Hello,

I was wondering if anybody had experience with, or could lead me to a review by somebody that has had experience with the Konica 50 f1.2 Hexanon lens that comes with the Hexar Limited kit... for the same price as a noctilux I could get this lens AND a hexar and thought this was an interesting idea. however, i did some searches and it seems like nobody has reviewed this lens. Of course, in particular i am looking for comparisons between this lens and the noctilux.

Cheers,

Matthew

-- Matthew Geddert (geddert@yahoo.com), January 21, 2002

Answers

Matthew. I don't know of any reviews of the Konica 50/1.2 Hexanon. However, a few yrs ago (1998 ?) konica issue a 60/1.2 Hexanon in Leica SM (7-element), limited edition of 800 units for Japanese market only. Erwin Putts reviewed this lens and compared in with the Noctilux (the review was not on his website but was found in one of his posts on the LUG- that's where I found it.). I would bet that this lens is very very similar to Konica's newly released 50/1.2. I doubt that they would have re-designed a lens for which the market would be so small.

My recollection (possibly imperfect)is as follows. The Konica 60/1.2 lens at F/1.2 is not as good as the Noctilux at F/1.0. The Konic lens improves significantly when stopped down and is very good at F/8.0 but is noticeably below the Noctilux at wide apertures. Nevertheless, Erwin thought that the 60/1.2 Konica is a very good lens, just not up to the standard set by the Noctilux.

I think this lens would be more interesting to Leica users if they didn't bundle it with the camera.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), January 21, 2002.

Jeffery Smith has this lens and camera combo. He shot some PAWs with it:

http://www.jeffery- nola.com/

-- Alexander Grekhov (grekhov@wgukraine.com), January 21, 2002.

The Konica 50 f1.2 Hexanon was tested by Chasseur d'Images in #237 (October 2001)

You can buy it there

-- Lucien (Lucien_vd@yahoo.fr), January 22, 2002.

Matthew,

Maybe you can find some information on the hexarRF user group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hexarRF/

Cheers,

Joop

-- Joop Mes (mes@nat.vu.nl), January 22, 2002.

Jeffery Smith has the Canon 50 f/1.2 (screw mount), recently cleaned and recoated. He may also have a Hexanon, but the pictures he has made public have been from the Canon.

-- John Morris (jtmorris@slb.com), January 22, 2002.

John, I was referring to these images:

http://www.jeffery- nola.com/PAW_1.html
http://www.jeffery- nola.com/PAW_2.html

-- Alexander Grekhov (grekhov@wgukraine.com), January 22, 2002.

Lucien. If you have a copy of that review, can you post or parapharase it. I'd be interested in finding out what they said about this lens.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), January 22, 2002.

Alexander, I do apologize. The lens looks pretty good in those pictures. I particularly like that very little light falloff is seen wide open, although some of that may be low contrast in the film or scan.

-- John Morris (jtmorris@slb.com), January 23, 2002.

Thank you everybody for your responses... given the sparse info on it online, it looks like people aren't using this lens much and are buying it more as a collectable. Coming to think of it i think i am going to hold out for the noctilux, in the end i am sure i would regret not getting the fastest lens available... but first i need to get the 35/1.4 asph i tested out the other week, what an amazing lens!

-- Matthew Geddert (geddert@yahoo.com), January 24, 2002.

Matthew: the other problem is that the lens is only available in kit form with the camera. Lots of people may be buying it to USE - they're just over at the Hexar RF forum instead of the Leica forum. 8^)

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), January 25, 2002.