How does my just received Hexar AF feel?

Juan Valdenebro

Juan Valdenebro

Truth is beauty
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May 23, 2009
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Well, this is a MARVELOUS, AMAZING, SUPERB camera!


Comments:


It is -much to my liking- lighter than I supposed, considering it has AF, film advance motor and an f/2 top quality lens... Lighter than my R4M & tiny CV 28 3.5 lens! Yay!


I'm happily surprised to see it's not a thick camera/lens set... It's practically as thick as my Bessas with the flat CV 28 3.5 lens! 62mm for Bessas/28 and 65mm for Hexar AF/35... I just placed my new Hexar AF inside my smallish inner (heart) jacket pocket. Wow!


The model I bought is the beautiful silver one... Some years newer than the black ones... No shutter/focus issue: fast precise green dot confirmed focus, and it's kept there for as long as I keep the shutter half depressed... The camera isn't loud in any way in it's normal mode... It's really unobtrussive in it's normal native mode! I just added the silent mode: adding it took me 30 seconds, and indeed it works like magic... Oh my, It IS TOTALLY SILENT! For two consecutive shots I thought it wasn't firing! Only after seeing the frame counter and finally after development I could find everything was well done!


I did a quick B&W test -just developed- for AF accuracy at f/2 and different distances from 0.6m to 20m: my loupe says tack sharp and great contrast ALWAYS! I think it's true this lens was optimized for being used wide open... I also read the camera corrects the little focus shift as lens is stopped down!


Simple dial to set aperture, and two buttons for more/less shutter speed in M mode: very fast!


Same Select button -in A and P modes- allows fast changing of compensation and ISO: so cool!


On its P mode this camera “thinks” like a photographer: it knows the lowest shutter speed I find trustable. It knows the aperture I want to use, and only if light really requires it, the camera will decide to change shutter speed and/or aperture to get a perfectly exposed negative...


With this camera I'll be able to shoot in silence -without even focusing or metering- using fast film at MY ISOs in dark places where all my life it's been so hard to get things well done...


GOD BLESS ALL THOSE INVOLVED IN THIS CAMERA'S DESIGN!


Cheers,


Juan
 
Hi Andy, I don't have my scanner here at home today, but I guess soon I'll be wet printing some real shots done with it (I hope so)...

Cheers,

Juan

PS: All my thanks to forum member fernandez_diez for selling me his nice camera!
 
Seeing the subject line only I was first thinking that this is one of those threads where the OP is asking others how he should feel. 😀
Luckily it's not.

Enjoy the Hexar AF, it's indeed a very nice camera. Have had myself 4 of those. 😉

And get a 46mm ND filter for those bright days in Spain.
 
Juan Valdenebro said:
...

Oh my, It IS TOTALLY SILENT! For two consecutive shots I thought it wasn't firing! Only after seeing the frame counter and finally after development I could find everything was well done!


...

Cheers,


Juan
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😀😀😀

And by the silence thy shalt know thy Hexar, for its shutter is soft-spoken, its lens razor sharp, its focus accurate like the Jedi Master Saber

😀😀😀

I say we need a StarWars pt VII, filled with Hexars 😛
 
sahe69 said:
Seeing the subject line only I was first thinking that this is one of those threads where the OP is asking others how he should feel. 😀
Luckily it's not.

Enjoy the Hexar AF, it's indeed a very nice camera. Have had myself 4 of those. 😉

And get a 46mm ND filter for those bright days in Spain.
Click to expand...

Hi,

I've been thinking -for some days- of a good set of filters for its "special" shutter... 🙂 As 46 ones are not very common, I decided to use my 52mm and 62mm ones: for yellow, warming and basic ND8 I use 52mm filters on the 46-52 step-up ring with the hood retracted... Those for a few stops... And for being able to use the lens wide open for beautiful bokeh on sunny days with fast film for grain, on the ND8 I place a 52-62 step-up ring and decide if I need to add just my 62 orange, or my 62 ND8 for six stops... Because of being 62mm the front one, there's no vinetting after two filters on two rings...

Cheers,

Juan

EDIT: As I explained in post #34, it's a better idea to avoid filters above 52mm: close focus is fine, but if you focus beyond two or three meters from camera, the AF system can get fooled, so I decided to stick to 52mm ones and I won't use 62mm ones anymore...
 
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Congrats Juan 🙂

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Juan, don't forget to dial in the filter factor on the camera, it reads available light from the sensor at the front.

Covering that sensor with my finger while shooting is the only gripe I had with my Hexar... And remembering not to shoot through windows, since it throws the ab-so-lu-te-ly brilliant IR focusing off.

There's a page in my website in which I have tried to accumulate all information available on the Hexar, and I will be adding a stereo-Hexar page there soon.

Good light!
 
You rumbled me Juan. I was ready to get a Leica M3 and be done with all the buying-camera hastle for life. Would you recommend a Konica Hexar AF/RF instead?

Also, I read that it has a shutter speed of "only" 1/250, isn't that very limiting for a photographer?

Thanks!
 
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buzzardkid said:
Juan, don't forget to dial in the filter factor on the camera, it reads available light from the sensor at the front.

Covering that sensor with my finger while shooting is the only gripe I had with my Hexar... And remembering not to shoot through windows, since it throws the ab-so-lu-te-ly brilliant IR focusing off.

There's a page in my website in which I have tried to accumulate all information available on the Hexar, and I will be adding a stereo-Hexar page there soon.

Good light!
Click to expand...

Oh yes, I've seen that company makes a stereo Hexar AF! That must be a joy! Once we had a great expo at the school where I studied photography here in Barcelona, and the photographer was (or is) a mature Spannish guy who does stereo long ago... Every photograph had to be seen through the special viewing device placed in front of every image... Like those viewmasters by Disney... I have never been able to forget an amazing image: it was a girl, maybe 6 or 8 years old, and she had a camera in her hands and was trying to make a photograph, so her face was half covered with the camera and showed her concentration and physical effort... She filled the height of the frame from head to feet while composing from a low point of view with her knees almost touching ground... She was by the seaside, and a lot of water was in that precise moment breaking against rocks or something not visible on the image, so she was surrounded with a wild water tempest full of different shapes at different distances from camera, all of them in perfect focus about to touch her face, enhancing the girl's brave adventure... What an amazing image! It was incredible! One day I'll go back to school to ask about the photographer just to contact him and ask him who she was! Those stereo cameras must be a lot of fun!

Cheers,

Juan
 
Moriturii said:
You rumbled me Juan. I was ready to get a Leica M3 and be done with all the buying-camera hastle for life. Would you recommend a Konica Hexar AF/RF instead?

Also, I read that it has a shutter speed of "only" 1/250, isn't that very limiting for a photographer?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Unless you're shooting formula 1 races, you don't really need more than 1/250... It's a fear we've all had because we've for long used high shutter speeds on SLRs to simply avoid too much light from reaching film, not to freeze motion, but there are other ways to get rid of light, especially with RFs because you don't use the lens to see through it, so ND filters (and others) are a great option...

Apart, if you set your Hexar AF at f/2 and the light is too much for 1/250, the camera -in P mode- can get the images you'd get with a shutter up to 1/32,000 because it will close aperture to avoid too much light. In case you prefer to keep it at f/2, you just get rid of light with filters. Really easy.

Yes, I'd recommend you to get one no doubt. This camera can do things no other camera can do, like using very fast film at the manual ISO you prefer, AND have perfect focus at f/2 in dark places where no one can focus because its accurate AF system doesn't use available light for focusing, but camera's own infrared beams... I plan to carry it with ultrafast film only as third camera in a small bag, and have it ready for low light situations exclusively. For normal shooting I carry an AE RF prefocused, and for direct sun another one with shutter speed and aperture set, and prefocused too... That's three real fast point-and-shoot cameras with manual override, one in my wrist and two in a very small bag or inside my pockets... Without the Hexar AF, dark outdoors and indoors were almost impossible for real fast street shooting...

Cheers,

Juan
 
skibeerr said:
Juan, mind that you don't block the af system with those oversise filters.

W
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Yes, I was worried about it, but fortunately with 62mm filters its AF system works perfectly even at the closest focusing distance!

One of the best things about this camera is the instant moving framelines and real focus distance information in the viewfinder... You interact all the time with your camera and you know clearly from the first moment what it's doing! It's incredible!

Cheers,

Juan
 
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