e. distances between elements too tight and distance to the image plane too short, the aperture can/must be placed in front.

Additional note: due to a manufacturing glitch, lens name was engraved “SUPER TPIRLET as opposed to “SUPER TRIPLET”. This does not affect lens performance.

There is no other independent maker of Leica M mount lenses that offers the same level of quality and creativity as MS Optical in the world today. The Perar is not just a lens, it is a celebration of the spirit of photography.