Musashi Optical System Co., Ltd., a boutique optical product manufacturer from Japan that was making high-end cine zooms has closed down.
The company suspended its business operations on the 11th of July and then subsequently filed for personal bankruptcy. According to Japanese media outlets, business partners had put the brakes on further capital investment due to the impact of COVID-19. With this reduction in capital, the business deteriorated, and there was a significant drop in sales. The business had debts of around 1.8 billion yen ($13 million USD) at the time of closing.
Musashi Optical had two production centers in Saitama and up until the COVID-19 pandemic they were doing very well. At the end of the fiscal year in 2019 sales exceeded 1.2 billion yen ($9 million USD) due to increased demand from medical device manufacturers.
If you click on their website it is no longer available, however, their Twitter page is still online.
Musashi Optical System Co., Ltd. was established in 2003, and the company was designing, manufacturing, and selling lenses for high end cine use as well as lenses for surveillance.
We have featured quite a few of Musashi Optical’s lenses on the site, including the Takumi 40.6–332mm T4.8 Full Frame Cine Zoom, Super35 Takumi 23.9–195mm T2.9, and the Takumi 2 29-120mm T2.9 which was only announced in October 2021.
B&H now has all of the Musashi Optical lenses listed as Currently Unavailable.
Duclos lenses were also distributing the Musashi Optical lenses, but they are now no longer available on the site.
