I've noticed that no one seems to be carrying the silver Hexar; not B&H, Adorama, Ritz, or even Konica USA's website. Is it being discontinued, or upgraded at the PMA show? What's the skinny?

I have an M6ttl, but was going to buy one and have it silent-enabled via Nemeng for my point and shoot needs.

Cheers,

-- David Carson (dave@davidcarson.com), February 12, 2002

Answers

David,

I recently called Konica Parts and Service in Mahwah NJ about this very issue. Konica stopped manufacturing them in 1999. I believe they started making them in the early 1990's. Stephen Gandy's site at www.cameraquest.com has an excellent review of the various models. The silent mode is found on the earlier models and a couple collector additions. You have to have the silent feature "added" on the current new models.

There is a new one and a couple used one's for sale on ebay right now. That's the only place you will find one I know of.

Konica told me they will keep parts available for five years or more depending on how long they last. They will also continue to service them for the same period of time.

-- David Smith (dssmith3@rmci.net), February 12, 2002.

I expect that Greg Weber will service them forever, or at least as long as he can find parts or cannibalize units. He services pretty much every camera and lens Konica ever made, regardless of how long it has been discontinued.

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), February 12, 2002.

I attended a photojournalism seminar in Atlanta a few years back where the then current Pulitzer Prize winning photographer gave a seminar on her work about African tribal women receiving circumcisions against their will. I wish I could remember her name. At the time of her project she was an intern, but later worked for the Palm Beach Post. Anyway ..... the camera she used for most of her work was the silver Hexar with the silent mode. I also understand that some of the better photojournalism schools in America (Ohio University for one) recommends their students invest in one of these cameras because of the quality.

-- Dayton P. Strickland (daytonst@bellsouth.net), February 12, 2002.

David:

I too have recently been awakened to the excellence of this camera and have found a Black Stealth model and will not part with it.

I know of 2 new silver ones for sale; one an aniversary model and the other a plain one, and am setting up to buy one.

I also have an M6 with Leica lenses and a complete Hexar RF set. I would not like to be without any of them, as they all excell in their own areas. I know Konica does not make money on these and they are loss leaders and showpieces only, so their demise is no surprise. The RFs will likely have a better fate because of the interchangeablity of lenses with Leica and Cosina, so the niche is a bit wider.

Knowing the limitation of one lens, the Hexars (non RF) are certainly great cameras with lenses and features unmatched by any other machine. Image quality is second to NONE.

Cheers, & thanks for opening the door for me to praise the Hexars.

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), February 12, 2002.

FWIW i purchased an old Konica 35mm RF,with 45mmf1.9 lens.Meter shot but all speeds working.The lens is more than EQUAL to my 50mm Summicron!I shot duplicate photos and nobody able to tell difference! Theres plenty of them out there....some work in the meter.Shutter very quite.Film advance lil noisy. Heck for $20.oo!!!!

-- jason gold (leeu72@hotmail.com), February 12, 2002.

The old Hexar is a wonderful little camera, and that lens is the closest thing to a Summicron that wasn't a Summicron that I've ever used. There are, however, a couple of caveats.

Manually setting a shutter speed is a royal pain, requiring squinting at the LCD while pushing buttons. I always used it in p&s mode so rarely contended with that.

The AF spot indicator in the viewfinder is a monster cross. It's easy to see, _way_ too easy.

Those things aside, I highly recommend the Hexar. I had the original black one. It was so quiet in normal mode I don't recall switching to silent mode other than to listen to how silent it was.

-- John Hicks (jhicks31@bellsouth.net), February 13, 2002.

Some of my best shots were with the old black steath Hexar AF. I never learned about how to set the silent mode until I read Stephan Gandy's review at Cameraquest--this eight or nine years after I got it.

It is pretty quite even in normal mode. I used it for quick waist level low light photography.

I lost the best shot I could have had thanks to this camera. A guy on a bicycle with a cat on his head came at me. The camera's autofocus got confused and didn't fire, or missed. Anyway, the man on the bicycle with the cat on his head lost out on immortality thanks to the RF.

Great for stationary and slow moving subjects. Guys on bicycles with cats on their heads are best served by Leicas.

-- Alex Shishin (shishin@suma.kobe-wu.ac.jp), February 13, 2002.

Maybe you didn't need to focus on the guy riding the bike...

Apartment Life, Hexar (AF), Copyright 2000 Jeff Spirer

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), February 13, 2002.

Jeff,

That's a great shot.

But the guy on the bike doesn't have a cat on his head!

Anyway, thanks for the reminder of what a fine little camera the Hexar AF is. Time to put that guy with the cat on his head behind me. I'm taking the old Hexar AF out for a spin.

-- Alex Shishin (shishin@pp.iij4-u.or.jp), February 14, 2002.

Two weeks ago I was at Adray's camera in Canton, Michigan (a branch of Adray's in Dearborn) and they showed me a brand new silver Hexar which they have for sale. In case any one is looking for one....

-- Steve Rosenblum (stevierose@yahoo.com), February 14, 2002.