Tom Diaz
Well-known
Speaking of repairs, who does any? Mine is in fine working order but could use a cleaning.
Tom
PS This question exemplfies the need for a Hexar AF forum, not to beat a dead horse, you understand.
flip
良かったね！
I have handled several black AFs simultaneously and found that each sounds slightly different. It's an issue of how they individually age, I think.
kuvvy
Well-known
I have the Silver AF and have the stealth mode too. This used to be the only camera i would take when travelling as I never really needed more. The only thing was, that other than travelling the camera hardly saw any use inbetween, so I'd say it was only used three time a year. Don't know why I've never used it more as the lens is superb and the AF very fast and accurate.
Recently, I find I'm not shooting any film at all and the hexar along with it's HX-14 flash will be going for sale soon. Also, my Minolta CLE is to go for the same reason. Shame as they are both such great cameras in their own right.
Recently, I find I'm not shooting any film at all and the hexar along with it's HX-14 flash will be going for sale soon. Also, my Minolta CLE is to go for the same reason. Shame as they are both such great cameras in their own right.
daniel~
Established
Exactly. It would've been much better displayed in VF. Anyway I'm learning to forget about it, otherwise I'd keep taking my eyes off from VF to top panel for info.
Unfortunately, rarely do I want to shoot at f/16--it's more like being forced to. Yes, ND filter is a cure, if reluctant. Now what else to complain about my Hexar...
OK I find the original silver cap awkward and bound to fall out(it's been safe in a drawer now & for good), and those printed numbers & letters gradually wears off. At that price, at least they could have the name HEXAR engraved, right?Well that's all I can complain about Hexar AF. With its killer combination of phenomenal optics and features, Hexar is definitely one of my all-time favourite.
daniel~
Established
Got your point. I always feel kind of unfair to call Hexar AF a "p&s"... just I think a general "Konica" sub forum would be even better, as it'd also cover classic RF such as C35, Auto S3, Konica III, etc. Konica, with its long respectable history as film & camera maker, certainly deserves its own, when there are Olympus RF/Yashica RF forums.
But then again, don't you think there are already Too Many sub forums in the menu??
raid
Dad Photographer
I agree with Daniel on having a separate forum for Konica RF cameras. I have these already:
Konica I
Konica II [art deco look]
Konica III [great lens]
Konica IIIM [100% VF]
Konica Auto S [not functioning]
Konica Auto S2 [superb lens]
Konica Auto S3. [superb lens]
Add to the above the Hexar AF and the Hexar RF, plus the C35 tiny camera.
The mechanical Konica RF cameras were ahead of their time. The lenses are awesome. Some of the VF's are better than Leica VF's.
Let's ask Stephen and the powers in charge to add such a forum for us.
Konica I
Konica II [art deco look]
Konica III [great lens]
Konica IIIM [100% VF]
Konica Auto S [not functioning]
Konica Auto S2 [superb lens]
Konica Auto S3. [superb lens]
Add to the above the Hexar AF and the Hexar RF, plus the C35 tiny camera.
The mechanical Konica RF cameras were ahead of their time. The lenses are awesome. Some of the VF's are better than Leica VF's.
Let's ask Stephen and the powers in charge to add such a forum for us.
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Tom Diaz
Well-known
Yeah, I'll definitely settle for an all-Konica forum. Even some Koni-Omega users probably will show up there. The company really made some interesting cameras over the years.
To answer Daniel's point: I don't think there are too many forums already. Right now I have to hunt around for Hexar posts. I would rather look up the forum even if it's a long table of forums--that's what tables are for.
Tom
Tom Diaz
Well-known
Ewww, I didn't know about the printed numbers rubbing off; hasn't happened to me yet. On the other hand, my lovely rhodium-plated lens cap also stays at home most of the time, because it makes an amazing bell-like sound when it hits a sidewalk, which it often does. The only blemish on my Hexar is a ding on the beautiful but accident-prone lens cap.
raid
Dad Photographer
I lost my lens cap many times, until one day, it fell under my parked car at the beach, and I only remembered a day later that the lens cap was gone. Since then, each time we park at that same parking lot, I jokingly pretend to look for the lens hood there.
I used a snap on Nikon lens hood instead, and I sold the Silver AF with that hood.
I used a snap on Nikon lens hood instead, and I sold the Silver AF with that hood.
24mgdriver
Michael A. Bender
I have one question : What about the framelines and other lenses on the RF, if you take a lens on the hexar , could you tell the camera what lens it is or must the lenses be coded like leica lenses, so that the camera put the right frames on ?
johannielscom
Snorting silver salts
The camera acts like a 'regular' Leica, when a lens is mounted, the camera shows the matching frame in the viewfinder. No coding like on the M8, no lever selector like on older Canons, just stick a lens to it and you're done!
johnny9fingers
Well-known
Is it just me or is everyone missing the point focusing on the max 250 shutter speed. This is a fantastic available light camera, a true night stalkers delight built to take wonderful pictures with slow film. And if you venture out into the light with half a roll of Pan F, just note the last frame shot, rewind and put in the film of your choice...... This hands down is my favorite camera....in fact I have 2 black Hexars and would like to get a silver if I can find one in really good shape...
amateriat
We're all light!
I had a Hexar AF (black/stealth/date back) for seven years (1995-2002). Loved it "lots." Traded it, together with my both my Minolta 9xi SLRs and lenses, for my Hex RF setup (two bodies, 28/50/90 M-Hex glass) in early '02, and that's what I've been using ever since.
Several hundred rolls of film later, here's my little report:
- Haven't lost eyepiece or rubber ring on either body...yet. (I periodically check for a tight fit.)
- One body (possibly the first one) stopped cold with an error code early on (10, I think). Sent out to Konica/Minolta, together with HRF #2 to make certain both bodies had proper FR alignment (I didn't detect a problem, but with all the chatter about it at the time I decided to play it safe). No glitches of the sort since.
- The shutter-lag issue with the HRF is, IMO, negligible in single-frame mode; in Continuous mode, it doesn't exist, period. For people who habitually jab at the shutter release, that teensy bit of lag could even aid in avoiding camera-shake blur. It never got in the way of my nailing the "moment."
- Shutter noise is very quiet, motorized film-advance somewhat less so. It's no Hexar AF, however. (But, really, what is?)
- Metering is just plain excellent, with fairly tight center-weighting.
- I appreciate the fact that while this is seriously tech-enriched camera, it doesn't wear its tech on its sleeve; other than the small and highly-useful LCD on the top plate (which, for me, does a very good job with battery info...never had either camera surprise me by becoming an instant paperweight without a heads-up), it goes about its business in an unassuming manner. The fact that the number of on-camera controls are concentrated, well-placed, and kept to a bare minimum is also a plus.
- VF, for all intents and purposes, is adequately bright. Yes, it helps to keep your eye centered for accurate focusing. Same deal with the ZI, by the way.
- Confuses the hell out of some M8 shooters when meeting up.
- Reliably squeezes at least 37 frames from a 36-exposure roll, sometimes 38. Irritating when cutting six-frame strips for scanning, but nice for that out-of-nowhere grab shot.
- Things I wish they'd included? Just one: date back that imprints between frames, á la Contax RTS III/Pentax ZM-S. The Hex has contacts for some sort of back, but nothing was ever released, to the best of my knowledge. Maybe TTL flash, too, although in practice, I haven't exactly missed it.
- The M-Hexanon glass is really, really good.
On a somewhat related note, I can now say that, after five months and a fair amount of film put through it, I can safely say that my new-to-me Contax Tvs has eased whatever remaining pangs I've had about letting go of my Hex autofocus so long ago. It quickly became my daily-driver camera, and rides shotgun with my Hexars regularly, loaded with b/w when the Hexen have color film in them, and vice-versa.
- Because of all this, my scanners rarely get a break.
- Barrett
Several hundred rolls of film later, here's my little report:
- Haven't lost eyepiece or rubber ring on either body...yet. (I periodically check for a tight fit.)
- One body (possibly the first one) stopped cold with an error code early on (10, I think). Sent out to Konica/Minolta, together with HRF #2 to make certain both bodies had proper FR alignment (I didn't detect a problem, but with all the chatter about it at the time I decided to play it safe). No glitches of the sort since.
- The shutter-lag issue with the HRF is, IMO, negligible in single-frame mode; in Continuous mode, it doesn't exist, period. For people who habitually jab at the shutter release, that teensy bit of lag could even aid in avoiding camera-shake blur. It never got in the way of my nailing the "moment."
- Shutter noise is very quiet, motorized film-advance somewhat less so. It's no Hexar AF, however. (But, really, what is?)
- Metering is just plain excellent, with fairly tight center-weighting.
- I appreciate the fact that while this is seriously tech-enriched camera, it doesn't wear its tech on its sleeve; other than the small and highly-useful LCD on the top plate (which, for me, does a very good job with battery info...never had either camera surprise me by becoming an instant paperweight without a heads-up), it goes about its business in an unassuming manner. The fact that the number of on-camera controls are concentrated, well-placed, and kept to a bare minimum is also a plus.
- VF, for all intents and purposes, is adequately bright. Yes, it helps to keep your eye centered for accurate focusing. Same deal with the ZI, by the way.
- Confuses the hell out of some M8 shooters when meeting up.
- Reliably squeezes at least 37 frames from a 36-exposure roll, sometimes 38. Irritating when cutting six-frame strips for scanning, but nice for that out-of-nowhere grab shot.
- Things I wish they'd included? Just one: date back that imprints between frames, á la Contax RTS III/Pentax ZM-S. The Hex has contacts for some sort of back, but nothing was ever released, to the best of my knowledge. Maybe TTL flash, too, although in practice, I haven't exactly missed it.
- The M-Hexanon glass is really, really good.
On a somewhat related note, I can now say that, after five months and a fair amount of film put through it, I can safely say that my new-to-me Contax Tvs has eased whatever remaining pangs I've had about letting go of my Hex autofocus so long ago. It quickly became my daily-driver camera, and rides shotgun with my Hexars regularly, loaded with b/w when the Hexen have color film in them, and vice-versa.
- Because of all this, my scanners rarely get a break.
- Barrett
vrgard
Well-known
FYI johnny9fingers, I just sent you a pm about my silver Hexar AF in case you're interested.
-Randy
Dante_Stella
Rex canum cattorumque
I've taken a Hexar AF all over the world. The 1/250 is not really a problem even with 400-speed film. Just shoot at f/16 or f/22 until the roll is done and then switch to 100-speed (you can actually change mid-roll very easily). The RF actually has the same leader-out-pause feature.
The one thing not to lose track of is that when you compare a 35/2 UC-Hexanon and the AF lens is this: the Hexar AF automatically adjusts focus to account for spherical aberration as you stop down. That means that it maintains the correct focus point at all apertures up to f/5.6 and beyond.
The LTM version does not have this, so stopping down at f/2.8-4, the focus drifts very slightly backwards - and no rangefinder takes that into account. It doesn't have a huge effect; it's pretty subtle, but you get cheated out of some of the depth of field you would otherwise expect. Of course, if you shoot all low-light shots wide-open and everything else at small apertures (as happens in the real world), this will never be of any concern.
The other thing is that the LTM lens only has whole click-stops; the AF can set half-apertures. I don't see that as a huge thing, but some people might care.
Dante
The one thing not to lose track of is that when you compare a 35/2 UC-Hexanon and the AF lens is this: the Hexar AF automatically adjusts focus to account for spherical aberration as you stop down. That means that it maintains the correct focus point at all apertures up to f/5.6 and beyond.
The LTM version does not have this, so stopping down at f/2.8-4, the focus drifts very slightly backwards - and no rangefinder takes that into account. It doesn't have a huge effect; it's pretty subtle, but you get cheated out of some of the depth of field you would otherwise expect. Of course, if you shoot all low-light shots wide-open and everything else at small apertures (as happens in the real world), this will never be of any concern.
The other thing is that the LTM lens only has whole click-stops; the AF can set half-apertures. I don't see that as a huge thing, but some people might care.
Dante
sepiareverb
genius and moron
If anything goes wrong with your Hexar RF I'd vote for sending it to Greg Weber for an attempt at a fix, if he can't fix it: bury it. The "official" repair place (Precision in CT) is absolutely hopeless and should be avoided at all costs. I'll never own another Hexar as I could never trust in using it long term.
raid
Dad Photographer
Frank sent me an original eye piece for the Hexar RF, and I now see clearly through the VF. I managed to easily focus with the Summilux 35 1.4 @ 1.4, so the Hexar RF is OK after all.
amateriat
We're all light!
Tom Diaz
Well-known
Need a real forum. C'mon.
TD
ChrisPlatt
Thread Killer
KEH listed a half dozen Hexar AF cameras for months; suddenly they're all gone.
Most models have become scarcer and higher priced on eBay recently as well.
I wonder if the numerous Hexar threads here lately have contributed to this?
Chris
Most models have become scarcer and higher priced on eBay recently as well.
I wonder if the numerous Hexar threads here lately have contributed to this?
Chris