I've placed my order through mkdirect, but unfortunately, I didn't make it in time for the initial shipment. However, I should be able to get one from the upcoming batch.
Looking at the positive side, I'm excited because I just bought a brand new MS 73/1.5 Sonnetar from them, and it's scheduled to be delivered to my hotel in Tokyo today.
I've recently received the tracking number for my Apoqualia 28/1.7. I'm eagerly anticipating the arrival of my copy, scheduled for next Monday!
Hey @Juha Kannisto! It would be awesome if you could share some samples from your 28/1.7 lens. Remember when we took that lovely stroll together through the alleys and peaceful neighborhoods in Tokyo? I'd love to see the photos we captured during that memorable time! It would bring back such wonderful memories.
Fred Miranda wrote:
I've recently received the tracking number for my Apoqualia 28/1.7. I'm eagerly anticipating the arrival of my copy, scheduled for next Monday!
Hey @Juha Kannisto@! It would be awesome if you could share some samples from your 28/1.7 lens. Remember when we took that lovely stroll together through the alleys and peaceful neighborhoods in Tokyo? I'd love to see the photos we captured during that memorable time! It would bring back such wonderful memories.
Hi Fred! Glad to hear that your Apoqualia 28/1.7 is on the way and should reach you soon I'm looking forward to your impressions / review
I got quite sick this week so I've been mostly resting and recovering while also trying to handle the most urgent work tasks. Getting better gradually now. I do have many samples taken with 28/1.7 from a few shootouts that I can post. I'll need to go through all of them and pick up some suitable ones first. I'll get into it later today or at least this weekend.
However, when it comes to the shots from our walk last Sunday, unfortunately I managed to mess up with my SD card workflow and I sadly lost all of my SD card contents before backing them up. Essentially I thought I had already backed them up while multitasking a lot and I proceeded to format the card, and afterwards I realized that the backup hadn't been done successfully. That cost me all the shots from last Sunday and some from previous days...
Juha Kannisto wrote:
However, when it comes to the shots from our walk last Sunday, unfortunately I managed to mess up with my SD card workflow and I sadly lost all of my SD card contents before backing them up. Essentially I thought I had already backed them up while multitasking a lot and I proceeded to format the card, and afterwards I realized that the backup hadn't been done successfully. That cost me all the shots from last Sunday and some from previous days...
Run image recovery software on those disks and you should be able to recover everything as long as you haven't used them again. Even if you have, if you haven't completely filled the card(s), you should be able to recover something.
rscheffler wrote:
Run image recovery software on those disks and you should be able to recover everything as long as you haven't used them again. Even if you have, if you haven't completely filled the card(s), you should be able to recover something.
Thanks! I will try if it works out. I had already shot one more session using the same card after formatting before I realized I had no backup from the previous. Anyway, something might still be there.
I used f8 on the stopped down shots and f1.7 and occasionally f2 on the others. f1.7 is quite dreamy and things get significantly sharper and more contrastly already by f2. I think stopped down behavior is quite similar to my Apoqualia 28/2-II and 28/3-III. Extreme corner areas are never sharp due to field curvature (they could get much sharper when focusing a lot closer but then other parts of the frame would be out of focus).
I've been really enjoying the lens and Apoqualia 28/2-II has also been one of my very favorite MS-Optics lenses. Hope to be able to shoot more very soon.
Unfortunately I couldn't recover any of the shots from last Sunday although I tried with 2 different SW. Some other files were recovered but no photos at all.
rscheffler wrote:
Run image recovery software on those disks and you should be able to recover everything as long as you haven't used them again. Even if you have, if you haven't completely filled the card(s), you should be able to recover something.
Juha Kannisto wrote:
Thanks! I will try if it works out. I had already shot one more session using the same card after formatting before I realized I had no backup from the previous. Anyway, something might still be there.
I hope you manage to retrieve some of your photos, Juha. I had an incredibly enjoyable time. I believe we strolled for approximately six hours! 😄 Thank you again.
Here are a couple of shots taken with the 35/1.4 Lux SR and 21/3.4 SEM lenses:
LEICA M10-RSummilux-M 1:1.4/35 lens35mmf/1.41/1500s100 ISO0.0 EV
Great lunch at the best Kebab in town!
LEICA M10-RSummilux-M 1:1.4/35 lens35mmf/1.41/180s100 ISO0.0 EV
LEICA M10-RSummilux-M 1:1.4/35 lens35mmf/1.41/1500s100 ISO0.0 EV
LEICA M10-RSummilux-M 1:1.4/35 lens35mmf/1.41/3000s100 ISO0.0 EV
This was taken with your 73/1.5 Sonnetar silver. Perfectly aligned with the RF at this distance
LEICA M10-RSummilux-M 1:1.4/75 lens75mmf/2.01/125s1250 ISO0.0 EV
LEICA M10-RSummilux-M 1:1.4/35 lens35mmf/2.01/125s320 ISO0.0 EV
LEICA M10-RSuper-Elmar-M 1:3.4/21 ASPH. lens21mmf/3.51/180s100 ISO0.0 EV
LEICA M10-RSuper-Elmar-M 1:3.4/21 ASPH. lens21mmf/4.01/250s100 ISO0.0 EV
LEICA M10-RSummilux-M 1:1.4/35 lens35mmf/4.01/4000s100 ISO0.0 EV
LEICA M10-RSummilux-M 1:1.4/35 lens35mmf/1.41/1500s100 ISO0.0 EV
LEICA M10-RSummilux-M 1:1.4/35 lens35mmf/4.01/4000s100 ISO0.0 EV
This camera store was fun! I even got a
LEICA M10-RSummilux-M 1:1.4/35 lens35mmf/1.71/1000s100 ISO0.0 EV
Fred Miranda wrote:
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I hope you manage to retrieve some of your photos, Juha. I had an incredibly enjoyable time. I believe we strolled for approximately six hours! 😄 Thank you again.
Here are a couple of shots taken with the 35/1.4 Lux SR and 21/3.4 SEM lenses:
Thanks very much Fred! Really cool shots too Your Lux and SEM have plenty of character.
Yes, I think it was about 6h tour overall, just enough camera shops for one day
Fred Miranda wrote:
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I hope you manage to retrieve some of your photos, Juha. I had an incredibly enjoyable time. I believe we strolled for approximately six hours! 😄 Thank you again.
Here are a couple of shots taken with the 35/1.4 Lux SR and 21/3.4 SEM lenses:
Fun pics! And the shop with the Contax signs? If only. Le sigh.
Desmolicious wrote:
Fun pics! And the shop with the Contax signs? If only. Le sigh.
That shop was incredibly. In reality, it consists of two shops adjacent to each other, both owned by the same person! Juha said it's from the time when Contax was on top. They offer a wide range of lenses for sale, including pre-owned Leicas. We came across fascinating lenses, such as a compact 35mm Panchro for screw mount! Personally, I purchased my MS 57/2 Petz from that store.
I just received my Apoqualia 28mm f/1.7 lens from Photo Camera Hunter. Although I purchased it in Japan, I wasn't able to pick it up in time. Thankfully, they promptly shipped it to me using DHL, and it arrived surprisingly fast.
The owner of Photo Camera Hunter, Bellamy, provided excellent customer service. He goes the extra mile by thoroughly testing all lenses before shipping, especially since MS lenses tend to have a higher defect rate. I personally tested my lens, and I'm pleased to report that everything is flawless, including the RF alignment at any distance.
Based on my limited testing, the lens shows a pronounced and distinctive character when used at its widest aperture. It displays glow, strong field curvature and vignetting. However, even at f/1.7, it remains sharp at the center. It's incredibly lightweight, giving the impression that the camera itself lacks an attached lens.
Here are a couple pictures showing the lens on my M10-R:
How do you feel about it? At 1.7 it is very soft and has some bonkers field curvature, especially noticeable in the 2nd pic where the distant sides are in focus-ish, with the near central subject also in focus. But everything else is OOF.
I'm only half joking when I say my Lomo Minitar looks better - then again it is a 32mm lens.
Then again, then again - do you want this lens to be 'normal'? Seeing we have plenty of 'normal' 28s.
Desmolicious wrote:
How do you feel about it? At 1.7 it is very soft and has some bonkers field curvature, especially noticeable in the 2nd pic where the distant sides are in focus-ish, with the near central subject also in focus. But everything else is OOF.
I'm only half joking when I say my Lomo Minitar looks better - then again it is a 32mm lens.
Then again, then again - do you want this lens to be 'normal'? Seeing we have plenty of 'normal' 28s.
This lens is pushing optical limits so it's extremely uncorrected. When it's fully open, it has a unique vintage style as it doesn't correct much for certain image issues like spherical aberration, astigmatism, field curvature, or vignetting. So, it has a distinct appearance that some people may enjoy while others may not. When you reduce the aperture to f/2, things start to improve and at f/2.8, it becomes a different lens altogether. The corners never look sharp even stopped down. However, I still need to do further tests to be sure how I feel about it.
Fred Miranda wrote:
This lens is pushing optical limits so it's extremely uncorrected. When it's fully open, it has a unique vintage style as it doesn't correct much for certain image issues like spherical aberration, astigmatism, field curvature, or vignetting. So, it has a distinct appearance that some people may enjoy while others may not. When you reduce the aperture to f/2, things start to improve and at f/2.8, it becomes a different lens altogether. The corners never look sharp even stopped down. However, I still need to do further tests to be sure how I feel about it.
I think you cannot measure these lenses against normal ones. The fact that they are pancakes means there will be serious trade-offs in exchange for that size.
To me they are far more interesting being flawed, as there are plenty of regular lenses out there already.
The MS Optics 28mm f/1.7 Apoqualia boasts the widest field curvature shape I've encountered so far. When focused at infinity, the corners are only sharp when focusing on that area. So center at hard stop infinity and corners at 1m.
On the other hand, when focusing on the center, the corners appear blurry even at smaller apertures, and they do not reach satisfactory sharpness at the very edges even at f/8. Working with this lens presents an intriguing challenge, as it require adjustments to the image background, lighting, and aperture to yield good results. Personally, I find this challenge enjoyable. Through experimentation so far, I have found that the lens tends to be more predictable at f/2.5.
Here is the shape at around 2m distance:
BTW, towards infinity the shape does not flatten, it actually gets even more curved making the edges completely out of focus at hard stop.
I'm looking forward to your impressions / review 
