Juha Kannisto
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 Re: MS-Optics lenses Image and Discussion Thread | |
Fred Miranda wrote:
brla-brla wrote:
Fred Miranda wrote:
brla-brla wrote:
Fred Miranda wrote:
The thing about MS Optics lenses is that they are truly one of a kind. They are highly desired in the asian market, especially in Japan, with the workshop located just outside Tokyo. These lenses are hand crafted rather than mass produced, and you can feel that individuality in both the handling and the rendering. Production numbers are very limited, so if you miss a batch, prices in the used market can become absurdly inflated.
There is great variety but even the ultra fast ones weigh almost nothing, even though they are built of metal. For example, the Apollon 36mm f/1.3 weighs just 80 grams. Their 24mm f/2 Aporia has a total length of 5.8mm and weights 45 grams!
When you think about what it delivers, that size/weight is almost unbelievable.
My favorite lens of theirs, at least with regard to rendering, is the varioprasma. Handling is very clunky though and the image circle is too small, even at the optimal SA setting, for anything other than portraits if you open the aperture wider than f/10, so they're almost too easy to find second hand. Aside from that lens, which doesn't need to be re-released because they're so easy to find, their best lenses that I hope they'll reissue are the 24, which I own one of but would love a spare so I don't have to baby my current copy, and the 50 f/1.0. Those are such obvious best-sellers they'd be foolish to not reissue.
I am glad you mentioned the 50mm f1.5 Vario Prasma. It is a lens I have always wanted to try, mainly because of the SA ring. I just checked Japan Exposures and they had a black version in stock. I am not sure how many are available, but it is definitely worth taking a look. https://www.japanexposures.com/shop/camera-lens/ms-vario-plasmat-50-1.5.html
It reminds me of the Petz, with that distinctive aperture lever
The lack of sample images online before I got my own were absolutely maddening. I could count on one hand the number of sample sets I found, and they were all either low res or wide open, so I really didn't know what I was getting before I got it. If you're curious about normal performance, I have two albums on flickr using the lens on a gfx camera:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/203956166@N02/albums/72177720331188152/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/203956166@N02/albums/72177720330856791/with/54978523531
You can tell it isn't popular based on how many there are on eBay, but I'm in love it with. I bought a spare and I'm even considering buying a third, though that might be a bit extreme, no matter how much I love it. I'm sure there are many great 50s, but there is something so magical about this one to me.
Thank you for sharing the samples. I was also looking at a few on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/44264/48287236541/in/photostream/
I am not sure if that shot was taken wide open, it looks like it might be, and I do not know which SA setting was used. If I understand correctly, "6" is the normal setting for rangefinder use, and as you move toward "2", spherical aberration is progressively less corrected.
@Juha Kannisto@ also posted MS-Optics Vari Prasma 50/1.5 galleries here: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1818378/0#16305859 -- but it's unknown which SA setting he used in each image. I assuming that more glow means closer to "2" setting.
Vario Prasma 50/1.5 was one MS-Optics lens that I was really interested in and expected to like a lot especially after reading this article: https://www.cameranonaniwa.co.jp/blogs/2220565259/
I got a new one from old stock in 2022 (from Camera no Naniwa / Lemonsha parent company's online store) but it had some problems with internal oil spill right from the start and I made some calls to Miyazaki-san and he agreed to service it, so I sent it to service right away. It came back well serviced and clean but I kind of never really connected with the lens and it worked for me for bokeh shots only (never got really satisfactory results stopped down so it was of a somewhat limited use). I used it with various settings when trying for various bokeh, usually changing the SA setting between various shots frequently.
On this album I used setting 2 all the time (I had written that when posting the same in Twitter, otherwise I wouldn't remember): https://photos.app.goo.gl/7BeC2Akx5hko5as98
Eventually I traded my copy away and I no longer have Vario Prasma. I'm not sure if my copy was a decent one or a bit less good but I've never tried getting another copy again afterwards. Dagonar 40/6.3 and 24/4 Perar are other 2 that I once had but didn't really connect with and ended up trading away. I tried 24/4 Perar twice with different copies but at the 2nd round I already had 24/2 which I found to be much better in every way. I still have my other ~20 unique MS-Optics lenses and I'm happy with all of those (my 50/3.5 Apoqualia (Heliar type)) is not so well centered though but all others are good copies).
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