MS Optical Sonnetar 50/1.1 @ f1.4, Leica M9 JPG, photo by Ming

We are pleased to announce the release of the MS Optical Sonnetar 50/1.1 lens in Leica M mount.

The lens is available for 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 and its production. Shipping is scheduled to commence on or around 10 Oct 2012.

Japan Exposures has over seven years of experience of selling MS Optical products, including several hundred of Super Triplets 35mm and 28mm. This includes efficient and cost-effective shipping, handling of after-sale warranty and repairs and even intra-EU shipping to save on import duty. Thank you for your continued support.

The Sonnar type is a photographic lens originally designed by Dr. Ludwig Bertele in 1924 and patented by Zeiss Ikon. It was notable for its relatively light weight, simple design and fast aperture.

The name “Sonnar” is derived from the German word “Sonne”, meaning sun. It was given this name because its large aperture was much greater than many other lenses available at the time.

Compared to Planar designs the Sonnars had more aberrations, but with fewer glass-to-air surfaces it had better contrast and less flare. Though compared to the earlier Tessar design, its faster aperture and lower chromatic aberration was a significant improvement.

Source: Wikipedia

Here are its key features:

• 5 elements in 4 groups Sonnar formula lens
• Compact design, weight 190g, 220g with hood (36mm long, 55mm diameter filter thread)
• Premium quality Tantalum glass, superior to Trium and Lanthanum glass with best refractive qualities
• 14 blade aperture for smooth and pleasing bokeh (Made in Germany by Otto Niemann Feinmechanik GmbH, Berlin)
• Minimum focus distance 0.8m
• ALL six glass surfaces multicoated, 97% light transmission
• Initial lot of 300 lenses, designed, manufactured and hand-assembled in Japan by Mr Sadayasu Miyazaki
• Native Leica M mount

The MS Optical Sonnetar 50/1.1 is available now in our web shop.

Mr Miyazaki of MS Optical, a small independent manufacturer of lenses and camera accessories, has also added a world first: positioned with the rear element of the lens is a “coma adjustment ring”. Coma (aka comatic aberration) in an optical system refers to aberration inherent to certain optical designs or due to imperfection in the lens or other components which results in off-axis point sources such as stars appearing distorted, appearing to have a tail (coma) like a comet (Wikipedia). The coma control has the distance settings infinity, 4m, 2m and 1m (up to 1m setting should only be used with mirror less cameras or cameras with live view). As it is well known, early Sonnar lenses encountered issues with aberration when used wide open. The coma adjustment control allows to select the subject distance and slightly repositions the rear element to compensate for the selected focus distance by reducing spherical aberration. This also changes the focal length very slightly (only by fractions of a millimetre). Alternatively one can set it into the opposite of optimum direction for a soft focus look that makes Sonnar portraits so attractive.

Spherical aberration is also often dubbed as a “friend of bokeh” as the very soft rendering will pronounce out of focus areas even more. The famous Voigtländer Universal-Heliar, introduced in 1926, incorporated the ability of the central lens element to be adjusted by the photographer, thereby introducing varying amount of spherical aberrations. Its images are legendary.

This is what Carl Zeiss say themselves about their C-Sonnar T* 1,5/50 ZM, similar can be expected for the Sonnetar 50/1.1:

This lens design helps to achieve pictures with a special artistic touch. This lens ‘draws’ your subject in a fine, flattering manner and is therefore ideally suited for portraiture. It renders a sharpness that is slightly rounded, being less aggressive than in contemporary lens designs, but at the same time not soft in its rendition.

Many famous portraits of glamorous and prominent people during the 1930s used this technique to great effect. These images are characterized by portraying the person in a shining, nearly celestial way. This effect is very well balanced and not exaggerated; therefore many viewers see it in a subconscious way. The trained observer, however, understands the underlining technique and enjoys the results.

This lens design exhibits some additional effects, which should be understood to achieve the maximum benefit from the C-Sonnar T* 1.5/50 ZM:

Because of the above mentioned classical characteristic of the lens the best focus position in the object space can not be kept exactly constant for all f-stop settings. The passionate photographer might notice a slightly closer best focus in his pictures than expected. When stopping down the lens to f/2.8 or smaller this effect is minimized, so the focus position will be as expected. In order to balance the performance at full speed and other f-stop settings the lens is adjusted with above described characteristic.

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.

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. This is not just a lens, it is a celebration of the spirit of photography.

MS Optical Perar Super Triplet 35/3.5 Silver

The MS Optical lens Super Triplet Perar 4/28 continues to be popular, in fact so popular that the complete batch of 28mm Perar is close to being sold out and there are currently no plans for another production run.

Stocks for the long-selling Super Triplet Perar 3.5/35 Mark II are also depleting and while there are plans for another run, it will not happen this year.

We have a limited supply of both lenses, to be considered “final stocks” for the above reasons.

For a limited period we are in the privileged position to be able to offer either lens with EU shipping at a small additional cost, therefore bypassing any customs obligations. Please select the EU shipping option when ordering.

At the risk of overusing the word limited in this post, the above photo shows the silver version of the 35mm Super Triplet, originally only available in Hong Kong. Only two lenses are available. SOLD OUT

Lastly, a new lens by Mr Miyazaki is on the horizon, the MS Optical 50/1.13 Sonnetar. The lens offers a very wide aperture and is a Sonnar design. Ten copies will be assembled in early September and details published at that time. These are not prototypes, and to use Mr Miyazaki’s own words “I do not make enough mistakes to justify building that many prototypes” — these are full production spec lenses. After that more lenses are made to produce 300 in total. The lens will be available via various outlets and is priced at Y109.000. We are aiming to offer a EU shipping option for this lens as we are doing for the Perars. More info on this item will follow shortly.

UPDATE: some photos of the lens can be seen here.

UPDATE2: buyers in Hong Kong can buy this lens at Leitzian Limited in Tsim Sha Tsui. Ming Wong will have priority stock and in the beautiful store you can try before buy, and of course meet other Leica people.

MING YUEN WONG
Leitzian LTD

Room 1302, Lee Wai Comm Blvd
Yin Chong street
1-3A Hart Ave, Tsim Sha Tsui
HONG KONG
Tel:+85292221013

We hope you find these MS Optical lens news of interest and welcome questions or comments.

Japan Exposures including our Web and Book Stores will take a holiday starting July 9th until the end of July. The cut-off for Hirano hand-made camera cases was Friday, June 29th. Orders placed on or after these dates will be processed and shipped upon our return in August.

Orders for products that are currently backordered might also be shipped in August. We will make every effort to inform customers with pending order accordingly to manage expectations.

Please note that replies to email inquiries might also be delayed accordingly. We apologise for any inconvenience.

The holiday will affect the web and book stores and the following products and services, which will resume from early August:

• MS Optical lens conversions including Converted Contax G lens for Leica M Packages
• Sales of JE Exotica
• Japan Exposures Equipment Sourcing and Camera Spare Part Services

Premier quality lens adapter manufacturer Rayqual have today released the manual focus lens to Fujifilm X-Pro 1 mount adapter. The following lens mounts are available:

• Leica M
• Nikon F
• Contax/Yashica
• Canon FD
• Pentax K
• Olympus OM
• M42
• Leica R
• Exakta

Adapters for autofocus lenses (Nikon FG, Pentax DA) including an aperture control ring will following in due course.

The new Fujifilm X-Pro 1 is the latest exciting addition to the growing variety of small mirrorless SLR cameras allowing flexible use of contemporary and classic lenses. While there are a wide variety of adapters on the market, Rayqual adapters are MADE IN JAPAN to the highest quality standards allowing photographers and cinematographers to reliably and precisely mount alternative lenses on their cameras.

A customer in the video/motion picture industry who tried their luck with the cheaper alternatives comments: “We already have adaptors for all our Nikon lenses and they work, it’s just that the tolerances are no good resulting in the lenses rotating which is a problem when trying use a follow focus shooting video.” The issues were resolved after switching to the equivalent Rayqual products.

You can find the Rayqual Fujifilm X-Pro 1 mount lens adapter and other Rayqual products in our web shop.

Above photo taken with Perar 35 #003 on Leica M9

We are pleased with the response to the newly released MS Optical Super Triplet 28/4 lens and would like to give you an update on this and the 35/3.5 lens.

The 28mm Perar is seeing very good uptake and we are getting a lot of positive feedback on it. We had expected that the demand will outpace the rate of production, but in this case a shortage of iris diaphragms used for the lens’ aperture has caused a temporary hold on production. New apertures are being manufactured by a supplier and should ship from Germany to Japan later this week to let lens assembly continue so we can resume shipping our numerous pending orders. Thank you for your patience around this.

We are also seeing strong interest in the Kenko 19mm Skylight and UV filters. Unfortunately it seems that Kenko have decided to no longer produce them, so our stocks are limited. We are giving full priority to customers purchasing Perar lenses from us and hope to supply everyone with a filter who wishes to have one. If you are not purchasing a Perar lens and wanted to order the filter, we are sorry for possibly having to turn you down.

Lastly, the Super Triplet Perar 35/3.5 is continuing to attract interest from photographers to the extent that MS Optical have decided a fourth production batch of 100 lenses of the 35mm lenses. Thanks to the success of these items, we are in a position to be able to extend the production run in even relatively small quantities to ensure continued supply. I want to reemphasize that the lot quantities were never intended to imply artificial scarcity or produce a Limited Edition item at any point in time. Since nobody can foresee the uptake of such a lens and capital expenditure is an issue, the best approach is to adjust production to demand and expand as needed.

I hope this update is of use and we appreciate you spreading the word and keep generating interest in the fabulous lenses. We have customer feedback that is very explicit about how the Perar lenses has helped them achieving their photographic objective, for example by minimising gear or simply become less noticed by their subjects. We are delighted in hearing such positive reports.

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.

Anatolia, by Hiroh Kikai ¥9,490 ¥8,490
Published in January, 2011, this book from Asakusa Portraits-famed Hiroh Kikai is the first ever substantial presentation of his considerable body of work from Turkey. It depicts Anatolia, but also points west and east, and was created during six visits (totaling 45 weeks) that Kikai made from 1994 through 2009. See this review at Microcord for more about the book.

Hana Dorobou, by Eikoh Hosoe ¥2,990 ¥2,490
Undergarment designer Yoko Kamoi (1925-1991) presented to Hosoe a series of her handmade dolls and told him, “Do with them what you want.” For Hosoe, they were more human than doll, and they seemed to take a life of their own, the scenes he eventually photographed them in seemingly situtations these dolls were getting themselves into — or so Hosoe felt, so strong was their human-like nature.

Hana Kinbaku, by Nobuyoshi Araki, ¥7,990 ¥5,990
Published in conjunction with his exhibition at Taka Ishii Gallery (Tokyo) in 2008, this 150-plus full color catalogue brings together two of Araki’s well-known obsessions, flowers and bondage scenes.

Kazuo Kitai in China, 1973, by Kazuo Kitai, ¥2,590 ¥1,990
Kitai, who was born in Anshan, Manchuria in 1944, returned to China in 1973 at the behest of the noted Japanese photographer Ihei Kimura, who assembled a group of photographers to travel the country for two weeks with him. The photos that Kitai took on this trip, which he intended to publish as a book but never did, are now collected in this special publication from Tokyo gallery Zen Foto Gallery.

Lime Works, by Naoya Hatakeyama, ¥4,290 ¥3,590
A much-needed reprint of Hatakeyama’s seminal 1996 Lime Works.

Cell, by Taiji Matsue, ¥4,990 ¥4,490
This book from 2008 by Taiji Matsue features tiny pieces (or “cells” if you will) of larger photos blown up many times over, rendering each photo both abstract and concrete at the same time.

The last batch of Jun Abe's Citizens

One of Japan Exposures’ best-selling books — and definitely the best-selling book that is not by Daido Moriyama or Nobuyoshi Araki — is Osaka-based Jun Abe’s Citizens. Even after going out-of-print early last year, the requests for this title still come in, as do orders for Abe’s follow-up Kokubyaku Note and the recently-published Manila.

After much pleading Japan Exposures has managed to secure an additional eight copies from someone’s closet, available for order now. As we have been told in no uncertain terms that this batch is the last we will ever receive, you need to order now if you missed out the first time and would still like this book.

For more about Citizens, Japan Exposures friend John Sypal has long been a champion of Abe’s work, and photographer British photographer Nick Turpin is likewise a big fan of the work.

We are pleased to announce the availability of a second run of this popular lens. It is available for order now in our web shop.

The MS Optical Super Triplet Perar 3.5/35 Mark II is optically identical to first version. In this revision, some minor changes were made:

• Native Leica M mount, not LTM with adapter
• More robust, thicker focussing lever
• Minor changes of markings on barrel, aperture scale marks

As you well know, on Friday, March 11th 2011, a strong earthquake and tsunami struck the eastern coast of Japan. Apart from the shocking damages and casualties caused by these natural disasters, the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station suffered a severe accident spreading radioactive materials over a vast area, a crisis which is still ongoing. Incidentally, the earthquake also caused some disruption to the production process of the Perar, spoiling a lot of about 50 optical lenses.

Following suggestions from our customers, we have therefore added a voluntary option to donate a modest amount to the Japanese Red Cross (or other charitable organisation) as part of your purchase. The initial amount is set to ¥5000 which you can increase or reduce as you see fit. Thank you.

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 3.5/35, 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 75g, collapsible (4.2mm height when collapsed)
• 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
• Round aperture for smooth and pleasing bokeh (Edmund Optics, Made in USA)
• Minimum focus distance 0.8m
• ALL glass surfaces multicoated, 97% light transmission
• Vivid, real and beautiful color reproduction, high contrast high resolution images
• Second lot of 200 lenses (serial 201-400), designed, manufactured and hand-assembled in Japan by Mr Sadoyasu Miyazaki

The MS Optical Super Triplet Perar 3.5/35 Mark II 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.

Photos courtesy of Pieter Franken

I did quite some shooting yesterday with the lens [on the Leica M9 and MP] and had it compete with a 35mm Summilux aspherical lens. Obviously there are significant differences, but am quite impressed with what this little lens does. First of all the focus is perfect on the M9 and the view field is good. Bokeh is pleasant. The focussing is very smooth! I liked the hood and front and rear covers – nice detail and execution!

Pieter Franken, September 2010

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.

Please note that replies to email inquiries might also be delayed accordingly. We apologise for any inconvenience.

The holiday will affect the web store and the following products and services, which will resume from mid-April:

• MS Optical lens conversions including Converted Contax G lens for Leica M Packages
• Sales of JE Exotica
• Japan Exposures Equipment Sourcing and Camera Spare Part Services

Thank you for your understanding.

The Japan Exposures Book Shop will continue to operate as normal.

UPDATE: We’re back and catching up with the backlog quickly. Thank you for your patience.