Konica Hexanon AR 50mm f1.7 - lens review

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 If you've been around my channel or this blog for a while you'll probably know that I've been building a kit of Konica Hexanon lenses, more by chance than by choice, let's be honest. Yet I now find myself owning the well-known 40mm f1.8 “pancake”, the 135mm f2.5 “big boi” and the 50mm f1.7, along with two third-party lenses, the Tokina 135mm f2.8 and the Sigma 35-70mm.

Konica Hexanon AR 50mm f1.7
Konica Hexanon AR 50mm f1.7

 I bought this lens at the end of last summer from a kind old man, a retired semi-professional photographer, so it was well kept and maintained, clean lenses and no mechanical issues.

 The body of the lens is made of metal and weights 210 grams; it is 40mm long when focused to infinity and 47mm when fully extended. The focusing ring is rubberized with a nice grippy texture and it turns 180 degrees. Minimum focusing distance is average at 55cm, the iris has six blades, the aperture is clicked and goes from f1.7 to f16. Past that it goes into auto exposure mode and you have to press the silver button to get back into manual. Flange distance for Konica Hexanon AR lenses is 40.5mm.

 On my little Konica Hexanon catalog the 50mm 1.7 is described as a budget priced standard lens, lightweight and compact, focuses down to 21.7 inches with a taking angle of 46 degrees, 5 groups and 6 elements construction.

 Since the first time I used this lens I realized it is very sharp: at f1.7 sharpness is very good in the center of the frame, but it does fall off a bit towards the edges and at f4 everything gets tack sharp all over the frame; it is less prone to blooming when wide open compared to the 40 and 135 and colors match almost perfectly, with only the 135 being ever so slightly warmer.

 Boke is soft wide open, with some hard edges, and not too busy or distracting when stopping down.

 Chromatic aberration is very well controlled and you really have to look for it otherwise you wouldn't notice it. Flaring is very well controlled as well.

 I also took a few comparison shots between the Konica and the Pentax m 50mm f1.7, to very similar lenses. I would say that they are almost equally sharp, maybe the Konica is a hair sharper. The Pentax has noticeably warmer colors and it is a bit brighter, enough so that in certain situations I had to compensate with a higher shutter speed to get the exposure as close as possible.

konica 50 1.7 Vs pentax 50 1.7
Konica VS Pentax

 Overall, the Konica Hexanon AR 50mm f1.7 is a great lens, in my experience, although some might say it lacks a little bit of character. The metal body makes it feel more rugged and solid than lenses like the Canon FD 50mm, which has a plastic body. All the mechanical parts are smooth and precise and the glass elements and the coatings are of high quality.

 As always, let me know your experience with this lens, if you have any question feel free to ask in the comments below and don’t forget to check the full video for all the samples.



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