I got the impression, at least in the UK, that sales of the Konica Hexar had fallen off (this from chatting to retail people). Does anyone know if this is the case in fact? If it is true, what does this say for the future sales of an M7, if it should appear?

-- Steve Jones (stephenjjones@btopenworld.com), February 20, 2002

Answers

The prices have fallen quite a bit. My local store has some that they paid (according to them) more wholsale than the going NYC retail is today. They also said they've sold a few kits but none of the bodies alone. The same store is a Leica dealer and recently returned all their R stock to NJ for lack of sales. To me this all says nothing regarding the potential sales of the M7. That large chunk of the M market comprised of hobbyists with sizeable disposable incomes will probably be overcome with lust, and I expect the promise of "automatic exposure" to lure even more of that group, those of the "I-always-wanted-a-Leica-but-thought-it-was-too-complicated-to- use" thinking. Of course those will also account for the first wave of used mint M7's ;>)

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), February 20, 2002.

Wonderful: I mean there will be plenty of Hexar for sale.

Hmmm, my luck for a good bargain.

Cheers. X.

-- Xavier d'Alfort (hot_billexf@hotmail.com), February 20, 2002.

there has always been plenty of Konica HRF kits for sale, one easily find one new for $1,099 (body, 50/2 lens, and flash). The HRF is and continues to be a good value, but also an "almost" product. The viewfinder is almost as good, the quality is almost there, the lenses are almost comparable, the ergonimics are almost as nice, almost TTL flash, M-mount almost compatible to all Leica lenses, and so on.

I suspect that the people shooting/collecting Leica's are perfectionists that appreicates the superior quality of Leica products and wouldn't settle for anything less.

Personally, I think the availability of M7 will do nothing to the price or popularity of HRF. It has been a mildly popular product from start, and will continue to be so until Konica suddenly pulls it off the shelfs.

Cheers,

-- pat (svenburg@yahoo.com), February 20, 2002.

Of course those will also account for the first wave of used mint M7's

Yep -- and then I may even test-drive one :-),

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), February 20, 2002.

Has anyone an idea what info is going to be in the M7 viewfinder? With an aperture priorite AE camera, one usually wants some kind of shutter speed indicator so you know when the exposure time is long, at least...

-- Godfrey (ramarren@bayarea.net), February 20, 2002.

The local "camera superstore", Samy's in Los Angeles, no longer carries the Hexar RF due to poor sales. They said when it was introduced they got seven units from the distributor, had four of them returned due to manufacturer defects, and it took them three years to sell the other three. That combined with poor dealer support made Samy's drop the line altogether late last year. This is all according to a conversation I had with them about a month ago when I was interested in getting the Hexar RF as a backup or even primary M body. Disappointing and disturbing to say the least, and from that point I committed myself to accept no substitute for the real thing, even if it meant going canned ravioli for a month or two.

-- Anon Terry (anonht@yahoo.com), February 20, 2002.

I don't think it will have any bearing on the future sales of them M7. They are both targeted at the same segment of the rangefinder market, but the KEY DIFFERENCE is that the M7 is guaranteed by Leica to work properly with your M lenses, and will likely come with a 3- year Passport Warranty to make sure it does just that. It's the real mccoy! Konica made their mount M-compatible, made ambiguous statements about the actual compatibility with M-lenses in use, and to this day maintains a ho-hum attitude towards people who buy the Hexar RF only to find out it does not focus their Leica lenses properly. If they didn't intend for people to use their M lenses on their camera, why didn't they engineer a new mount instead of copying the M-mount? Either stupid or suspicious, if you ask me.

-- Anon Terry (anonht@yahoo.com), February 20, 2002.

As a Leica and Hexar owner, I can say that the Hexar is a good but not perfect camera handicapped by idiotic marketing. First they offered only the kit with a flash and 50mm, then their refusal to deny charges of incompatibility with Leica lenses. Konica was doing everything to force-feed us their lenses and they shot themselves in the foot. I bought my Hexar used, body-only, and the rangefinder was off at infinity (an easy adjustment) but otherwise has performed perfectly. Images with all my Leica lenses are tack-sharp. However, thanks to Konica's attitude I don't know if my Hexar is compatible with Leica lenses by accident--maybe it's fortuitously out-of-spec for Konica lenses and in-spec for Leica lenses. The upshot is I haven't bought a second body and would not unless I had an ironclad MBG to allow me to test it thoroughly.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), February 20, 2002.

Hello,

The sales volume and popularity of the Hexar RF notwithstanding I take particular interest in the following quote:

"Konica made their mount M-compatible, made ambiguous statements about the actual compatibility with M-lenses in use, and to this day maintains a ho-hum attitude towards people who buy the Hexar RF only to find out it does not focus their Leica lenses properly."

Please cite the ambigous statements made by "Konica" regarding the compatibility with Leica M-lenses.

I have never seen anything from the Konica corporation regarding the use of Leica lenses with their camera's. They do speak of the Hexanon M mount. If that's the M you are referring to, then so be it.

I have dealt directly with Konica parts and service in New Jersey. They do excellent work in a very timely manner. Their rates are very reasonable. Hardly a ho-hum attitude.

I don't know, but I do surmise Konica made the Hexar RF body for use with the Hexanon line of lenses. Most certainly, they copied the style and attributes of the Leica rangefinder. I do not believe they ever intended to create a Made in Japan Leica. The quality of the Hexanon lenses speak for themselves.

Some voice at Samy's camera may speak of their sales experience with Konica Hexar RF camera's. Perhap's it may even be true. I doubt very seriously Konica had a 65% return rate on their cameras.

The Hexar RF I have and use is a great camera. I use the Leica 35mm ASPH, the Leica 50mm f2.0, the Leica 90mm f2.8, and the Konica Hexanon 28mm f2.8. All lenses make outstanding pictures on the Hexar body. All are accurate and easy to focus. I had no adjustment made by anyone anywhere to make my lenses "compatible." I only miss my M6 when I wish I had two bodies. (I also really liked the bright viewfinder on the M6)

My M6 made absolutely awful pictures--meaningless shots--when the film didn't advance. (Should I blame this on the ho-hum attitudes Leica has about their film uptake spool?) I guess in those circumstances, the M6 has certain film incompatibilities consistent with many other brands of camera's.

Repeat a fib often enough, in public, and eventually you will prevail. Say it long enough and perhaps even my Hexar RF will become incompatible just through exhaustion.

-- David Smith (dssmith3@rmci.net), February 20, 2002.

David, glad to hear you have had good luck with the Hexar. The store near me that brought in the line ended up sending them all back after the finding out that the rangefinders were out of adjustment on just about every camera they recieved. Seems like it was more of a quality controll issue than a design flaw of the camera. You know the old saying about first impressions.

The distance from the lens mount to the film plane is slightly different (a mm or 2)in the Konica body from a Leica one, and the actual specs are floating around on the web and can be found if interested. In real life, most people haven't noticed focus errors using the Leica lenses on the Konica (and vice versa)except if the rangefinder is out of adjustment.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), February 21, 2002.

Well, I'm very close to dumping my leicas. I love them, the way the feel in the hand and have no problem with film loading or anything else. But I've sent them off five or so times to independent and official repairers here in Italy and each time the various problems I needed fixing have never been resolved. The last time I wanted to have one fixed it came back with a new problem and the original problem was still unfixed. It's a bad joke.

Professional Leica users can't have their time wasted in this way. Which is why there are almost no professional users in Italy.

My hope is that Konica, which is a much bigger company, has a better service network here, but unfortunately the importer is the same as Leica, Polyphoto, so I don't know.

I'm sick and tired of the whole damn thing.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), February 21, 2002.

Let me just ask - is it possible to adjust the infinity alignment of the Hexar oneself or does it have to go off to the shop for that?

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), February 21, 2002.

Rob I'll lend you a Nikon F if you want....

B

http://www.briandavidstevens.com

-- briandavidstevens (briandavidstevens@talk21.com), February 21, 2002.

I can't focus them, unfortunately.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), February 21, 2002.

i always fancied the hexar rf, but i tried it in three camerashops and ALL of them were with misaligned rangefinder. that's a shame. feels like a nice camera. i keep on trying

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), February 21, 2002.

Rob

Ask an obvious question, but why not ship your Leicas direct back to Solms? They are pretty good -- or they were in their Wetzlar days.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), February 21, 2002.

Rob: we had posts on adjusting the Hexar infinity setting - it is under the little plastic plug on the top in front of the hot shoe.

Dig around in the M posts from early last summer - or try nemeng.com - maybe Andrew linked back to us.

I've done it - it involved moving a very stiff toothed wheel (i.e. gear) with the tip of a jeweler's screw-driver. But the previous explanation is more complete and comprehensible than I can give.

I'm now on my 3rd Hexar RF - it won't focus a 90 for beans but with 21- 24-28-35 (and maybe 50) it's a joy for certain kinds of things and I've learned to live with its faults - and carry the 90s on the Ms or something longer on an SL.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), February 21, 2002.

I've had my Hexar RF for a year now. I use it mostly with 35mm lenses, first a Summicron and now a Summilux ASPH. No focus problems at all.

With a 75mm Voit. lense at close focus it is right on, sometimes and this is the weird thing, sometimes at longer distances it is off or seems to be off. The image is just off by the slightest amount. But I've noticed this on my M4 body also so it isn't just the Konica. So there may be a problem with the longer Voit lenses and screw adapters out there too.

I've been using the RF with a 24mm ASPH also and there are no problems. The 24mm is just stunning.

I had gotten the RF because it did offer things the M's just don't and now the M7 still doesn't . I love the higher shutter speeds. I like to be able to out in bright sun with Tri-X and shoot at 1/4000 at F4. The .60 finder is better for me than the M4 is. My M4 of course has no meter so this was to be my metered "M" body. Will it ever work as well in decades from now as my 1968 M4? No I doubt it.

Neil Swanson

-- Neil Swanson (neilsphoto@yahoo.com), February 22, 2002.

I just picked up a used Hexar RF (demo) from HK. It was in perfect cosmetic condition - all papers and boxes - but when I ran a test roll using mostly the 90/2AA Leica, all were soft. The RF is not lining up at infinity. Shots with the Tri-Elmar (1st V) are all soft, shots with the 35/1.4A @ min. distance and 1.4 are horribly OoF.

So we have two problems - a misalinged RF AND a back focus issue (i.e. the notorious lens-mount to film issue).

It is with Konica UK as we speak (along with a partner Leica lens for reference). I will post again when I have further news.

I should note that I like the camera quite a bit (heavy!) and was prepared for this incompatibility. Providing it can be rectified, I am certain the Hexar RF will join my group of travel M-mounts (including my Minolta CLE - one of my favourites).

I have pretty much stopped using my M6ttl and travel with the classic M6 due to the ttl's appetite for batteries (I know, it's just that I'm too stupid to turn it to "off" every time I put it back in the bag. Dumb customers....)

Steve Patriquen - London

-- Stephen Patriquen (patriquen@yahoo.com), February 24, 2002.