Ms-Optics XENOMAX 50mm

High-performance standard lens for medium-format digital cameras

A review and Photo example of the XENOMAX 50mm F3.5.

Gallery

Sample photos taken with the Panasonic LUMIX GM5

Sample photos taken with the HASSELBLAD X1DII

Review

Overview
Usage
Differences

1．Overview

The XENOMAX 50mm F3.5 is a standard lens released by Ms-optics that covers digital medium-format sensors (44x33mm).

It is one of the lenses in the MS-Optics (Miyazaki Optical) History Series, and uses a Xenotar type lens construction, pursuing high performance in terms of aberration and resolution.

It has a lens construction of 5 elements in 4 groups, an open F value of 3.5, and a minimum shooting distance of 0.5m for mirrorless cameras, and 0.8m for rangefinder cameras.

With a lens length of 33mm and a weight of 63g, it covers digital medium-format sensors, yet is as compact as conventional Ms-optics lenses.

The lens configuration diagram is traced and quoted from the Ms-optics distribution paper.

2．Usage

For 35mm full-frame sensors, the focal length is 50mm. For other sensor formats, when used with a medium-format digital camera, the focal length is 40mm, for APS-C, 75mm, and for Micro Four Thirds, 100mm.

The photo examples are taken with the Micro Four Thirds LUMIX GM5 and the medium-format digital camera HASSELBLAD X1DII.

As mentioned above, the focal length for Micro Four Thirds is 100mm, but the clear depiction to the edges of the screen shows the benefit of using only the best depiction in the center of the lens.
With the medium-format digital sensor (44 * 33mm), there is almost no distortion or lack of light around the edges of the image, but there is some vignetting in the corners of the screen when shooting a blue sky. This is likely due to the lens filter being attached.
From the results of both, it can be determined that there is no problem with depiction even when used with a 35mm full-frame sensor.

In terms of operation, you can expect quick operation with a rangefinder camera that has a simple lens barrel and a shallow rotation angle of about 30 degrees from infinity to the minimum shooting distance of 0.5 m, and double image overlap. With EVF cameras, adjusting the focus can be difficult due to the small rotation angle.

When developing raw images directly, the color tone is natural and the contrast is a little low. If you want a flashy picture, you can change the impression by increasing the contrast and saturation a little in the development software.
The name of this lens was XENOR when it was tested, but since its lens performance is the highest in the history of Ms-optics, it was changed to XENOMAX when it was released.

3．Differences

Ms-optics has released many standard lenses, and like Leica and Voigtlander, you can choose the aperture brightness depending on the purpose of the shot. The lens names and aperture values are listed below. All lenses are lightweight and compact compared to other companies’ lenses with the same specifications.

GA-ISM = 1.0
SONNEATR = 1.1
SONNETAR (MS-MODE-S) = 1.3
VARIO PRASMA = 1.5
APOQUALIA-H = 3.5
XENOMAX = 3.5

Ms-optics’ standard lenses do not have an aperture value of F2, but the Petzval homage lens, PETZ, has a specification of 57mm F2.

Specification and Competitor

Items	XENOMAX	APOQUALIA-H	MS-MODE-S	MS-ISM
Focal length(mm)	50	50	50	50
Max aperture	3.5	←	1.3	1.0
Min aperture	16	22	←	←
Aperture blades (Diaphragm)	12	←	←	16
Lens Construction	4群5枚	3群5枚	4群5枚	5群7枚
Min distance(m)	0.5	0.85	1.0	0.8
Lens length(mm)	33	39	36	41
Max diameter(mm)	50	50	51	55
Filter Size(mm)	30.5	30.5	49	55
Weight(g)	63 (M)	90 (L39)	165 (L39)	178 (M)
Release date	2022	2009	2006	2019