KONICA L HEXANON 35mm (Silver)

Review and Photo example of the HEXANON 35mm / F2.

Gallery

Sample photo taken with the LEICA M8.

Review

Hexanon 35mm F2 Silver is a Leica L39 screw-mount wide-angle lens planned by Fujisawa Shokai and manufactured by Konica in a limited edition of 1000 pieces.

The product comes with a 46mm threaded trumpet-shaped hood, and a cap on the tip of the hood to protect the lens. General filters with a filter diameter of 46mm and a pitch of 0.5mm can be used.
Unfortunately, the minimum focusing distance is 0.9m, but the black UC version, which has the same lens configuration but a smaller lens barrel, has an improved minimum focusing distance of 0.7m.

All of Konica’s L39 screw mount lenses, including this lens, were sold in limited quantities.
The silver HEXANON 35mm was released in a limited edition of 1,000 units, but in the past, lenses of this type would sell well if 1,000 units were sold, and even though they were labeled as limited edition, new and used items were sold at camera stores for quite a long time. It was sold. The item I purchased was almost new, with box and all accessories included. According to my own records, I bought it in 2005 for about the list price. 2020 models occasionally come on the used market, and if they are in good condition, they cost around 200,000 yen.

The silver exterior of the lens matches well with the silver chrome body, and I used it for a long time with EPSON R-D1, LEICA M8, HEXAR-RF, etc., but I sold it when I bought one of the lenses.
As for operability, the aperture ring at the tip of the lens had click stops at every half stop, and the helicoid had a smooth feel typical of a manual focus lens. I feel that the image has the best features of modern lenses and old lenses: it is soft when the aperture is wide open and crisp when stopped down.

Specification

Item	Value	note
focal length(mm)	35
Maximum aperture	2
Minimum aperture	16	1/2 step
Lens configuration	6groups 7elements
Minimum distance(m)	0.9
Lens length(mm)	28.5	Distance from mount flange
Lens max diameter(mm)	54
Filter diameter(mm)	46
Weight(g)	145
List price(Yen)	78,000