Konica Hexanon AR 50mm f1.7 – Legacy 50mm. Which one is the best? Part 7

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8 Responses

  1. Barry says:

    I have the 1.7 lens with adapter to fit my a7ii. Not sure how it works. Don’t see f stop on evf or lcd. Plus can’t enlarge image in focus peaking.

    • Hi Barry,

      you can’t see f-stop on the camera, because there is no communication between the lens and camera. However, you can still shot successfully in any creative mode (A,P,M and S), where you can leave on camera, to calculate proper exposure.

      A mode is same as P mode
      S mode is same as M mode

      Example: You want to shot in A mode

      Put your camera in A mode, and let it calculate your shutter speed (Set ISO to any particular value).

      Change the aperture on the lens (take a look at the aperture ring – that’s where you will see selected f-stop) and camera will change shutter speed accordingly.

      If for any reason you find images to be under or over exposed, just use EV compensation. Keep watching shutter speed though, if it drops bellow reasonable value, you can increase ISO to compensate. I am not suggesting to use A (or P) mode with manual apertures lenses without electronics, with cameras which doesn’t allow to set the minimum shutter speed, such as A7MII. Instead I suggest using S (or M) mode…

      To shot in S (or M) mode, set the camera to S mode, set desired aperture on the lens and set ISO to Auto. You can set the limit for high ISO if you wish.

      In this settings, you will control shutter speed on the camera and camera will control ISO to ensure proper exposure. (e.g. – you are using this Konica 50mm lens, and you want to shot slow moving or static subjects, set the shutter speed to 1/125s and aperture at f/5.6) Camera will now shift the ISO value to ensure proper exposure and unless you hit ISO limits on either side, you can just point and shot without thinking much about settings…

      I am not sure why you can’t magnify focus area, it should be easily doable. Be sure that

      1. You enable “Release w/o Lens” setting in the “General settings menu” (second icon from the left – wheel), page 4, second option from the top
      2. Check your Custom Key settings (same menu but page 6, third option from above). You need to properly assign one of the customizable buttons for “Focus Magnifier” option. I am using custom button 1 (C1)
      3. I am not using peaking but it shouldn’t make any difference for focus magnifier. You can’t magnify view using control wheel center button though, unless it is set for this function explicitly.

      If you mean that you can’t see focus peaking in magnified view, well this can be caused by lens low contrast. In general, focus peaking is much less visible at maximum magnification, especially with old legacy lenses.

      Hope it helps,
      Viktor

  2. Facet says:

    Good test with samples. As I read, 1.7 should be much better than 1.4 in sharpness, following http://www.buhla.de/Foto/Konica/Objektive/e50_17.html and other review for 1.4 version, but he did not test it or I not see it.

    I have Hexanon 40mm 1.8 and this lens can be at start very discouraging, because when I first time test it, it was very soft and with other problems at 1.8, But closing to 2.8 and up, this lens is amazing and have great detail and tones. I’m not sure I should buy Hexanon 50mm 1.7 for my aps-c X-E1, little fl difference, but I’m fan of Hexanons for sure.

  3. Andriy says:

    Does this Konica Hexanon AR 50mm mounted on Sony a6000 it really 50mm in 35mm equivalent? For any native Sony E mount 50mm lens to have 35mm equivalent I have to multiply 50mm x 1.5 crop factor = 75 mm in FF equivalent

    • viktor says:

      Hi Andriy,
      It is not a matter of lens mount, crop factor applies to any lens. Focal length is propriety of the lens and it is always same, no matter how big sensor is behond. What is affected is size of the crop. If you want 50mm field of view as on full frame, you shoul look at lenses in the 30-35mm range. For yours A6000 I would first try Sigma 30/2.8 (cheap build quality but very sharp). If you want manual focus lens, Konica has nice 35/2.8 and 35/2 but both are rather expensive (not many produced), or look at the Canon FDn 35/2.8 or 35/2 which have very good IQ and affordable price.
      Cheers,
      Viktor

  4. Ernest says:

    Hi, thanks for great write up and review. What adapter are you using with this lens on the sony nex? DkL-nex?

  5. Mirko says:

    Hi!
    I just got brand new HEXANON AR 50mm F1.7. Can I mount it on my DSLR, Pentax K-50?

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