MS Optics Vario-Prasma 50mm f/1.5 F-MC

MS Optics · Leica M · 2019

Also known as: Vario-Prasma 50mm f/1.5 · Vario Prasma 50mm F1.5 · VARIO PRASMA · Vario-Prasma · VARIOPRASMA · Varioprasma · VARIOPRASMA 1.5/50 F-MC · VARIOPRASMA1.5/50 · MS-Optics VARIOPRASMA 50mm F1.5 F-MC · MS-Optics Varioprasma 50mm f/1.5 Full MC · MS Vario-Plasmat 50/1.5 · Vario-Plasmat 50mm f/1.5 · 宮崎光学 VARIOPRASMA · 宮崎光学バリオプラズマ 50mm F1.5 · ヴァリオプラズマ 50mm F1.5

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
VARIOPRASMA 1.5/50 F-MC, black chrome or silver chrome	Leica M	2019	—	—
VARIOPRASMA 1.5/50 F-MC, black paint	Leica M	—	—	—
Vario-Prasma in red, blue, green or brown metallic, or gold	Leica M	2019	—	—

Production: 400 in all, from the comparison table on shige_yuki's Vario-Prasma page, which gives 100 in the same table for a single column headed PETZ and VARIO PETZ. No split by finish has been published. Japan Exposures called its stock an initial lot.
Formula: 6 elements in 4 groups in DPReview, MK Direct, Japan Exposures, Phillip Reeve's overview and shige_yuki's own table. The text of shige_yuki's English page says 5 elements in 4 groups, but his description of the construction, which he likens to the Kino-Plasmat diagram (a cemented pair in front, two single elements in the middle, a cemented pair at the back), adds up to six.
Close focus: 0.8 m (DPReview, Reeve; rangefinder coupling to 0.8 m at position 6 per shige_yuki); 1 m on Leica M and about 0.8 m on mirrorless (Japan Exposures); 0.5 m uncoupled (shige_yuki); 0.7 m (maenomeri). This page gives 0.8 m.
Blades: 12 (shige_yuki) or 16 (Reeve's overview), so no figure is set here. Filter: 40.5 mm (MK Direct, Japan Exposures, shige_yuki, who adds that the thread is reverse-cut) or 39 mm (Reeve; a commenter there gave 40 mm and 16 rounded blades, citing Japan Camera Hunter). Diameter: 50 mm (MK Direct, shige_yuki, Reeve) or 37 mm (Japan Exposures).
The spherical-aberration scale is described two ways. MK Direct, in Miyazaki's own text, gives front-ring settings of -1, 0 and +1, with the rangefinder coupled only at 0 and no focus from infinity to 3 m at -1. Japan Exposures, shige_yuki and maenomeri all describe positions 6 to 2, with 6 the normal, coupled setting and 2 the softest; Japan Exposures adds that P6 is the best position for astigmatism and P4 for coma. maenomeri's copy has a front scale running from P2 to P6, and the spherical-aberration chart packed with it shows P2, P4 and P6; he takes P6 as normal and coupled from that paperwork and the dealer's records, and says his own copy has been adjusted to couple at P2. Whether any lens was ever marked -1/0/+1 is not known.
maenomeri notes that other specifications exist, an uncoated version among them. No uncoated example, listing or maker page was found, so it is not a variant here.
True focal length and aperture: 52 mm (DPReview, Japan Exposures, Reeve) and f/1.58 (MK Direct, Japan Exposures, Reeve).

How to tell them apart (expand)

Sold by the maker as VARIOPRASMA 1.5/50; Japan Exposures sold it as the MS Vario-Plasmat 50/1.5. Miyazaki's own MK Direct text writes the original lens as KINO-PRASMAT and キノプラズマート; a commenter on Phillip Reeve's overview explains Prasma as a reading of the katakana
The spherical-aberration control is a ring at the FRONT of the barrel. The Vario-Petz 57/2 moves its rear group with a control inside the barrel (shige_yuki)
50 × 43 mm, 135 g, 40.5 mm reverse-cut filter thread with a 10 mm screw-in hood (MK Direct)
Leica M bayonet, with an area left for 6-bit coding (Japan Exposures)

VARIOPRASMA 1.5/50 F-MC, black chrome or silver chrome:

The two finishes named at the June 2019 announcement: Silver Chrome and Black Chrome (DPReview)
MK Direct, the maker's own shop, sold it as VARIOPRASMA 1.5/50 in M-mount black; listing titles add F-MC or Full MC
A spherical-aberration scale on the front ring, ahead of a separate aperture ring; the whole lens is 50 mm across and 43 mm long, with a 10 mm screw-in hood

VARIOPRASMA 1.5/50 F-MC, black paint:

Sold as Black Paint, a finish named apart from Black: Japan Exposures listed Black and Black Paint as its finish options, and eBay sellers title the two separately

Vario-Prasma in red, blue, green or brown metallic, or gold:

Coloured barrels: red and blue were announced in November 2019; shige_yuki also lists green metallic, brown metallic and gold
maenomeri's blue copy carries F-MC on the front ring and a front scale marked P2 to P6

VARIOPRASMA 1.5/50 F-MC, black chrome or silver chrome: The launch lens. DPReview's announcement of 12 June 2019 names the two chrome finishes and a $1,200 pre-order through Japan Camera Hunter, which expected to ship within weeks; MK Direct gives the release as August 2019. A black example sold unused with its box on Yahoo! Auctions in September 2026 repeated the MK Direct product text in its description. shige_yuki's table gives 400 made in all, with no split by finish. MK Direct says serial numbers were shipped at random, and Japan Exposures took no serial-number reservations.
VARIOPRASMA 1.5/50 F-MC, black paint: Not among the finishes DPReview named at launch; Japan Exposures lists it beside black, shige_yuki includes black paint in his list of barrel colours, and eBay asks in 2026 were titled Black Paint as distinct from Black. No source dates its introduction or gives a separate count.
Vario-Prasma in red, blue, green or brown metallic, or gold: Leica Rumors reported on 7 November 2019 that the lens was now also available in blue and red, embedding an Instagram post of 6 November by the dealer Breguet Camera that called the red and blue lenses a limited edition; no count for it was published. shige_yuki owns a red metallic example and maenomeri a blue one. Gold examples were on eBay in 2026 at $1,338.08 and $1,900. No source says how many were made in any colour, or whether green and brown were made in the same lot as red and blue.

Specifications

Formula: Kino-Plasmat type, 6 elements in 4 groups, with a movable front group for variable spherical aberration
Designed by: Miyazaki Sadayasu (宮崎貞安) — optical design and manufacture (Japan Exposures); the MK Direct product text is written in his first person
Construction: 6 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range: f/1.5–f/16
Min. focus: 0.8 m
Dimensions: 50 × 43 mm
Weight: 135 g
Filter: 40.5 mm, 40.5 mm (MK Direct, Japan Exposures, shige_yuki); shige_yuki says the thread is cut in reverse, so filters go on back to front
Years manufactured: 2019
Country: Japan
Coating: Full multicoating (F-MC; Full MC in MK Direct's text). DPReview reported multicoating on all surfaces; Japan Exposures gives all eight surfaces multicoated and 97.5% transmission
Original price: $1,200, the Japan Camera Hunter pre-order price at the June 2019 announcement (DPReview); a dealer price. shige_yuki's comparison table gives ¥90,000 before Japanese tax with no seller named, and Japan Exposures, a Tokyo dealer, listed it at ¥109,900 without saying whether tax is included. (today $1,470)

What reviewers say

maenomeri (MAENOMERI.TOKYO) (blog) — A strongly characterful lens that is easy to live with because the character is adjustable: at P2 wide open it flares around the core, streaks outward in front of the focus and swirls behind, and glows hard at night, and when that is too much he turns back toward P6. Light, focuses to 0.7 m and renders colour well, which he sees as its difference from an old Kino-Plasmat; it has become one of his most-used lenses.
shige_yuki (Shige's hobby) (blog) — The variable-aberration front group is hard to use on a rangefinder, where only position 6 matches the rangefinder and gives a sharp image wide open, but on a mirrorless body the effect can be watched and dosed, which he finds ideal for accenting a picture. Against the original Kino-Plasmat's sharp centre and wild edges he finds it a fairly ordinary lens, and wonders how far the old character can or should be reproduced. via machine translation — corrections welcome

History

The Vario-Prasma is MS Optics’ 50mm f/1.5 for Leica M, announced in June 2019 and released in August that year (MK Direct, Reeve); shige_yuki counts it as the fourth lens of the MS History Series. It is Miyazaki Sadayasu’s version of the Kino-Plasmat. In the first-person product text on MK Direct, the maker’s shop, Miyazaki dates the original 1.5/50 to Paul Rudolph in 1922, says the 50 mm was made for cine use in small numbers and now trades at very high prices for its soft rendering, and says he had converted about thirty of them to Leica M over twenty years. He sets out his aim as keeping their character while making it easier to use: lanthanum high-index glass in place of the old barium glass, improved spherical aberration, and a slightly curved field to narrow the gap between the sagittal and meridional images so the image draws rounder. Miyazaki’s own text writes the original as KINO-PRASMAT, and a commenter on Phillip Reeve’s overview reads Prasma as the katakana spelling of Plasmat carried back into Latin letters. The maker sold the lens as VARIOPRASMA 1.5/50, and Japan Exposures listed it as the MS Vario-Plasmat 50/1.5. Its true values are 52 mm and f/1.58, in six elements and four groups; shige_yuki describes a cemented pair at each end and two single elements in the middle. The lens weighs 135 g and measures 50 × 43 mm. It takes a 40.5 mm filter, and shige_yuki notes the thread is cut in reverse, so filters screw on back to front. shige_yuki’s comparison table gives 400 made, at ¥90,000 before tax.

What sets it apart is a ring at the front that moves the front group by about a millimetre and changes the spherical aberration. shige_yuki calls it an improved version of the mechanism on the Vario-Petz 57/2, where the rear group moves and the control sits inside the barrel; putting it at the front means it can be turned while the effect is watched in an electronic viewfinder. The sources describe the scale in two ways. Miyazaki’s MK Direct text gives -1, 0 and +1, with the rangefinder coupled only at 0 and no focus between infinity and 3 m at -1. Japan Exposures, shige_yuki and maenomeri all describe positions 6 to 2, with 6 the normal, coupled setting and 2 the softest; Japan Exposures names P6 the best setting for astigmatism and P4 for coma. maenomeri’s copy has a front scale from P2 to P6, and the aberration chart packed with it shows P2, P4 and P6. On a rangefinder body only the coupled setting focuses where the rangefinder says, so every other position means focusing by live view. shige_yuki gives rangefinder coupling to 0.8 m and a 0.5 m minimum uncoupled; Japan Exposures gives 1 m on a Leica.

DPReview’s launch report named silver chrome and black chrome, at a $1,200 pre-order through Japan Camera Hunter. Japan Exposures offered black and black paint at ¥109,900. In November 2019 Leica Rumors reported red and blue barrels, which the dealer Breguet Camera called a limited edition, and shige_yuki also lists green metallic, brown metallic and gold. No count by finish has been published, and MK Direct shipped serial numbers at random. maenomeri mentions an uncoated version, which no other source confirms. Several published figures disagree: shige_yuki’s text gives 5 elements where his own table gives 6, blade counts are 12 or 16, and Phillip Reeve’s overview gives a 39 mm filter.

The two owners who have written about it both value being able to choose the amount of character, and differ on how wild it is. maenomeri, shooting his blue copy at P2 and f/1.5 on a Leica M10-D, describes flare around the core of the image, streaking in front of the focus, swirl behind and strong glow at night, all of which can be dialled back toward P6. shige_yuki, who owns a red copy, finds the lens fairly ordinary next to an original Kino-Plasmat and finds the control most useful on a mirrorless body. The same variable-aberration idea appears on the Vario-Petz, covered on the Petz 57/2 page, and on the Aporis 135/2.4, which has both spherical-aberration and coma rings; the ISM 50/1.0 was announced alongside the Vario-Prasma in June 2019.

When buying, check that the aberration ring turns smoothly and returns to its coupled mark, and test rangefinder focus at that mark wide open and at 0.8 m. Ask which mark a copy couples at: maenomeri’s own was adjusted to couple at P2 rather than P6. Make sure the filter or hood that comes with it is the reverse-thread 40.5 mm type. In September 2026 an unused black copy with its box closed on Yahoo! Auctions at ¥140,000 on a single bid, and a used copy at ¥152,000 after three bids, both with no tax added. Asking prices on eBay ran from $1,338 to $1,900, the top figure for a gold copy.

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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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