MS Optics Histrio-Dagonar 40mm f/6.3 MC Macro
MS Optics · Leica M · 2018 · Dagor type, six elements in two groups
Also known as: Dagonar · H-Dagonar · Histrio-Dagonar · Historio-Dagonar · Historio Dagonar 40mm 6.3 · HISTORIO-DAGONAR6.3/40 · Histrio-Dagonar 40mm f/6.3 Macro · MS Histrio-Dagonar 40/6.3 MACRO · H-DAGONAR MACRO 40mm f6.3 MC · H-DAGONAR 6.3/40 MC · H-DAGONAR 40mm F6.3 · MS-OPTICS H-DAGONAR 40mm F6.3 · MS Optics H-DAGONAR 40mm f6.3 MC Macro · MS-Optics H-Dagonar 6.3/40 MC Macro · MS-Optical Dagonar 40mm f/6.3 · Miyazaki Dagonar · Miyazaki Dagonar f6.3/40mm · 宮崎光学 H-DAGONAR 40mm F6.3 · 宮崎光学 ダゴナー 40mm F6.3 · MS-OPTICS H-DAGONAR ダゴナー 40mm · ミヤザキ ダゴナー 40mm
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H-DAGONAR 6.3/40 MC MACRO, black (BL) | Leica M | 2018 | — | Part of the 200-lens edition; no split by finish published (MK Direct) |
| H-DAGONAR 6.3/40 MC MACRO, silver (S) | Leica M | 2018 | — | Part of the 200-lens edition; no split by finish published (MK Direct) |
- Size and weight: 50 × 22.2 mm and 50 g, 55 g as a set, from MK Direct's page and the maker's data sheet; shige's spec table and Phillip Reeve give the same 50 × 22.2 mm and 50 g. Japan Exposures gives 37 mm diameter, 22 mm length and 55 g. shige's text gives the thickness as 22 mm in his review and 21 mm in his Hasselblad X2D article.
- Close focus: the engraved scale stops at 0.6 m, and 0.6 m is Reeve's figure. The data sheet gives rangefinder coupling from ∞ to 0.85 m and about 0.6 m on mirrorless bodies. shige found the ring turns past the last mark to about 0.45 m. Japan Exposures gives 1 m on Leica M and about 0.8 m on mirrorless. shige's own lists of MS lenses disagree: the English list gives 0.3 m, the Japanese list 0.6 m.
- Release: February 2018 on MK Direct's page (リリース 2018.2) and 2018 in shige's review. Reeve's overview gives June 2018 as first release. Leica Rumors' post of 17 May 2018 relayed a roadmap Miyazaki had published with the Histrio-Prot's specifications, with a "Dagor 40mm f/6.3" among the lenses to follow; the post does not say whether the Dagonar had shipped by then.
- Light transmission: 98.5% in MK Direct's text, on the data sheet and in Japan Exposures' description; 97.5% in Japan Exposures' key-feature list. Minimum aperture: f/22 on the engraved scale, in shige's Japanese review and in his Japanese list of MS lenses; f/16 in the spec tables of his English review and his English list.
- The edition of 200 is from MK Direct (200個限定生産). Japan Exposures calls its stock the "initial lot" and gives no count. shige gives no number, but says the lens has become harder to find used since the mid-2020s and that the small production may be one reason.
- The Dagor itself: MK Direct's text, the data sheet and Japan Exposures date the Goerz Dagor to 1905 and credit "von Hoof" (フォン・フーフ); Reeve also gives 1905 but names no designer. shige dates it to the early 1890s and names Emil von Höegh. The dates are recorded as the sources give them.
- Prices: ¥60,000 from MK Direct, the maker's shop (no tax statement); ¥55,000 before tax as shige's list price; ¥69,900 from Japan Exposures for either finish, with no tax statement. No auction result is recorded.
How to tell them apart
- Front ring engraved H-DAGONAR 6.3/40 MC (the MC in red) and MACRO, with a three-digit serial and finish letter
- Mount ring engraved HISTORY-SERIES on one side and MS-OPTICS JAPAN on the other in the maker's and Japan Exposures' photographs; shige describes the inscription as "Historical Series"
- Distance scale in metres from ∞ to 0.6, with 0.8 and 0.6 in red, past the 0.85 m rangefinder coupling limit; depth-of-field scale for f/6.3–22 on the mount; focusing knob
- Stepless aperture ring marked 6.3, 8, 11, 22; ten blades (shige)
- 50 mm wide and 22.2 mm deep, with a narrow front barrel; with the screw-in hood fitted the outline is an hourglass (shige)
- Brings up the 35 mm and 135 mm frame lines on an M body (shige)
- Sold with a screw-in hood, front and rear caps (Japan Exposures)
- The sister Histrio-Prot 40mm f/6.3 reads H-PROT and is 16.2 mm deep against 22.2 mm (shige; MK Direct)
H-DAGONAR 6.3/40 MC MACRO, black (BL):
- Black barrel with white engraving and a red MC; the serial on the front ring carries the suffix BL (000 BL in MK Direct's photograph, 005 BL and 013 BL in Japan Exposures')
H-DAGONAR 6.3/40 MC MACRO, silver (S):
- Satin silver barrel with black engraving; 0.6 and 0.8 on the distance scale and the MC still in red; serial suffix S (001 S in MK Direct's photograph)
- H-DAGONAR 6.3/40 MC MACRO, black (BL): The finish Japan Exposures lists first as "Black". The maker's data sheet is headed "Collction No.2 BL S", naming both finishes, and the sheet MK Direct shows is the check record for lens #013, the same number Japan Exposures photographs in black.
- H-DAGONAR 6.3/40 MC MACRO, silver (S): Shown by MK Direct, the maker's shop, as lens 001 S with a black hood and black caps, and offered by Japan Exposures as the "Silver" finish at the same price as the black. Neither source names the plating; MK Direct's rhodium-silver wording belongs to the Histrio-Prot, not to this lens.
Serial-range notes
- 000–194 (numbers seen)
- Three-digit numbers on the front ring, each followed by a finish letter: 000 BL and 001 S in MK Direct's photographs, 005 BL and 013 BL in Japan Exposures', and #194 in an eBay listing title. A black 000 beside a silver 001 suggests one sequence shared by both finishes, but five numbers are too few to show it. MK Direct says serials were shipped at random, and Japan Exposures that it cannot take reservations for a number, so a low or matching number cannot be ordered.
Specifications
- Formula
- Dagor type, six elements in two groups
- Designed by
- Miyazaki Sadayasu — optical design and hand assembly
- Construction
- 6 elements / 2 groups
- Aperture range
- f/6.3–f/22
- Diaphragm blades
- 10
- Min. focus
- 0.6 m
- Dimensions
- 50 × 22.2 mm
- Weight
- 50 g
- Filter
- 22.5 mm (0.75 mm pitch), 22.5 mm on the lens; 28 mm at the front of the screw-in hood
- Years manufactured
- 2018
- Country
- Japan
- Coating
- Multicoated on all four air-glass surfaces
- Original price
- ¥60,000 on MK Direct, the maker's own shop, with no statement on tax; shige gives a list price (定価) of ¥55,000 before tax; Japan Exposures, the export dealer, lists it at ¥69,900.
What reviewers say
- shige_yuki (Shige's hobby) (blog) — On a Leica M-P (Typ 240): well resolved and even from f/6.3 with little trouble at the edges and hardly any distortion, slight corner shading wide open that stopping down cures, no flare or ghosts to speak of, and close-up backgrounds that can turn slightly busy; framing means composing just inside the 35 mm frame lines.
- shige_yuki (Shige's hobby) (blog) — On a Hasselblad X2D 100C through a helicoid adapter: the centre holds up to the 100-megapixel sensor and colour is natural, but at infinity the full 44 × 33 mm frame shows shading and hard vignetting from the barrel in the corners; focused close, down to about 0.2 m with both helicoids racked out, the vignetting disappears.
Optical formula — Dagor type, six elements in two groups
ⓘ What these charts mean
MTF (modulation transfer function) shows how much contrast the lens keeps at a given fineness of detail, from the center of the frame to the corner — the coarse curves track punch, the fine ones resolving power, and a gap between solid and dashed lines means astigmatism. Relative illumination (falloff) shows how much darker the corners are than the center at each aperture. Manufacturers only began publishing these for modern lenses; no 1950s maker issued them, which is why older families here cite period magazine bench tests instead.
History
The Histrio-Dagonar is a 40mm f/6.3 for Leica M built on the Goerz Dagor: six elements in two cemented groups, nearly symmetrical about the stop. Miyazaki’s MS-Optics released it in February 2018 according to the maker’s own shop, MK Direct, as “Collection No. 2” of the History Series, after the Protar-type Histrio-Prot 40mm f/6.3 of 2017 and before the H-Petz 57mm f/2. Phillip Reeve’s overview gives June 2018 as its first release, and a Leica Rumors post of May 2018 was still relaying Miyazaki’s earlier roadmap with a “Dagor 40mm f/6.3” among the lenses to come. All four air-glass surfaces are multicoated, and the shop page gives 58 degrees of view, 50 × 22.2 mm and 50 g.
The lens exists because of glass stock. MK Direct’s text says the two glass types it uses were about to go out of production, so Miyazaki expected it to be the last lens of its kind. shige reports Miyazaki telling him that the Dagonar and the Prot were both planned around old glass a maker still held, which is why the pair share the unusual 40mm f/6.3 specification. The run was limited to 200. MK Direct claims 10–15% more resolution and contrast than the Prot, under 10 µm at full aperture and 5–8 µm from f/8, +0.13% distortion and colour correction close to an apochromat. The maker’s data sheet adds that contrast falls from f/11. These are the maker’s figures. In shige’s side-by-side test the Dagonar looked slightly sharper and better corrected than the Prot, with a slightly narrower view, and he found the difference hard to see in ordinary pictures.
The lens comes in black, with serials ending BL, and in silver, with serials ending S. MK Direct photographs 000 BL and 001 S, Japan Exposures offers both finishes at one price, and the data sheet is headed “BL S”. The optics, engraving and accessories are the same in both: H-DAGONAR 6.3/40 MC and MACRO on the front ring, HISTORY-SERIES and MS-OPTICS JAPAN on the mount, a stepless f/6.3–22 aperture ring with ten blades, and a 22.5 mm filter thread with a screw-in hood whose 28 mm front also takes filters. It brings up the 35mm frame lines, so the picture runs a little inside them. The rangefinder couples from infinity to 0.85 m. The scale runs down to 0.6 m, with 0.8 and 0.6 in red, and shige found the ring turns on to about 0.45 m. Below 0.85 m focusing has to be by scale or on a body with live view. MK Direct recommends the lens for close-up work, saying its aberrations change very little with distance, and the front ring is engraved MACRO.
When buying, check the serial and finish letter against the engraving described here, and expect a hood and caps, which Japan Exposures lists as included. The maker issued a hand-written data sheet for the lens, which both MK Direct and Japan Exposures publish: the copy MK Direct shows is the check record for lens #013, with marks for spherical aberration, astigmatism, striae in the glass and colour. Japan Exposures’ close-focus figures (1 m on M, 0.8 m mirrorless) and its 37 mm diameter disagree with the maker’s, the spec tables in shige’s English review and English list give an f/16 minimum aperture, and the list 0.3 m. The engraved scales stop at f/22 and 0.6 m. shige saw these lenses in shops for about five years after release, and fewer on the used market from the mid-2020s.
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.
Example photos
More sample photos elsewhere
- Sample photographs on a Leica M-P (Typ 240), shige_yuki
- Sample photographs on a Hasselblad X2D 100C, shige_yuki
These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.
Sample photo wanted — shot with a MS Optics Histrio-Dagonar 40mm f/6.3 MC Macro? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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