50/1.2 Hexanon

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pukupi

Guest
I have the opportunity to pick up a 50/1.2 Hexanon that came with the Hexar RF Limited Edition and would appreciate any comments on this lens.
 
I don't have 1, but have heard nothing but good things about the lens. I believe Jeffrey Smith, who hangs out on many of the Leica & Cosina Voigtlander fora has 1 & has praised its imaging qualities. How much do they go for in Japan?
 
We haven't negotiated the price yet. This is the first time I've seen the lens available separate from the Hexar RF and I am still at a lost to what I should offer for it.

The Hexar RF Limited Edition with the 50/1.2 usually sells for around 260,000 Yen.
 
I don't want to bring this hoary old chestnut up again, but I think I read over on photo.net that this lens was sold with a Hexar RF body and the two were calibrated to work together (you can imagine the importance of accurate focusing wide-open, especially at the closest focusing distance). I would make sure that this lens focuses correctly at both its closest distance and infinitity on your camera. I hear it is an absolute cracker of a lens! :D
 
I would hope that the calibration was in the Hexar Body. Otherwise the lens would not be "standard" and would be a throwback to the early Leica where the film-to-flange distance was not standardized! More likely F1.2 is a challenge to the cameras calibration, especially at 0.6x finder on the Hexar. I bought a Canon 50mm F0.95, put it on my Canon 7, and the focus was exact. At F0.95 there is not much room for error, like at F1.2. It does mean that the film-to-flange distance must be exact, this is done with a shim under the lens mount of the Canon 7 body AND the RF calibration must be right on. I have built up the RF coupling of a few OLD (~50years) 135 F3.5 lenses, but this was due to age. A new lens should not require this. The Canon F1.4 and F1.2 lenses also have a brass shim that sets distance from the lens module to the back of the lens mount. This piece is picked at build time, and must be precise. They would not have picked this part to make up for some error in the body, and Canon 50mm F1.2 lenses can be used on any standard Leica Thread Mount camera.
 
pukupi said:
We haven't negotiated the price yet. This is the first time I've seen the lens available separate from the Hexar RF and I am still at a lost to what I should offer for it.

The Hexar RF Limited Edition with the 50/1.2 usually sells for around 260,000 Yen.
Click to expand...

Given the price of the body, the lens seems to be about 60% of the value of the kit, or about 150,000 Yen when it was new. This would make sense when you compare it to the price of a Summilux, which goes for about the same price as this entire kit & is 1/2 stop slower, or to the price of a Noctilux, which is about 20& more than the Summilux & 1/2 stop faster than the Hexanon.

I guess it depends on the condition of the lens. If it hasn't been used & has sat on a shelf or in the box, you might have to pay pretty close to the full 150,000. I think that if you could get it for 100,000 Yen, it would be a great buy - less than the cost of a new Summicron.

I'm saying this without knowing anything about how good the lens is. I'm just judging on Konica's reputation & the reputation of the other M-Hexanon lenses.

Let us know what you settle on. This is a rare opportunity to get such a fast, high quality lens.
 
Oh no, I'm also being offered the opportunity to buy the whole kit: Hexar RF, 50/1.2 Hexanon...


A major GAS attack with no Tums in sight ;)
 
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I have this lens and absolutely love it. I bought it from Luigi Crescenzi for about 1000 dollars. The lens performs very well and focuses perfectly on my MP. Here is a shot of it wide open:
jodie-800.jpg


This is also shot with it, but it is delta 3200 at 3200 in DDX, so it will not give you any resolution ideas, but it will show you the small depth of field and the control of flare from light sources in the frame (to the right of his head....). There was not much light there at all. I should also note that I have no hood for this lens, and all images were taken without one.
tom-cards.jpg


Here is a shot of it using bluefire police film (sort of a tech pan like film)

presidio-bells.jpg


Give me a bit, and I will try to find more images that I am sure were shot using this lens.
 
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Great photos StuartR; I'm convinced this lens is worth all the positive praise I'm reading.
 
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I've bought it along with the Hexar RF Limited body :D

In the end the deal with the whole kit was too good to pass up: unused with everything still in the packaging for 200,000 Yen. This is only 50,000 Yen more than what I was going to offer for the lens alone and it seemed a shame to break up the matching serial numbers.

I have no idea how much these kits are going for outside Japan but an unused Hexar RF Limited kit usually sells for around 300,000 Yen in Osaka.

Happy, happy.
 
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Pukupi, great buy! Enjoy the camera. B&H in New York recently sold out of the LE. They had been charging les than the Japanese price ($2499 USD), but even by this standard, you got a great buy. It looks even better when you compare it to the price of an M7 & a Summilux or Noctilux ($5300 - $5800) . Heck, you've paid less for this kit than the price of the Summilux alone AND you got an extra half stop on the lens & a flash thrown in.

Cheers . . .
 
Yes, congratulations. The Hexar RF is a fantastic camera, and the 1/4000th shutter speed will allow you to take pictures wide open in brighter light, allowing you to experiment with shallow depth of field. In any case, my single complaint with the lens is the color -- I would much, much rather have had a black lens, but I am willing to put up with it for the fantastic performance, speed, and build quality of the lens.
 
There is no flash in the kits that sell in Japan although I'm not really worried as I switched from SLR to RF for available light photography.

I also would have preferred a black body and lens.
 
Pukupi, congratulations on a most impressive new kit! And a bargain as well.
 
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