In a reminder to photographers around the world that not all lens innovation is only happening in China nowadays, MS Optics from Japan has just announced a niche, ultra-thin pancake lens for Leica M.
Each piece is handmade by Sadayasu Miyazaki, who has gained an impressive reputation for converting lenses for the M-mount.
It's called the Perar 17mm f/4. 5 Retro Focus Ultra Thin lens, and it's only 10. 2mm thick, with an angle of view of 100°. Rangefinder lenses are usually quite light already, but this one weighs only 60g. Not bad.
The Perar can focus from . 4m to infinity, and the minimum aperture is f/16. It has four elements in four groups, and while there's supposedly severe vignetting wide open, Miyazaki claims that the hyperfocal distance is quite flexible. If you set the focus to 1. 40m at f/4. 5, everything from . 8m to infinity should be sharp.
The MS Optical Perar 24mm f/4 Super Wide / Japan Camera Hunter
Miyazaki is quite humble when it comes to describing his creation, and wrote this:
"A weakness of the lens is the peripheral light fall off, especially at maximum aperture, but this lens is improved compared to the 21mm and 24mm Perars. Distortion is kept to +/-2%, which is about the average for a 28mm lens, but it may stand out in some circumstances. Compared to the Zeiss Distagon 18mm F4, this is neither superior nor inferior, but taking into consideration the fact that the Zeiss lens is a 10 element optical design, 70mm in diameter, 51. 5mm long, and weighs 350g, I think the good points of my lens are pretty clear. For a filter, the glass removed from a 34mm filter can be attached inside the hood. "
. digitalrev.com2017-1-17 03:00
