MS Optics Super Triplet Perar 35mm f/3.5

MS Optics · Leica M · 2010 · Triplet, three elements in three groups

Also known as: MS Optics Super Triplet Perar 35mm f/3.5 · MS-Optics Super Triplet Perar 35mm F3.5 · MS Optics 35mm f3.5 MC Super Triplet Perar · MS Optical 35mm f/3.5 MC Super-Triplet II Perar · MS Optical Super Triplet Perar 35mm f/3.5 · MS Optical Super Triplet Perar II 35mm f/3.5 · MS-Optical Super-Triplet Perar 35/3.5 MC · MS-Optical Super Triplet PERAR 3.5/35 MC · MS Optical Perar 3.5/35 · MS Optical Perar 35mm f3.5 · MS-OPTICS PERAR 35mm F3.5 · MS-PERAR 35mm F3.5 · Super Triplet Perar 35mm f3.5 · Super Triplet Perar 3.5/35 · Super-Triplet Perar 35mm · Perar Super Triplet 35mm f3.5 · Perar Super Triplet II 35/3.5 · Perar 35mm f/3.5 · Perar 35mm F3.5 MC · Perar 3.5/35 · Perar 35/3.5 · 宮崎光学 PERAR 35mm F3.5 · 宮崎光学 SUPER TRIPLET PERAR 35mm F3.5 · MS-OPTICS 宮崎光学 PERAR 35mm · ミヤザキ PERAR 35mm F3.5 · ペラール 35mm F3.5 · ペラー 35mm F3.5

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Super Triplet Perar 3.5/35 MC (first version, 2010)	Leica M (a screw-mount core with an L-M ring fitted semi-permanently)	2010–2010	Within the first lot of 200 (later lots are numbered from 201) 003 (a copy Japan Exposures used for sample photographs on a Leica M9)	200, the first lot (Japan Exposures, 6 September 2010)
Super Triplet Perar II 3.5/35 MC (Mark II, 2011–2012)	Leica M	2011–2012	201–650 (Japan Exposures' second and third lots) 433 (a Mark II owner's copy, February 2012)	200 according to the Mark II announcement (Leica Rumors, 25 May 2011). Japan Exposures' product page describes a second and third lot of 200 and 250 numbered 201–650. Japan Camera Hunter had an allotment of 10 in July 2012. Whether those 10 sit inside the 201–650 numbers is not stated.

Run sizes: 200 in the first lot (Japan Exposures, 2010); 200 Mark II lenses (Leica Rumors, 2011); Mark II lots of 200 and 250 numbered 201–650 (Japan Exposures' product page); an allotment of 10 at Japan Camera Hunter in 2012. Taken together, up to 650 numbers were allotted, but no source gives the number actually made.
Weight: 75 g (Japan Exposures, Leica Rumors, camera-wiki, Phillip Reeve's site). Japan Camera Hunter gives 'only 75grams (55 grams with the hood)'; the two figures cannot both include the hood, and 55 g is probably the lens without it. Shige gives 70 g. Kamerastore's listing gives 47 g and 50 × 16 mm, which agrees with no other source.
Size: 4.2 mm tall when collapsed (Japan Exposures, Leica Rumors); shige says 4 mm. Length 13.2 mm extended (Reeve), 15 mm (shige's review table and English MS list) or 17.5 mm (shige's Japanese MS list); Kamerastore gives 16 mm. Diameter 50 mm (Reeve, Kamerastore, shige's Japanese list) or 48.6 mm (shige's review table and English list). Closest focus is 0.8 m everywhere except shige's Japanese list, which gives 0.6 m.
Minimum aperture: f/16 in shige's text and in his Japanese MS list, f/22 in his review table and his English list. The lens has no aperture click stops, and the aperture scale turns with the barrel as it focuses (Japan Exposures).
Iris maker: Edmund Optics of the USA in Japan Exposures' 2010 announcement and in the Mark II announcement of 2011; Otto Niemann Feinmechanik of Berlin on Japan Exposures' Mark II product page. The sources do not say whether the supplier changed between lots.
Filter: 19 mm in the classic Leica pitch (Japan Exposures), screwed into the front in reverse (shige). In comments of November 2011 on Japan Exposures' blog, a buyer found that a B+W 19 mm UV filter did not fit, and Japan Exposures replied that only Kenko filters still seemed to be available, with the UV filters running out. The hood is a dedicated screw-in tube.
Mount: Japan Exposures wrote that use on a screw-mount body needed extra calibration, so buyers outside Japan were offered only the M-mount version unless they sent in their camera; camera-wiki says M only, at least outside Japan. That implies a screw-mount fitting could be had to order, but no screw-mount example is documented, so the entry lists only Leica M.
Dates: Phillip Reeve gives a first release of August 2010; Japan Exposures announced the first lot on 6 September 2010. End date: the last documented run is Japan Camera Hunter's made-to-order allotment of July 2012; its stock was sold out by November 2013. Leica Rumors' list of upcoming MS lenses (July 2013) included a Perar 3.5/35 re-issue for late 2013 or early 2014, but no re-issued lens has been documented.
Market: a Mark II was offered privately in Belgium for €1,200 in February 2017 (an asking price, Luminous Landscape forum). It is not a sale price.

How to tell them apart (expand)

SUPER TRIPLET and PERAR on the nameplate with f/3.5 and 35; the Perar 28, 24 and 21 that followed, also sold as Super Triplets, are f/4 and f/4.5 lenses
Collapsible, and almost flat when pushed in: about 4 mm proud of the mount. There is no lock for the collapsed position
19 mm filter thread and a small dedicated screw-in tube hood
Clickless aperture with ten blades, scale turning with the focusing barrel

Super Triplet Perar 3.5/35 MC (first version, 2010):

Nameplate without II
Thinner focus lever than the Mark II
Hood of a different shape from the Mark II's (shige)
Leica 6-bit code on the mount (Japan Exposures); the Mark II has none
A screw-mount lens with an L-M ring that Japan Exposures calls semi-permanently fixed

Super Triplet Perar II 3.5/35 MC (Mark II, 2011–2012):

II on the nameplate
Thicker focus lever
Minor changes to the barrel markings and aperture scale (Japan Exposures)
Revised hood shape (shige)
Native M mount, not 6-bit coded
Serial above 200

Super Triplet Perar 3.5/35 MC (first version, 2010): Japan Exposures announced the first lot of 200 on 6 September 2010. The core is a screw-mount lens, but use on a screw-mount body needed extra calibration, so buyers outside Japan were offered only the M-mount version unless they sent in their camera. Japan Exposures advised against removing the L-M ring, which can upset focusing, and camera-wiki adds that only the factory can take it off. Leica Rumors wrote in May 2011 that the first version had sold out several months before the Mark II was announced. Shige bought one at launch and used it for years before he found a Mark II.
Super Triplet Perar II 3.5/35 MC (Mark II, 2011–2012): Leica Rumors reported Japan Exposures' announcement on 25 May 2011, and Japan Exposures called it optically identical to the first version. The changes it listed were a native M mount in place of the screw-mount core and ring, a thicker focus lever, revised markings, and no 6-bit code, which it said M9 owners could set by hand. Shige owns both versions. He found that the only visible differences were the II on the nameplate and the hood, that the instruction sheet was the same, and he took the Mark II to be little more than a second lot. Japan Camera Hunter's ten lenses of July 2012, a further batch made to order, were sold first come, first served with no choice of serial, and its stock was gone by November 2013. Japan Exposures later wrote that there were no plans for more lenses in the series because of problems with parts suppliers.

Serial-range notes

001–200: The first lot. Japan Exposures announced 200 lenses in September 2010 and later wrote that Mark II serials would all be above 200, so a number of 200 or below should be a first version. The one serial from this range on record is 003, the copy Japan Exposures used for sample photographs on a Leica M9.
201–650: The Mark II lots as Japan Exposures numbers them: a second lot and a third, of 200 and 250 lenses. Buyers could not reserve a number. The one Mark II serial on record is 433, given by its owner, Karsten Seiferlin, in a comment on Japan Exposures' blog in February 2012.

Specifications

Formula: Triplet, three elements in three groups
Designed by: Miyazaki Sadayasu (宮崎貞安) — optical design and hand assembly
Construction: 3 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range: f/3.5
Diaphragm blades: 10
Min. focus: 0.8 m
Dimensions: 50 mm diameter
Weight: 75 g
Filter: 19 mm, 19 mm, screwed in reversed; Leica pitch
Years manufactured: 2010–2012
Country: Japan
Coating: Multicoated on all glass surfaces, 97% transmission (Japan Exposures)
Material: Black metal barrel, mount, hood and caps; tantalum glass
Original price: ¥49,900 for the first version and ¥59,900 (US$794) for the Mark II of May 2011: dealer prices at Japan Exposures, the Japanese dealer that announced and sold both runs, as Leica Rumors reported them at the Mark II's launch. Japan Exposures' own Mark II page also shows ¥59,900. Neither source says whether Japanese tax is included. Japan Camera Hunter, a Tokyo dealer, offered its 2012 allotment at ¥58,000 plus shipping. Shige gives a list price of ¥55,000 before tax in his review table (¥55,000, with no tax note, in his English MS Optics list) and ¥50,000 before tax in his Japanese MS Optics list; none says which lot it applies to. (today ¥57,000)

What reviewers say

shige (Shige's hobby) (blog) — Owns both versions and tested them on Leica M10, M9, M-P 240 and M8, an Epson R-D1, a Hasselblad X2D-100C and APS-C and Micro Four Thirds mirrorless bodies. Clear and crisp in the centre, but the edges smear from field curvature on full frame and more so on the X2D, though with little vignetting. He finds it most even on sensors smaller than full frame. Next to his Leitz Elmar 3.5cm, the Elmar's edges hold up better, while the Perar's multicoating keeps flare and ghosts down.

Optical Ratings

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

Vignetting: slight
Flare & ghosting: well controlled

History

The Super Triplet Perar 35mm f/3.5 is, in Japan Camera Hunter’s words, the lens that “really put MS on the map with the collectors”. It was the workshop’s third product, after the MS-Mode-S 50mm f/1.3 of 2006 and the Apoqualia 50mm f/3.5 of 2009, and its first triplet. Miyazaki Sadayasu designed it and assembled each one by hand. It has three elements in three groups, two of them thick positive lenses in tantalum glass, multicoated on every surface. The barrel collapses to about 4 mm proud of the mount, and the lens weighs about 75 g. Japan Exposures, the Japanese dealer that sold it at home and abroad, announced a first lot of 200 in September 2010. When the Mark II followed in May 2011, Leica Rumors called it “the smallest M-mount lens available today”. Shige records that Miyazaki’s design notes trade a little sharpness in the centre for better edges. Even so, the edges are where the lens is weakest, as you would expect from three pieces of glass.

There are two versions, and they are optically the same. The first lot is a screw-mount lens with an L-M ring that Japan Exposures called semi-permanently fixed. Because a screw-mount body needed extra calibration, buyers outside Japan were offered only the M-mount version unless they sent in their camera, and the first version carried a Leica 6-bit code. The Mark II, sold from May 2011 at ¥59,900 against ¥49,900 for the first lot, has a native M mount, a thicker focus lever, minor changes to the markings and no 6-bit code. Shige owns both and saw only two outward differences, the II on the nameplate and the shape of the hood. He took the Mark II to be essentially a second lot. The numbers support that: Japan Exposures numbered its Mark II lots of 200 and 250 from 201 to 650, so a serial of 200 or below should be a first version. Japan Camera Hunter had a last allotment of ten in July 2012, made to order at ¥58,000. Japan Exposures later wrote that there were no plans for more lenses in the series because of problems with parts suppliers. A re-issue appeared on a 2013 list of coming MS lenses, but no re-issued lens has turned up. How many were made in all is not recorded. The lot sizes allow up to 650, and Leica Rumors’ figure of 200 Mark II lenses is lower than Japan Exposures’ own numbering.

In use it is a slow, very small 35. The centre is clear and crisp. On a full-frame digital body the edges smear from field curvature, and on a larger sensor more so. Shige found it most even on APS-C and APS-H bodies, where the edges are cropped away. Shige compared it with a Leitz Elmar 3.5cm, the lens it most resembles in size: the four-element Elmar holds its edges better, while the Perar’s modern multicoating keeps flare and ghosts down against the light. The rangefinder couples down to 0.8 m. The aperture has ten blades and no click stops, and its scale turns with the barrel as you focus. The Perar name and triplet design carried on to the Perar 28mm f/4, 24mm f/4 and 21mm f/4.5, all smaller and slower, and to the retrofocus Perar 17mm f/4.5, which is a different kind of lens.

When buying, check the nameplate for the II and the number against the lots, and look for the small screw-in tube hood, which differs between the versions. The filter is 19 mm in the old Leica pitch, screwed in reversed. A B+W 19 mm will not fit, so a missing filter or hood is harder to replace than its size suggests. The collapsed barrel has no lock. Pull it out to the working position before you shoot; shige once forgot on a day out with film, and every frame was out of focus. When an owner reported a tight aperture ring, Japan Exposures replied that this is normal, may ease with use, and should not be adjusted. On a first version, do not try to remove the L-M ring: Japan Exposures warned that it can upset focusing, and camera-wiki says only the factory can take it off. MS also sold many conversions of other makers’ 35 mm lenses, among them Contax G Planars, Nikon 35Ti Nikkors and Olympus Zuikos on its MS-35 mount. These have nothing to do with this lens, which is engraved PERAR and SUPER TRIPLET.

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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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