Camera Geekery: JCH 10 year MS Optics lens

For the grand finale of the JCH 10 year anniversary we present to you the JCH 10 Year MS Optics Apoqualia 35mm 1.3 M mount Lens

We have wanted to make a special lens with Miyazaki san for a long time, so when we suggested the idea to him he said he would be happy to make something special for us. And here it is.

Miyazaki wanted to make the fastest and smallest collapsible lens he possibly could. Which has made for some “unique” Miyazaki quirks. The lens needs to be screwed into place and the aperture lever is recessed in the same manner as the VarioPlasma, So make sure you have fingernails. The lens is certainly quirky.

This special edition comes in a black alumite coating, with a simple black and red JCH colourway. 6 element 4 group gauss and weighs a ridiculous 73 grams. Only 70 pieces will be made so don’t miss your chance to own one of these beautiful little lenses.

Miyazaki san had this to say about the lens:

APOQUALIA 1.3/35 II SLIM

If one were to choose 1 lens, wouldn’t it be a fast 35mm lens? A compact all-purpose lens that can be used in any situation.
Trends in recent years have been toward more retrofocus and aspheric designs. The improvement in performance is good, but this has led to larger lenses and increased weight. Small, light, easy to use lenses are disappearing.
The present lens, while having a large maximum aperture of f1.3, achieves a very compact design, being a mere 10.2mm long when collapsed with a diameter of 50mm and weight of 72 grams.

Performance

In the lens performance, opening or closing the aperture results in substantial changes in rendering.
At f1.3 to f2, indoor portraits are rendered gently while preserving fine detail. Flare is absent from the central portion of the image. The mid-zone image areas show slightly lower contrast due to the characteristic Gauss coma flare, but sharpness is higher than the image center.
At f2 to f2.8, coma flare from ⌀ 20 to ⌀ 35 disappears, contrast and sharpness are greatly increased, and the fully multicoated elements and 12-blade round aperture produce sharpness with pleasing out-of-focus areas fore and aft that the user can have fun with. This is the recommended aperture setting.
At f4 and smaller aperture, image performance increases, reaching a level that requires no excuses. However, in contrast to modern lenses this lens doesn’t lose its gentle rendering. In regard to distortion, compared with the ±2 to 3% distortion in retrofocus lenses, distortion in the present lens is less than 1/15th that level, and when shot at f8 to f11, is suitable for architectural photography.

Specification

6 elements in 4 groups Gauss, FL: 35.8mm f1.38
All 8 surfaces multi-coated
Leica M mount Focus range: ∞~0.6m (RF coupling to 0.8m)
Filter size: 34mm pitch 0.75 reverse screw

Size: 50mm diameter, 10.2 to 21mm length (different depending on camera)

(Japanese text in the MTF and AST charts is in italics below)

f1.38 def – .32 center Best
f2.8 average Best
f5.6 average Best

AST S=M circular spot
Collapsible Lens Use (bottom part)

This very special little lens and will be available first come first served. You can get yours in the shop now: Click here

Many thanks for all of your support over the last 10 years.

JCH