Ms-optics HIPOLION 19mm

A review and Photo example of the HIPOLION 19mm / F8 (F4 – F8 is soft focus).

Gallery

Sample photos taken with the LEICA M-P Typ240.

Review

The review covers the following points.

Lens Overview
Usage
Similar Lenses

1.Lens Overview

The Hypollion 19mm is one of the Miyazaki History Series, and because of the lens format it uses, the lens barrel is only 2.6mm thick, making it the thinnest lens in the history of Ms-optics (Miyazaki Optical).

The name of this lens, “Hypollion,” is a homage to Goertz’s Hypergon, a famous symmetrical lens made up of two pieces of glass, and this lens follows that structure.

The lens specifications are also a bit ingenious, and while it is necessary to stop down to F8 or later to obtain a sharp image, the lens’s aperture can be opened up to F4, giving the user the right to choose, so that the characteristic soft depiction obtained when the aperture is opened to this maximum can be used. This seems to reflect the thinking of designer Miyazaki, who prefers freedom over restrictions.

2.Usage

It is thinner than the body cap, so when attached, the thickness of the lens is hardly felt.
Because of its thinness, it is a little difficult to change the aperture value, adjust the focus, and perform other basic operations required to use the lens. However, if you set the aperture value to F8, you can use it with almost pan focus, so I think that is sufficient for casual snapshots.

The LEICA M Typ240, which has a long history among 35mm full-frame sensors, has noticeable color casts and image distortion in the peripheral areas of the captured image. It is better to use a camera with a sensor that does not notice color casts, or to use a small 4/3-inch or APS-C size sensor that crops the peripheral areas.
Below are examples taken at F4, F5.6, and F8, but even in the soft mode at F4, the center is depicted reasonably well, so it is not completely unusable. However, the depiction at F4 produces similar images, so it is best to avoid using it too much.

3.Similar lenses

The Contax G Hologon 16mm is a lens with a fixed aperture of F8, but when you look through the lens, you can see a disk-shaped aperture, so it is thought that you can make it brighter by opening the aperture, but the image quality will be affected.

The S-Nikkor 25mm, which is said to be a copy of Nikon’s Topogon, has an aperture of F4 at full aperture, and the reason why it has practical image quality even at full aperture is probably because the focal length and lens structure are different from the Hypolyon.

The Russian Orion 15, a symmetrical lens like the Hypolyon, has a focal length of 28mm and F6, but when you look through the lens, the aperture is at its maximum aperture, and like the Hologon, it seems that the designers have limited it to a position where the image quality will not be affected.

図は、ニッコール千夜一夜物語「第二十九夜 W-Nikkor・C 2.5cm F4」より引用

Specification and Competitor

Item	HIPOLION	Nikkor 2.5cm F4
focal length(mm)	19	25
Maximum aperture	4 The lens can be opened up to F4, but the image will be soft, and practical from F8.	4
Minimum aperture	16	22
Lens configuration	2groups in 2elements	4groups in 4elements
Leaf blade	10	8
Minimum distance(m)	0.5 Distance meter not linked	1
Lens length(mm)	2.6Distance from mount frange	–
Lens max diameter(mm)	50	–
Filter diameter(mm)	–	–
Weight(g)	70	–
Release date	2020.12	1953
Official price	60,000 Yen	–

Reference links

Update history

2024.8.11
2024.03.13
2022.12.08

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