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Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

Juha Kannisto
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

I noticed that Kinoshita Optical are working on a new 28mm f3.2 rangefinder lens (M-mount):

https://kinoshita-optical.com/topics/blog/2551

I'm a fan of their lenses and currently have the original E-mount version of their 40/2.4 and the trio of their C/Y mount lenses (55/1.2, 35/1.4, 85/1.4). I hope they make this new one in E-mount as well.

Wondering how much of a character lens it will be. 40/2.4 is pretty much a character lens wide open and even stopped down the corners are never great but I like it quite a bit. 55/1.2, 35/1.4 and 85/1.4 combine nice character wide open and they are all competent for stopped down shooting as well, but they are much larger than the 40/2.4.

My most recent samples with Kistar lenses on my A7CII:

40/2.4: https://photos.app.goo.gl/APyHThwFi1LdMmRH7
55/1.2: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Fg4iEeVDNYtRmqzh6
35/1.4: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BnDVNuKsRjdByr6CA
85/1.4: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oxueAbzbvzLrH2tU8

May 28, 2024 at 09:19 PM

Sam_W
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

Hunh. That's pretty neat.

And thank you for the galleries with their various C/Y lenses. Every once in a while I'm tempted to buy them, in lieu of the original Contax C/Y ones. The performance/behaviour seems pretty similar, though a little bit different, and can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe more CA/LoCA wide-open?

May 29, 2024 at 01:37 PM

Juha Kannisto
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

Sam_W wrote:
Hunh. That's pretty neat.

And thank you for the galleries with their various C/Y lenses. Every once in a while I'm tempted to buy them, in lieu of the original Contax C/Y ones. The performance/behaviour seems pretty similar, though a little bit different, and can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe more CA/LoCA wide-open?

Thanks! The Kistar C/Y lenses are designed to have classic / vintage lens style rendering wide open and get more "modern" when stopped down and they use Single Coating on the glass for more vintage -style rendering. I guess original Contax C/Y lenses were not deliberately design that way. I haven't had any of those originals though.

In my understanding the Kistar lenses were also designed primarily to be used on mirrorless rather than on any C/Y mount cameras and they apparently lack some aperture lever or other part that would have been present on original C/Y lenses. They were originally sold bundled with some Sony E-mount adapters at Map Camera etc. I've been very happy with all three Kistar C/Y lenses adapted on my Sony cameras.

May 30, 2024 at 12:17 AM

rscheffler
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

Thanks for posting this Juha! Please keep us updated if/when they announce availability, price, etc. How have these previously been made available? Through Map, or do they also sell directly?

It appears they're keeping design consistent with the 40mm, though I can't help feel the lens is larger in diameter than necessary...

Do you plan to get one?

May 30, 2024 at 04:31 PM

Juha Kannisto
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

rscheffler wrote:
Thanks for posting this Juha! Please keep us updated if/when they announce availability, price, etc. How have these previously been made available? Through Map, or do they also sell directly?

It appears they're keeping design consistent with the 40mm, though I can't help feel the lens is larger in diameter than necessary...

Do you plan to get one?

Thanks Ron! Sure, I'll update in this thread whenever some new information about the new lens appears. I think it will take at least ~6 months before it will actually come out since they seem to be in prototyping stage now. There will probably be some intermediate updates on their site though.

They have been selling their previous lenses through their website, but I think they only ship inside Japan, and through Map Camera and through Amazon.co.jp. Their 40/2.4 (Sony E, Fuji X, Leica M) lenses are sold through Map Camera even now and nowadays their C/Y lenses can be bought as new from Amazon.co.jp but Map only has used ones. It seems they have some separate deals with Map and Amazon since the range is split between the two. Map used to have the C/Y lenses when they were originally released though but nowadays they don't get new stock and Amazon never had the 40.2.4. It looks like they continue producing all of those lenses even now in small batches as they never seem to run out of availability except temporarily.

It may be a bit tricky to buy their lenses from abroad but one UK based forum member contacted them through their site earlier (based on my suggestion) to buy 40/2.4 in E-mount and they hooked him up with somebody from Map Camera who then made the lens available for that person to buy through their eBay store. A bit complicated but they did seem to be motivated to support overseas buyer interest somehow.

I'm definitely planning to get one as 28mm is one of my favorite focal lengths and this lens should be quite interesting. I would ideally want to buy it in E-mount though. I think the E-mount version of 40/2.4 has a few advantages over the M-version for my personal use. It can focus much closer natively and it's lighter than the M-version even without considering the adapter + it comes with a dome hood whereas the M has no hood at all. My E-mount lens is serial #3

If the M-mount version comes out first and there is no info about E-mount version's availability at that point, I'll probably go for the M-mount version and consider swapping it for E-mount version later on.

To me the 28mm also looks a bit larger than I'd expect for an f3.2 and in comparison to the 40/2.4 but it should still be quite manageable in size.

May 30, 2024 at 09:41 PM

Desmolicious
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

Er.. why 3.2?

May 30, 2024 at 10:52 PM

Juha Kannisto
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

Desmolicious wrote:
Er.. why 3.2?

Yeah, there's no info about why they chose to make it f3.2 at this point. Maybe it'll be explained later when they provide some more info on the lens.

May 30, 2024 at 11:44 PM

Juha Kannisto
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

About their C/Y lenses that are sold via Amazon.co.jp, there are some seemingly fake sellers in addition to the legit listings so I thought it might be better to mention it here in case somebody tries to buy them from there (I'm not sure if Amazon JP will ship them internationally or not). Kinoshita Optical had a notice on their website a few years ago where they announced that these lenses would be sold through Amazon so the listings that are directly by Amazon should be reliable.

55/1.2:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/KISTAR-2-2-55-mm-F1-2/dp/B07B4CVNQ3/
Current listing says it ships from Amazon.co.jp and sold by Amazon.co.jp so it should be legit.

35/1.4:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Kinoshita-Optical-Fixed-Focus-KISTAR/dp/B07B49SFL6/
Current listing says it ships from Amazon.co.jp and sold by Amazon.co.jp so it should be legit.

85/1.4:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Kinoshita-Optical-Fixed-Focus-KISTAR/dp/B07B4CVPNT/
The currently "available" default listing with best price says it ships from "Abubakar cosmetic" and is sold by "Abubakar cosmetic" with an address in China and phone number in Nigeria. New seller and somehow doesn't seem so legit to me... This is the only product they are currently selling at Amazon.co.jp as well

There is an alternative seller "Amazon.co.jp" but price is a bit higher. That one should be legit.

May 30, 2024 at 11:51 PM

rscheffler
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

Desmolicious wrote:
Er.. why 3.2?

Juha Kannisto wrote:
Yeah, there's no info about why they chose to make it f3.2 at this point. Maybe it'll be explained later when they provide some more info on the lens.

I would understand f/3.2 if the body/housing was a limiting factor, but given how much space there is between the edge of the front element and the filter, ring, you'd think they could have slightly enlarged the optics for standard f/2.8. That said, for this kind of lens I wouldn't care as 1/3 stop doesn't really make much difference in respect to light gathering or bokeh and I'd probably use it stopped down most of the time anyway. What bothers me a little more is that the aperture ring seems to jump from f/3.2 to f/5.6. Maybe there's a click-stop between that's f/4? Given the new VM 28/2.8 and various recent Chinese 28s, I'm wondering how this one will fit in. Well, I wouldn't mind some wide open SA glow...

May 31, 2024 at 02:09 PM

Juha Kannisto
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

rscheffler wrote:
I would understand f/3.2 if the body/housing was a limiting factor, but given how much space there is between the edge of the front element and the filter, ring, you'd think they could have slightly enlarged the optics for standard f/2.8. That said, for this kind of lens I wouldn't care as 1/3 stop doesn't really make much difference in respect to light gathering or bokeh and I'd probably use it stopped down most of the time anyway. What bothers me a little more is that the aperture ring seems to jump from f/3.2 to f/5.6. Maybe there's a click-stop...Show more →

There's some dot between 3.2 and 5.6 which I think would be a click-stop in-between (probably F4). I suppose there was just not enough space to have it marked properly.

I think this will probably have much more classic rendering wide open than the CV 28/2.8 but we'll see.

May 31, 2024 at 09:06 PM

Juha Kannisto
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

There was a small update about the progress on Kinoshita Optical's website.

https://kinoshita-optical.com/topics/blog/2611

Auto-translated:
------------------------
Progress on the KISTAR 28mm F3.2M is going well.

Prototype parts for the KISTAR 28mm F3.2M are starting to come together.

The lens body is made of brass and matte silver, following the 40mm F2.4M. Is the focus ring lever the same color as the body? Or black? Which is better...?

The specifications are as follows.

Configuration: 4 groups, 6 elements Shooting range: ∞ to 0.5m (distance linkage up to 0.7m) Aperture: F3.2 to 22 (6 blades) Price: Approximately 120,000 to 140,000 yen (estimated)

We expect to be able to report on the prototype in the fall, so please look forward to it.
------------------------

The price is a bit higher than I was expecting considering that their 40/2.4 in M-mount is around 89K yen (E-mount version is around 66K yen). Anyway, I remain interested but I hope there will also be an E-mount version.

Aug 07, 2024 at 06:12 AM

rscheffler
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

Thanks for the update. Perhaps inflation and currency woes for the high price? Or because they can?

6-blade aperture is a little disappointing but then it's not going to be a bokeh machine. Will be interesting to see how it performs.

Aug 07, 2024 at 11:58 PM

Juha Kannisto
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

rscheffler wrote:
Thanks for the update. Perhaps inflation and currency woes for the high price? Or because they can?

6-blade aperture is a little disappointing but then it's not going to be a bokeh machine. Will be interesting to see how it performs.

Yeah, maybe they buy some materials from foreign sources and weak yen could have impacted their costs. I think these consumer lens releases are just some kind of hobby project for them and they don't impact their main business one way or the other but it would be nice if the lenses keep selling enough and new ones keep coming every couple of years.

The 6-blade aperture is common with their 40/2.4 as well. They did have 10-blade apertures on 35/1.4 and 85/1.4 and 8 on 55/1.2 (probably since it's a remake of old Tomioka Tominon 55/1.2). Would be nice to have more blades but I think it's not critical on this specific lens, as you also mentioned.

I suppose there will start to be some samples with prototypes in a couple of months and perhaps the lens might get officially released by end of the year (let's see). Wouldn't be surprised if it slipped to sometime next year either.

Aug 08, 2024 at 02:17 AM

Juha Kannisto
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Kinoshita Optical are working on a new Kistar 28mm f3.2 M-mount lens

Today there was an update on Kinoshita Optical's website stating that they are also working on Sony FE and Fuji X versions of the upcoming 28/3.2. That's great news for me as I'd prefer to get the E-mount version. Not much more info about those yet though.

https://kinoshita-optical.com/topics/blog/2618

Sep 09, 2024 at 03:24 AM


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