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One “dream” lens has kept a very special yearning status of desire in my complex photographic universe. It was probably the first superfast lens, made by Teikoku Optical Industries of Japan back in 1953. Zunow 50mm f/1.1, a Sonnar derivate, was produced in small quantities and is considered a very rare collector's item today. The lens is highly sought after by vintage lens enthusiasts and photographers who appreciate its unique render. Zunow experienced financial difficulties, and the company eventually closed its doors in 1961, so not a lot is known about them (fun fact: they made their own Leica copy prototype called Teica, never shown to public), but their legendary lens changed the Japanese optical roadmap forever and prompted Nikon to develop own 50/1.1 version three years later. I have also been pondering on the idea of owning one single lens from MS Optics (former MS Optical R&D, as per thread title), the well-known Japanese lens manufacturer that specializes in producing handmade lenses for rangefinder cameras, for quite a while. As we all know, the company was founded by Sadayasu Miyazaki, a skilled telescope and lens designer slash technician who has over 40 years of experience in the field. Mr. Miyazaki is the driving force behind MS Optics, and all of the company's lenses are made in small batches. That means they have all been designed and hand assembled by the man in the past 13 years or so. MS Optics lenses are known for their unique optical characteristics and vintage aesthetic, and they are usually revamped old designs that are now mostly collectors’ items, sold in a semi-affordable package with hand drawn MTF charts and dubious sample variation & QC. Now imagine the good old classic Bertele Zeiss Sonnar 1.5/50mm from 1932 Contax era and the Teikoku Zunow having a baby, artificially inseminated by the conversion skills of one Miyazaki-san. Phillip Reeve called it “probably Miyazaki’s most famous lens”. The MS Optical R&D Sonnetar 1.1 was born a little over 10 years ago, bearing the strongest similarities to its “mother”, the classic Zunow master of light. Various levels of frustration when using non-native M mount lenses on digital M bodies come to mind. Usually those are minor nuisances like no hard stops beyond 0.7m on Voigtlander lenses, LTM threads unscrewing during fast barrel rotating moves, bottom cut adapters not covering the digital M's 6-bit reader resulting in »no lens detected« message, some non-M lenses not having the same rangefinder coupling, but nothing can compete with the frustration of using MS Optics lenses on your digital M. One user summarized the experience as “fiddly, pain-in-the-rear handling in exchange for the benefits of minuscule size”. I will not go into detail about my harsh claim (those who own or have used MS lenses will know exactly what I mean), nor will I review my new Sonnetar 1.1 here. There are several threads that did that all in the forum already. By far one of the best outside reviews, listing the virtues and frustrations of this idiosyncratic lens (written by Dante Stella) can be found here. https://themachineplanet.wordpress.com/2015/11/12/ms-optical-50mm-f1-1-sonnetar-magic-time/ and several other forum threads here are listed below: https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/205220-sonnetar-1150/ https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/204747-ms-optical-50s/ https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/195593-ms-optical-rd-sonnetar-50mm-f11-mc/ https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/192287-ms-optical-sonnetar-mc-f11-v-noctilux-v1-f1/ https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/265667-sonnetar-50mm-f11/ I will summarize my post with 5 keywords that best describe this (in 2023 already a collector’s item) lens: eccentric, quirky, frustrating, challenging, fun. (Photos in the following threads).
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- miyazaki sadayasu
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Hi, we are putting a book with photos together for Mr Miyazaki, all taken with Perar lenses. It would be great to have a contribution from you! More details here: https://www.flickr.c...ps/2843169@N21/ http://www.japanexpo...the-perar-book/ If you don’t use or like Flickr, please email us. Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you. Regards Dirk
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