KONICA HEXANON 1: 1.8 f = 45mm. Review from the reader Radozhiva

KONICA HEXANON 1: 1.8 f = 45mm lens review specially for Radozhiva prepared Roman Ukhanov.

KONICA HEXANON 1: 1.8 f = 45mm. Review from the reader Radozhiva

KONICA HEXANON 1: 1.8 f = 45mm. Review from the reader Radozhiva. increase.

Greetings friends. From the very beginning of my passion for photography, my faithful assistant was the Radozhiv website, and now I had the opportunity to thank him with my reviewer.

Today we will talk about an extremely rare lens from those that found a second life only after the appearance of mirrorless cameras - Konica Hexanon 45mm f / 1.8, transplanted to SONY E. Initially, the lens was non-removable and stood on old film, non-autofocus cameras Konica Auto S2. It is installed on modern cameras only after professional adaptation and works like many other manual old lenses.

I want to note the features of the converted rangefinder film glasses, based on my experience:

  1. Huge MDF always. Compared to my favorite PANCOLAR, this is especially evident.
  2. Vignette. On some, it is especially strong and, at times, makes glass suitable only for use on crop cameras.
  3. Small stroke of the focus ring. It is possibly due to the fact that most photographers of that time often aimed at the subject based on the distance scale, without the possibility of more accurately navigating through the pentaprism.
  4. High image quality. It is believed that especially high-quality glasses were made on single-lens cameras, thereby compensating for the ability to put others (as SONY RX1 is doing now).
  5. Low weight

Fortunately, our hero is deprived of a strong vignette, it is noticeably smaller than that of its counterparts, but slightly more than the average old mirror lens.

Weight is also very good: 212 g., With half the weight accounted for by an integrated adapter with a bayonet mount. For example, the same little PANCOLAR has a weight of 250 g. And this is without an adapter to your system.

The camera looks great, examples of photos with it on the SONY A7 below.

KONICA HEXANON 1: 1.8 f = 45mm

KONICA HEXANON 1: 1.8 f = 45mm

For convenience, like any manual glass, you need to get used to it. The small stroke of the focus ring does not interfere with accurately focusing on portraits; infinity is caught by a slight movement of the fingers. Sharpness is good with an open aperture. Given its weight and size, it becomes an ideal companion in tourist and street photography.

The diaphragm itself is five petal, has a matte finish, silvery shiny, slightly darkened. It is switched by light clicks, on the F / 2 value it looks like a slightly uneven circle, on 2.8 a slightly rounded pentagon, the minimum value is 16. At the same time, on the aperture scale there is a maximum open value of 1.8, but after comparing it with other lenses, it’s clear that this is more of a marketing ploy.

The thread for the filters is 55 mm, you need to look for a hood under it. Multi-enlightenment certainly saves, bluish-colored enlightenment, but with a “hood” is always more reliable.

The MDF is really large, about 70 cm, I think it’s possible to compensate for this with a macro ring under the SONY E, taking pictures of flowers and small details without it will not work.

And now we move on to the tastiest, because of which I generally decided to write about it - bokeh! The bokeh is interesting, with light double vision, the circles of light in it are slightly flattened and have a light pleasant edging, I really liked it. I suggest that you look at the photos yourself and decide for yourself whether it pleases your eye.

The last important moment, in my opinion, is a rare, namely film picture. I tried many popular good old lenses, but I have never seen such a vintage picture. Perhaps the magic is in a vignette or bokeh ... I think over time to solve this riddle.

All photos were lightly processed by sharpness and saturation, sometimes tearing off the curves a little to slightly enhance the film effect.

Summing up, I can safely say that the lens is clearly worth the attention due to its compactness, speed of use, picture and unusual focal length. I am very sorry that I did not have it last summer in Venice.

You will find more reviews from readers of Radozhiva here.

Add a comment: Pavel Gorbunov

 

 

Comments: 7, on the topic: KONICA HEXANON 1: 1.8 f = 45mm. Review from the reader Radozhiva

  • Pavel Gorbunov

    With a fern, the picture is gorgeous!

  • York

    Konik was forgotten tightly.

    She did not have any special masterpieces of lens construction, the bayonet is dead for a long time and the headlight, plus it does not stand on the mirror without thorough doping - that is why it has sunk.

    Although, along with the lack of objective stars, she also did not have objective failures.
    Solid medium technique ...

    ... But cheap.
    And on BZ it is very good.

  • Sergei

    Judging by the information from the lens-club, this lens has an optical Planar scheme, and a slightly better MDF of 0,4 meters.
    It performs well on mirrorless crop.
    It is quite difficult to correctly transfer this structurally non-removable lens to a mirrorless mirror.
    And the donor camera is not common.
    That is why a very rare adaptation.

    • Novel

      Believe me. I wrote real mdf. even on a scale of at least 0,8 m, and taking into account the fact that the distance to the matrix, both to the film and the helicoid, remains the same from the lens, the MDF remains the same. It can be reduced by an incorrect transplant, in which there will be no infinity, or as I wrote with a macro ring

  • koba

    The grotesque lens! Imperfect optically, but just in this and its charm. They don’t let out such ones now, they are probably made entirely of real glasses, and since in the 60s even aperture aperture of 1,8 was not on all the lenses, they probably tried to make it really high-quality. In my opinion, a very interesting lens, which in some cases will give out just beautiful pictures. Thanks for the review!

  • Glory

    Excellent review. For a handy amateur, reworking on a b / h is not difficult. I love Konika for its charm and high-quality optics. I have 57 / 1.4, 50 / 1.4,52 / 1.8 and 135 / 3.5 .. I know firsthand. Success in creativity .

  • zengarden

    An interesting lens. I have Konica Hexanon 40 / 1.8, but it’s different in drawing.

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