A Pursuit of Compactness: MS-Optics Apoqualia 28mm f/2

Forcing myself to like the 28mm focal length...

I don’t know where my fascination with compactness comes from, but for as long as I can remember, I have been intrigued by small, intricate mechanisms, and that extends to my love for compact cameras.

There is something alluring about a fully manual and mechanical compact camera that offers only the basics. This is why the Leica CL will forever be one of my favourite rangefinder cameras, as it is compact enough when paired with the Leica Summicron-C 40mm lens or the Voigtlander Color Skopar 35mm f/2.5 lens that I often use. Yet, I wasn’t satisfied. I want to push the limits and make it as compact as a point-and-shoot, and since I can’t change the size of the body, I can only find a pancake lens to achieve such a goal.

Years of reading forums and blogs such as the 35mmc blog have brought the MS Optics lenses onto my radar, and so far, it is the only lens manufacturer that can make my dream come true. Their M-mount converted Yashica 35mm Tessar lens is something that I’ve been wanting for the longest time. The converted lens is almost as small as a body cap; mind you, it is so elusive and goes for a very high price. Unfortunately, MS-Optics is not offering the conversion service anymore, so I just have to patiently wait for someone to sell their copy in some of the Facebook groups I joined.

Enter MS-Optics Apoqualia 28mm f/2...

Leica CL | MS-Optics Apoqualia 28mm f/2 | Nikon DF-CP1 OVF

Months went by, and I couldn’t bear the itch to get a small lens, so I did more research. I found another lens by MS-Optics that fit the criteria size wise, except that it’s a wider lens, the 28mm f/2 Apoqualia. I was hesitant at first, but after an urushi (a Japanese artisan painting method) version appeared out of the blue on Facebook, I thought to myself, "What the hell?" My bank account suffered a damage of AUD2300 and the lens got shipped from the USA using express priority mail. I was thrilled to find that the lens is as compact and beautiful as I had imagined. The next thing I did was buy an OVF to use with the Leica CL, as it doesn't have 28mm frame lines. After comparing several viewfinders that are available on the market, I decided that the Nikon DF-CP1 viewfinder is the right one for me, as I feel that it is the brightest and has the best build quality. Words can't express just how happy I was with the setup. I found myself the dream compact film camera I've been looking for. Full manual control without compromising the size of the camera or its ease of use. For a while, the CL stayed in my pocket or bag wherever I went. With the 28mm OVF attached and the aperture set to f/8 (anything from 1.5m to infinity is in focus) most of the time I hardly find the need to use the rangefinder at all, and the camera is almost always ready to capture an image given ideal lighting conditions. It's the perfect street photography machine for me!

Or so I thought before I found out that it isn't. Why? Because I wasn't too happy with using the lens. I’m not going to go into details of the lens performance here, as this is not intended to be a review of the Apoqualia, which is a good lens, and for what it can achieve in terms of size, I think I can justify the purchase. The problem is that I soon find out that I don’t really gel with the 28mm field of view. The 35mm and 40mm are always my preferred focal lengths, and I just feel that the 28mm makes me 5 steps further than where I should be. For the sake of making the newly found compact camera work, though, I forced myself to learn to like it and learn to get closer to my subjects as I shoot on the streets. I even got myself the Ricoh GR Digital, a digital compact with the same field of view, thinking I could make the 28mm my preferred focal length. But it just didn’t work.

I found that I can compose better with 35mm, 40mm, and even 50mm lenses as I’m comfortable previsualizing my shots using those focal lengths in mind. I took my Contax T3 one day after months (I think almost a year) of just shooting with 28mm lenses, and straight away I could tell that I composed better shots and produced results I was happier with.

So what now?

I’ve sold the Apoqualia 28mm after a period of hesitation. Justifying keeping a AUD2300 lens that's not getting much use is not something I can't do. So once again, I’m back on the hunt for the ultimate compact camera, but hopefully not for too long as I now know exactly what I'm looking for, a 35mm lens the same size as the Apoqualia . In the meantime, as I patiently wait for the converted Yashica 35mm lens to appear on my timeline, the "bulkier" lenses will do me just fine. Another promising thing is that Omnar, a company co-founded by Hamish Gill, the author of the 35mmc blog, has announced that they will produce converted Yashica T and Contax T lenses in the future after their release of the CN-26 lens early last year. They recently posted an update on their Instagram page showing the prototype of their upcoming Omnar CX38-28 lens, which utilises the Contax T2 lens. How exciting!