MS Optics Hipolion 19mm f/8

MS Optics · Leica M · 2020 · Hypergon type, two meniscus elements in two groups

Also known as: Hipolion · Hipolion 19mm f/8 · Hipolion 19mm F8 · MS Optics Hipolion 19mm f/8 · MS-Optics Hipolion 19mm F8 · MS-Optical Hipolion 19mm f/8 · MS-OPTICS HIPOLION 19mm F8 · MS Optics 19mm f8 Hipolion · MS-Optical 19mm f/8 Hipolion · MS-Optics 19mm F8 · MS-Optics Hipolion 19mm F8 Soft F2.8-5.6 · MS-OPTICAL HIPOLION f8~16/19mm SoftFocus F2.8~5.6/18.5mm · HIPOLION 8/19 SOFT 2.8-5.6 · HIPOLION8/19 SOFT2.8-6.6 · HIPOLION 8-16/19 · Hipolion 18.5mm · Hiporion 19mm F8 · Hypolion 19mm · MS Optics Hypergon 19mm · 宮崎光学 Hipolion 19mm F8 · 宮崎光學 Hipolion 19mm f8 · 宮崎光学ハイポリオン 19mm F8 · ハイポリオン19mmF8 · 宮崎光学ヒポリオン

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
HIPOLION 8/19 SOFT 2.8-5.6, black	Leica M	2020	—	—
HIPOLION 8/19 SOFT 2.8-5.6, silver	Leica M	2020	—	—
HIPOLION 8/19, brass (limited)	Leica M	2021	—	Limited; no figure published. MK Direct says the brass lenses sold out early

Focal length: 19 mm in the name; 19.5 mm on the maker's data sheet and MK Direct's product page (fl19.5) and in Phillip Reeve's overview. The data sheet's heading gives 18.5 mm against the soft apertures (Soft 2.8~5.6/18.5), and Ludger Weß's Japan Camera Hunter essay calls it the Hipolion 18.5 mm in its heading and a 19 mm lens in its text. chan.nds.hk (June 2026) says Miyazaki made two versions, a 19mm f/8 and an 18.5 mm, which the writer had never seen. Fotoborse tags its black listing both ハイポリオン19mmF8 and ハイポリオン18.5mmF2.8. No source describes or shows a separate 18.5 mm lens, so it has no row here.
Apertures: the maker sells it as an f/8 lens, sharp from f/8 to f/16, with f/2.8 to f/5.6 as soft focus (MK Direct, Japan Exposures). MK Direct's product title reads SOFT2.8-6.6, but its own text, the data sheet and the engraving read 2.8–5.6. shige-art's lens table and review give f/4 as the widest setting; the engraving starts at S2.8.
Close focus: rangefinder coupled from infinity to 0.8 m, and by eye to 0.3 m (MK Direct, data sheet, Fotoborse). Japan Exposures gives 0.8 m on Leica M and 0.5–0.6 m on mirrorless cameras. shige-art gives 0.5 m. chan.nds.hk gives 0.5 m in his 2021 film post and, in 2026, about 0.4 m without a helicoid adapter; fuya photo's spec table gives 0.1 m. The engraved scale stops at 0.5 m. The entry takes the maker's 0.3 m. MK Direct says that at f/8 with the lens focused at 2 m, everything from 1 m to infinity is sharp.
Size and weight: 27 g, 50 mm across and 2.6 mm from the camera body (MK Direct, the data sheet, Japan Exposures, Reeve). MK Direct's spec line prints the thickness as 26 mm, but its own text says 2.6 mm. Kamerastore gives 50 × 17 mm and 26 g; the 17 mm may be measured over the whole barrel, including the part that sits inside the mount, but Kamerastore does not say. shige-art's review table gives 70 g, while its lens table gives 27 g.
Construction: two elements in two groups everywhere, including the cross-section on Miyazaki's data sheet. Japan Camera Hunter's Tumblr post says four elements in four groups, which appears to be a slip.
Blades: 10 (shige-art; Reeve, "straight"; Kamerastore; fuya photo). chan.nds.hk calls the opening fully round.
Finishes: Japan Exposures describes black and silver as anodised aluminium. Japan Camera Hunter's Tumblr calls them silver chrome and black chrome. The data sheet is marked Check No. 000 試作 (prototype), which suggests its curves were measured on a pre-production lens. No production count has been published for any finish. MK Direct says serial numbers were shipped at random, and Japan Exposures would not reserve them.
Dates: MK Direct dates the lens to December 2020, as do shige-art (2020.12) and Reeve. Leica Rumors reported it on 5 January 2021, and chan.nds.hk (21 January 2021) calls it a 2021 lens. By 2026 MK Direct and Japan Exposures both showed it out of stock. No end date is known.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Front ring engraved HIPOLION 8/19 SOFT 2.8-5.6 and MS-OPTICS JAPAN with a serial number (Japan Exposures' photographs; fuya photo transcribes the name line as HIPOLION 19/8 SOFT 2.8-5.6). The maker's data sheet heads itself HIPOLION 8~16/19 Soft 2.8~5.6/18.5, and some sellers copy that
Aperture scale on the inner ring: S2.8 and S4 in red for the soft-focus settings, then 8 and 16 in white. chan.nds.hk counts four stops: f/2.8, f/4, f/8 and f/16
Distance scale ∞, 4, 2, 1.4, 1, 0.7 and 0.5 m, with 0.7 and 0.5 in red, and a depth-of-field scale for 4, 8, 11 and 16
It protrudes 2.6 mm from the camera, is 50 mm across and weighs 27 g, about the size of a body cap. No hood was supplied (chan.nds.hk, fuya photo), and the data sheet says neither filter nor hood is needed, although Japan Exposures calls the 34 mm front thread a filter/lens hood thread
The two glass elements are deep menisci set far back in a ribbed well, in the manner of the Goerz Hypergon it is named after

HIPOLION 8/19 SOFT 2.8-5.6, black:

Black anodised aluminium barrel with white engraving and red soft-focus and close-distance figures
The black lens in Japan Exposures' photographs is engraved 048 B under MS-OPTICS JAPAN. No source explains the letter after the number

HIPOLION 8/19 SOFT 2.8-5.6, silver:

Silver anodised aluminium barrel. Japan Exposures charged the same price for silver as for black

HIPOLION 8/19, brass (limited):

Brass barrel in place of anodised aluminium. Sellers call it Brass or Gold

HIPOLION 8/19 SOFT 2.8-5.6, black: One of the two standard finishes Japan Exposures offered at ¥65,900, with silver. Fotoborse sold a black lens consigned directly by Miyazaki, rank EX, now marked sold out.
HIPOLION 8/19 SOFT 2.8-5.6, silver: Offered by Japan Exposures as the second standard finish, and listed by Kamerastore as one of the two colours the lens was made in. None of the sources cited here shows a photograph of a silver lens.
HIPOLION 8/19, brass (limited): Leica Rumors' report of 5 January 2021 translates a Fotoborse listing for a "Hipolion 19mm F8 (M) Brass" at ¥66,000, with "limited body color brass" and the note that the lens was consigned by Miyazaki himself. Japan Camera Hunter's Tumblr (25 March 2021) gave the finishes as "bare brass, silver chrome and black chrome". MK Direct, the maker's shop, wrote on 14 August 2021 that the brass Hipolion had been popular and sold out early. It wrote this when announcing brass versions of the Apoqualia 35/1.3 II Slim, whose gold version has a clear urethane coat against tarnish. No source says whether the Hipolion brass was lacquered in the same way.

Specifications

Formula: Hypergon type, two meniscus elements in two groups
Designed by: Miyazaki Sadayasu (宮崎貞安) — optical and mechanical design; Japan Exposures says the lenses were designed, made and hand-assembled by him
Construction: 2 elements / 2 groups
Aperture range: f/8–f/16
Diaphragm blades: 10
Min. focus: 0.3 m
Dimensions: 50 × 2.6 mm
Weight: 27 g
Filter: 34 mm, 34 mm thread in the front rim; a filter there stops the aperture ring turning
Years manufactured: 2020
Country: Japan
Coating: All glass surfaces multicoated (Japan Exposures)
Material: Anodised aluminium in black or silver (Japan Exposures); a limited brass version
Original price: No list price from the maker has been found. Dealer prices at launch were ¥65,900 at Japan Exposures, black or silver (its page does not say whether Japanese tax is included), and ¥66,000 at Fotoborse, a Japanese consignment dealer, for a brass lens consigned by Miyazaki himself (Leica Rumors' translation of the Fotoborse listing, 5 January 2021). shige-art gives an official price of ¥60,000 on its review page and ¥50,000 before tax in its lens table.

What reviewers say

Ludger Weß (Japan Camera Hunter) (blog) — A guest essay set against the history of the Goerz Hypergon. At the soft settings Weß calls it "a ridiculous lens", foggy "as if vaseline is covering the lens"; the only use he can imagine is intentional camera movement, and the pastel colour is for occasional effect unless one makes it a style. Between f/11 and f/16, and above all at f/16, he calls the lens stunning, without the converging lines a 19 mm usually shows, and with fall-off not much stronger than that of other ultra-wides. He recommends it in particular for the Leica Monochrom.
shige-art (blog) — Tested on a Leica M-P 240, an M9 and a Lumix GM5. At f/8 it is close to fixed focus and enough for casual snapshots. The soft settings keep a usable centre, but the look soon repeats. On the M240 the edges show colour casts and distortion, so a sensor that handles wide rangefinder lenses well, or a cropped one, suits it better. A lens for fun, not for every day.
chanchentan (chan.nds.hk) (blog) — On a Leica M2 with Kodak UltraMax 400. f/8 is the first usable setting and f/16 the best, sharp from centre to corners, while f/2.8 gives a dreamy look he likes. Distortion is well corrected, but the corners fall off by about two stops, and by nearly one even at f/16. That is easy to fix in digital files and hard on film, so he wishes a grey filter had been sold with it. There is no hood, and he advises using a cable release.

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Distortion: very low

Optical formula — Hypergon type, two meniscus elements in two groups

Miyazaki's hand-drawn data sheet: cross-section of the two menisci, aberration curves and the specification (Japan Exposures attachment)

History

The Hipolion is Miyazaki Sadayasu’s version of the Goerz Hypergon, the two-element wide-angle lens of 1900. It is an M-mount 19mm that stands 2.6 mm proud of the camera, is 50 mm across and weighs 27 g, about the size of a body cap. The rangefinder couples to it all the same. MK Direct, the shop that sold Miyazaki’s lenses in Japan, dates it to December 2020, and it reached the English-language press in January 2021. On the product page Miyazaki tells how it came about. A Mr S. of Kobe gave him a large print made with a 75 mm f/22 Hypergon, and its sharpness made him want to do the same in 35mm. It took him ten years. He describes the original as a lens of about 140° whose two deep menisci correct coma, astigmatism, field curvature, distortion and lateral colour completely, but leave spherical and chromatic aberration untouched, which is why the Hypergon was so slow. The Hipolion narrows the angle to 100° so it is easier to use.

The aperture is what makes it unusual. The lens is sold and engraved as an f/8. Japan Exposures and the maker both say it is meant to be used from f/8 to f/16, where colour and sharpness are good. The aperture ring also opens past f/8 to two settings marked S2.8 and S4 in red. Miyazaki calls these the soft-focus range: an image with a sharp core inside a round flare, a look that Fotoborse’s listing, in Leica Rumors’ machine translation, sums up as “if Hypergon is bright”. Reviewers agree on how the two halves behave. Ludger Wess, writing for Japan Camera Hunter, calls the soft settings foggy, “as if vaseline is covering the lens”, and the lens stunning at f/11 and above all at f/16. chanchentan, shooting film on an M2, finds f/8 the first usable setting and f/16 the best, sharp from centre to corners. Both note fall-off towards the corners. Wess finds it not much stronger than that of other ultra-wides, while chanchentan sees about two stops at f/2.8 and nearly one even at f/16. On a Leica M240 shige-art saw colour casts and distortion at the edges of the frame, and all three reviewers point towards black and white or a cropped sensor. Distortion of straight lines, the Hypergon’s whole point, is very low by chanchentan’s account, and Wess notes that it avoids the converging lines a 19 mm usually shows. shige-art counts the Hipolion in Miyazaki’s History series, the homages to old designs that also include the Histrio-Prot and Histrio-Dagonar 40s, and it is the widest MS lens after the Perar 17.

There are three versions, and they differ only in the barrel. Black and silver anodised aluminium were the standard finishes, both ¥65,900 at Japan Exposures. A limited brass version, which some sellers list as Gold, was listed by the Japanese consignment dealer Fotoborse at ¥66,000 (reported by Leica Rumors on 5 January 2021), and MK Direct said in August 2021 that the brass lenses had sold out early. No production figure has been published for any of them. The sources disagree on several specifications. The focal length is 19 mm in the name, 19.5 mm on the maker’s data sheet, and 18.5 mm against the soft apertures in the same sheet’s heading. Close focus is 0.8 m coupled and 0.3 m by eye according to the maker, and 0.5 m according to two owners, on a scale that ends at 0.5 m. shige-art’s lens table and review give f/4 as the widest aperture, although the ring is engraved from S2.8. One Hong Kong owner has written that Miyazaki also made a separate 18.5 mm lens, but no other source mentions one.

When buying, check the front ring. It should read HIPOLION 8/19 SOFT 2.8-5.6 and MS-OPTICS JAPAN with a serial number. The aperture ring should click through S2.8, S4, 8 and 16, and the focusing ring, which is so thin that shige-art finds it a little awkward to use, should turn smoothly down to the red 0.7 and 0.5 m marks. Look closely at the two elements in their deep, ribbed well, because they are the whole lens and no hood was supplied to protect them. A 34 mm filter screws into the front, but shige-art warns that it then stops the aperture ring turning, so set the aperture before fitting one. The maker says that at f/8 with the lens focused at 2 m, everything from 1 m to infinity is sharp, so in practice it is a fixed-focus snapshot lens and needs no finder. By 2026 it was out of stock at both MK Direct and Japan Exposures. Kamerastore, a used dealer, shows an average price of €419 for a copy in its certified condition grades.

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This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

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