New MS OPTICS APORIA 24MM F/2 M MOUNT

[Simone_DF]

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Today I bumped into this new lens from MS Optics:

https://www.japancamerahunter.com/product/ms-optics-aporia-24mm-f-2-m-mount/

Given the incredibly small size and weight - only 45g! I guess this can be a pocketable travel option for some people, if you can live its compromises.

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[g2van]

Yes it looks really interesting! Can anyone cut through the jargon and explain what we can expect from it in terms of image quality? Would it be similar to the MS Optics Apoqualia 28mm f2 in image output?

Any reviews written yet?

[FrozenInTime]

Looks very similar to the 28/2 ( which I have ) i.e. never sharpens in the center of the frame.

https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Ffclife.tokyo%2Farticle%2F187568483.html&prev=search

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The practical aspects of this lens do look better than many of his other lenses particularly in this case for stealthy street use.

[darylgo]

He states the astigmatism has been corrected except in the extreme corner, but the curvature of field resulted. The mtf chart suggests center sharpness is not stellar, getting better away from center, and falling off at the edges... if you are photographing a planar subject such as a brick wall. Real images could be fine, depending on subject/field curvature combinations.  He shows an image with writing in two corners that appears sharp, perhaps he knows proper placement to show best performance given the field curvature. I would buy this lens if 24mm is a focal length I use often, the small size being the major advantage over the stellar but also diminutive Leica 24mm that is now  discontinued.  

[brandnew2]

So I just got this lens in from Japan today, and it being my first MS Optics lens, I was both excited and terrified in equal measure. I had heavily considered the 28mm f2 previously, and after reading a lot about the lens online as well as about other MS Optics lenses, I ultimately decided against it, as the image quality and QC seemed both seemed a bit questionable (I'm not a huge "character" guy). However, when the 24mm f2 was announced, I couldn't resist the ridiculously small size and went for it. 

I put it on my M10-P as soon as it arrived and went out and took a few hundred test shots on the streets of NYC. First, the bad:

• It's certainly a "quirky" lens. My current lens collection consists of several leica lenses (50 apo, 50 lux, 90 summarit, 90 macro elmar) and a voigtlander 35mm f2 ultron. All of those lenses are solid and inspire confidence both in terms of build quality and handling. The 24mm Aporia..does not. It's incredibly small and light, which is awesome, but it also feels a bit flimsy, and the tolerances just don't feel super tight. For example, there were several instances where I wanted to use live view for framing the 24mm, and live view kept shutting off and giving me a "no lens mounted" error. Eventually, I figured out that where the six bit code reader is on the camera, the lens leaves a little gap between the lens and the mount that lets light leak through. The six bit reader detects the light and assumes there's no lens attached, so shuts off live view. So in order to use live view in the sun, I have to use my finger and continuously cover up that gap between the lens and the camera. 
• Also on the subject of tolerances, the calibration with my m10-p's rangefinder is hilariously off. At infinity, the patch is far from lining up (but the lens does focus to infinity), and the lens otherwise backfocuses a significant amount. After I line up the patch, I have to give the barrel another small (but not insignificant) twist to get the focus dead on. This is definitely a lens meant to be zone/hyperfocal focused, which luckily is pretty easy with a 24mm. 
• It comes with a comically small hood that screws into the lens, which actually looks pretty nice...but you can't change aperture with the hood on. Another reason to keep the lens at f8, I guess, but I don't really envision myself using the hood. 
• On that note...there's no real way to protect the front element (the lens cap screws on and seems quite fiddly to use, so I don't think it'd be something that I'll be taking on and off except when storing the lens) and in my brief search so far I haven't found a filter that would work. 

The good: despite all of its flaws, I'm kind of in love with the lens. I love how ridiculously small it is, the little focus knob is actually pretty easy to handle, and the pictures, against my expectations based on reviewing samples online of previous MS optics lenses, actually turned out pretty sharp, albeit with some strange/noticeable field curvature in certain samples, as noted in the JCH write-up. 

You can find an album of my test shots from the lens here (nothing super considered, I was really just aiming to test out the lens): https://waitlisted.net/msoptics

N.b. that the couple shots with blurry subjects are more the result of missed zone focusing rather than the lens itself. 

Hope this helps anyone else who's considering it!

Edited June 20, 2020 by brandnew2

[Ko.Fe.]

1 hour ago, brandnew2 said:

So I just got this lens in from Japan today, and it being my first MS Optics lens, I was both excited and terrified in equal measure. I had heavily considered the 28mm f2 previously, and after reading a lot about the lens online as well as about other MS Optics lenses, I ultimately decided against it, as the image quality and QC seemed both seemed a bit questionable (I'm not a huge "character" guy). However, when the 24mm f2 was announced, I couldn't resist the ridiculously small size and went for it. 

I put it on my M10-P as soon as it arrived and went out and took a few hundred test shots on the streets of NYC. First, the bad:

• It's certainly a "quirky" lens. My current lens collection consists of several leica lenses (50 apo, 50 lux, 90 summarit, 90 macro elmar) and a voigtlander 35mm f2 ultron. All of those lenses are solid and inspire confidence both in terms of build quality and handling. The 24mm Aporia..does not. It's incredibly small and light, which is awesome, but it also feels a bit flimsy, and the tolerances just don't feel super tight. For example, there were several instances where I wanted to use live view for framing the 24mm, and live view kept shutting off and giving me a "no lens mounted" error. Eventually, I figured out that where the six bit code reader is on the camera, the lens leaves a little gap between the lens and the mount that lets light leak through. The six bit reader detects the light and assumes there's no lens attached, so shuts off live view. So in order to use live view in the sun, I have to use my finger and continuously cover up that gap between the lens and the camera. 
• Also on the subject of tolerances, the calibration with my m10-p's rangefinder is hilariously off. At infinity, the patch is far from lining up (but the lens does focus to infinity), and the lens otherwise backfocuses a significant amount. After I line up the patch, I have to give the barrel another small (but not insignificant) twist to get the focus dead on. This is definitely a lens meant to be zone/hyperfocal focused, which luckily is pretty easy with a 24mm. 
• It comes with a comically small hood that screws into the lens, which actually looks pretty nice...but you can't change aperture with the hood on. Another reason to keep the lens at f8, I guess, but I don't really envision myself using the hood. 
• On that note...there's no real way to protect the front element (the lens cap screws on and seems quite fiddly to use, so I don't think it'd be something that I'll be taking on and off except when storing the lens) and in my brief search so far I haven't found a filter that would work. 

The good: despite all of its flaws, I'm kind of in love with the lens. I love how ridiculously small it is, the little focus knob is actually pretty easy to handle, and the pictures, against my expectations based on reviewing samples online of previous MS optics lenses, actually turned out pretty sharp, albeit with some strange/noticeable field curvature in certain samples, as noted in the JCH write-up. 

You can find an album of my test shots from the lens here (nothing super considered, I was really just aiming to test out the lens): https://waitlisted.net/msoptics

N.b. that the couple shots with blurry subjects are more the result of missed zone focusing rather than the lens itself. 

Hope this helps anyone else who's considering it!

Results looks very good, just like from any normal, no quirks lens. Way better from what I was able to find from his 28/2.

This lens gives M8 new life.

Edited June 20, 2020 by Ko.Fe.

[serhan]

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17 hours ago, Ko.Fe. said:

Results looks very good, just like from any normal, no quirks lens. Way better from what I was able to find from his 28/2.

This lens gives M8 new life.

+1, very good shots. Ms Optics lenses are quirky to use, not sharp wide open and  with some flare, but usually very nice colors and no/little chromatic aberrations...

Here is an interesting article (with auto-translation) about the 28mm w/ samples: MS-Optics 28 & 35mm, cult lenses or optical curiosities?:

 

[Simone_DF]

Actually this lens looks better than expected! I think I may get one myself

[Telemetric]

I ordered one and will be my third MS-Optics lense. I have the 17mm and the 28mm. 
They are very special and have a lot of character. 

[farnz]

The quality of the pictures look very similar to my MS Optics 24/4 Super-Triplet and the lens itself looks very similar too and not much bigger than a body cap.  

The 24/4 also has the tiny hood and minute lens cap so I suspect Miyazaki-san has designed in some commonality.  I normally set mine to f/5.6 unless it's sunny and leave it there.  At a pinch f/4 is usable but shows vignetting so I suspect that the f/2 Aporia will be similar.

I found a neat little zip-up soft-ish clam-shell case so, owing to its tiny size and weighing nothing, it's become a permanent fixture in my camera bag.  And a talking point at LUF meetings.😄

Pete.

[Simone_DF]

@brandnew2 would you be able to post some samples at f2? 

[brandnew2]

5 hours ago, Simone_DF said:

@brandnew2 would you be able to post some samples at f2? 

Hi, yes, I've been shooting more with this lens over the past few days, mostly at f4 to f8 (unfortunately I wasn't organized about it, so couldn't tell you with precision which is which). That said, if I can get outside in the next few days, I can try to shoot a number of additional pictures at each aperture and post them up. I did try a few at f2; I didn't do many, since the lens is miscalibrated with my rangefinder and it would be hard to nail focus on the fly anyway.

From the few shots I did do at f2, they definitely exhibit the flare/character that MS Optics lenses are (in)famous for. Here are three of them - the one with the golden pig is the only one where I'm sure I nailed focus, since I used live view and took my time: https://waitlisted.net/msopticsf2

I also added 11 additional photos to the original test shots album (these include a few at f4-5.6 - the four shots at the end under the metal columns): https://waitlisted.net/msoptics

In short, I really like the lens, but right now I don't see myself straying below f4 very often. I do want to do a bit more testing at f2.8 to see if it could be a good compromise between "character" and a wide enough aperture for low-light use. One unexpected quirk (that I probably should've seen coming!) is that with a 24mm lens that's as tall as a body cap, it's really, really easy to inadvertently block the bottom of the frame with a finger. It happens to me repeatedly, ever when I keep telling myself to watch out for it...

Edited June 23, 2020 by brandnew2

[Simone_DF]

Thank you for taking the time to shot and share these photos!

[brandnew2]

So here's something quick and very slightly more scientific that I shot in my living room just now - I put the camera on a tripod about a meter away from my subject (my macro lens setup) and shot a series of photos at f2, f2.8, f4, f5.6, and f8: https://waitlisted.net/ms-optics-f2-f28-f4-f56-f8 (the photos are arranged in the album in order from f2 to f8).

By f2.8, the text on the lens is quite sharp. 

No adjustments made to the photos. Pardon the mess!

[Simone_DF]

Sweet, thank you!

[CharlesL]

His earlier Perar 21/4.5 at f/5.6. Cropped to remove most of the vignette. The dark top left corner is because the shot was taken through a chain link fence.

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[g2van]

On 6/19/2020 at 7:52 PM, brandnew2 said:

• It comes with a comically small hood that screws into the lens, which actually looks pretty nice...but you can't change aperture with the hood on. Another reason to keep the lens at f8, I guess, but I don't really envision myself using the hood. 
• On that note...there's no real way to protect the front element (the lens cap screws on and seems quite fiddly to use, so I don't think it'd be something that I'll be taking on and off except when storing the lens) and in my brief search so far I haven't found a filter that would work. 

 

Thanks so much for your detailed review. 

I would get this lens if the issue regarding using a filter and the ability to easily change aperture can be solved. I solved this on the MS Optics 28/2 by using a 28mm filter and then putting on the hood on the filter. I could then change aperture by turning the lens hood. It was secure enough to stay on.  See photo below.

I was wondering if the same thing could be achieved on the 24/2 with a 34mm filter - it's so hard to tell from the stock photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[brandnew2]

9 minutes ago, g2van said:

Thanks so much for your detailed review. 

I would get this lens if the issue regarding using a filter and the ability to easily change aperture can be solved. I solved this on the MS Optics 28/2 by using a 28mm filter and then putting on the hood on the filter. I could then change aperture by turning the lens hood. It was secure enough to stay on.  See photo below.

I was wondering if the same thing could be achieved on the 24/2 with a 34mm filter - it's so hard to tell from the stock photos.

So my hunch is that this wouldn't work. I haven't tracked down a compatible filter yet - the filter for this lens is listed as "M34," but some digging online indicates that this is actually a designation that corresponds to something like 31.5mm (and not 34mm), and my measurements seem to bear this out. I had also read about the being able to change the aperture via turning the hood on other MS optics lenses, but it doesn't work here - the aperture ring isn't wide enough to catch on the hood, so turning the hood doesn't affect the aperture adjustment at all. 

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[g2van]

Oh too bad....

BTW, Bellamy of JCH replied to me confirming that the filter size for the 24/2 is 34mm.

Anyway, I, for one, would like to hear more about your experiences with this lens and also please share more photos - when you have the time.

Thanks!

[brandnew2]

52 minutes ago, g2van said:

Oh too bad....

BTW, Bellamy of JCH replied to me confirming that the filter size for the 24/2 is 34mm.

Anyway, I, for one, would like to hear more about your experiences with this lens and also please share more photos - when you have the time.

Thanks!

Yes, will definitely update with more thoughts/photos the next time I get to take it out! Interesting response from Bellamy though - measuring mine, I don't see how a 34mm filter would fit, and unfortunately I don't have one handy to try. Photo attached with a ruler across the widest part. 

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