KONICA M HEXANON 50mm F1.2(Limited)

Review and Photo example of the HEXANON 50mm F1.2.

Gallery

Sample photo taken with the HEXAR-RF +Kodacrome64

Review

Hexanon 50mm F1.2 is a large-diameter standard lens released in 2001 bundled with HEXAR RF Limited (limited to 2001 units).

The photos in the gallery were taken in 2007 at Nishiki Market in Kyoto with a genuine set of HEXAR-RF Limited +M-HEXANON 1.2/50 loaded with KR64 (Kodachrome-64).
Although the film sensitivity is ISO64, when using the HEXANON 1.2/50 with the aperture wide open, I was able to obtain a reasonable shutter speed, and there were almost no shaky photos.
It was an easy-to-use lens with no bad impressions about the spherical blur of light and the front and back blur. I had a lot of standard lenses, so I sold them without being able to use them much, so I would like to buy them again if I have a chance.

When I acquired this camera and lens set in 2007, film cameras were in their final stages, and camera and lens sets were being sold at much lower prices than they are now.
It was released in 2001, but perhaps because the price of the camera and lens set was high, when I bought it in 2007, unused boxed versions of both the camera and lens occasionally found their way onto the market.
After that, unused boxes were still seen here and there, but perhaps collectors had run out of stock, and in the 2020s, only cameras and lenses were occasionally seen.

Since this is a lens that comes with a camera called Limited, a lot of effort has been put into finishing the lens barrel. The titanium color and orange letters are beautiful. The focus ring’s knurling has just the right width and unevenness to allow for smooth focusing. The aperture ring is also located at the very front of the lens barrel, making it impossible to accidentally change it while shooting.
A large hood is included, but I rarely use it because it gets in the way of the viewfinder frame.
Compared to the KL-HEXANON 60mm/F1.2, which has a simple black and silver lens barrel, this one definitely looks better.
As stated in the specifications, the shortest shooting distance for the lens alone is 0.9m, which is disappointing.
I gave up this lens along with the camera.

As a side note, the HEXAR-RF is a well-made rangefinder camera that was used as a mainstay camera before the complete transition to digital. Even after switching to digital, I still wanted to use film cameras, so I acquired the M6 and M6TTL. However, by then Kodachrome had disappeared from the world.
LEICA was promoting digitalization, so I expected HEXAR-RF-Digital, but what happened after that was well-known: the KONICA camera business was transferred to MINOLTA, the camera business was transferred from KONICA-MINOLTA to SONY, and so on. Due to the focus and widespread use of mirrorless cameras, which are a mass of electronic equipment, rangefinder cameras with many mechanical elements have not been released from that lineage.

Specification

Item	Value	note
focal length(mm)	50
Maximum aperture	1.2
Minimum aperture	16
Lens configuration	6groups 7elements	Gauss-type
Minimum distance(m)	0.9	Camera distance meter linked from 0.9m to infinity
Lens length(mm)	68.8	Lens only
Lens max diameter(mm)	50
Filter diameter(mm)	62
Weight(g)	390	Lens only