Playing With Lenses: The stakes are high: Konica Hexanon AR 50mm F1.7

Cost: $15 (average market price $25)

The Konica Hexanon AR 50mm 1.7 is by some regarded as one of the sharpest legacy lenses ever made. Although I must admit it sure is capable of sharp pictures, I did not find it to keep up with some of the better Pentax prime lenses. And with a maximum aperture of 1.7, it should be a fast lens, so what better place to test this nifty fifty in Las Vegas, in the Venetian casino to be more precise.

Build quality is excellent, clear lettering, with a solid metal body and mount. Aperture and focus rings are smooth, like lenses of this era should be. It sure has the looks, and the feel. Note that minimum aperture only goes to F16.

When shooting, it did however not really feel as a fast lens. I had to do some extensive de-noise in Lightroom to make it acceptable. Idem ditto for sharpness. Some picture were sharp, straight from the camera, but again Lightroom had to be used to make them somewhat crispy. I expected more of this lens.

Flickr seems to have many great samples, so in all fairness, I should try this lens in daylight, to really see how sharp it can be. But in the meantime, it does not make my list of favorite lenses. I wonder how much better it would be on full-frame camera or with a speed booster.

Lens Specification:

Focal Length: 50mm

Maximum Aperture: F1.7

Minimum Aperture: F16

Image Format: 35mm

Lens Mount: Konica

Image Stabilization: none

Optics: 6 elements / 5 groups

Blades: 6

Focussing: Manual

Minimum Focus: 55cm

Filter Size: 55mm

Weight: 243g

Length: 40mm

Production: 1976-1979

Serial Number: 7548482

Made in: Japan

Company:

Konica was a Japanese manufacturer of film, film cameras, camera accessories, photographic and photo-processing equipment, photocopiers, fax machines and laser printers.

The company was founded in 1873 (before Kodak) when pharmacist Rokusaburo Sugiura began selling photographic materials at his store in Konishiya Rokubē. Rokusaburo Sugiura gave the original shop to his younger brother and launched a new shop, Konishi Honten (Konishi Main Shop) in the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo.

Konishi started producing photography related materials in Japan in 1882, including the "Cherry Portable Camera" in 1992, the first Japanese produced end-user oriented camera. Konishi Main Shop became the leading camera company in Japan. In 1921, his elder son took over the rains. The name Konishiroku was taken from the abbreviation of their names, Konishi Rokuemon. Konishiroku released the "Konica I" type camera in 1948, after which they would name their own company in 1987. In 1990's Konica signed its first major contract by leasing copiers, resulting in a major shift in the industry that had sold only copiers before.

On August 5, 2003, Konica merged with Minolta to form Konica Minolta. Finaly, Konica Minolta Holdings exited the photography business in 2006, and it 's digital SLR camera section was transferred to Sony.

Adapter:

K&F Koncept Konica AR - NEX

Cost: $22 on Amazon

Although there are better and much more expensive adapters on the market, it found this one to be of good quality, feel solid, holding the lens very tight. It was good enough for me to buy these brand of adapters for other mount types.

Do remember this is a manual adapter, so no auto focus and no passing on of information to the camera (as we are using old manual lenses, that is of no issue).

Samples: