Hexar RF

What a great group of folks here!

Lou is sending me a +1 diopter. If that doesn't do the trick, I'll let you know, Suzi!

This HRF is not going to replace my M bodies. There will be times when I will prefer the characterisics of an M, and times when the HRF will be best.

Thank you all.
 
Congratulations, Frank, my only advice would be to be very careful not to knock it against anything and avoid shaking it, or vibrations, etc because the rangefinder has a tendency to slip out of alignment, especially vertical alignment. My Hexar went to Konica USA several times for this and finally the repair person admitted to me it was almost impossible to maintain vertical alignment. With any luck, yours is from later on in the production run and perhaps Konica addressed this problem. Mine is now sold. Best of luck,
 
Pablito said:
Congratulations, Frank, my only advice would be to be very careful not to knock it against anything and avoid shaking it, or vibrations, etc because the rangefinder has a tendency to slip out of alignment, especially vertical alignment. My Hexar went to Konica USA several times for this and finally the repair person admitted to me it was almost impossible to maintain vertical alignment. With any luck, yours is from later on in the production run and perhaps Konica addressed this problem. Mine is now sold. Best of luck,
Click to expand...

If the worst comes to the worst, the instructions in the repair forum here are comprehensive and accurate! Or at least, they worked for me...

Tom
 
Pablito said:
Congratulations, Frank, my only advice would be to be very careful not to knock it against anything and avoid shaking it, or vibrations, etc because the rangefinder has a tendency to slip out of alignment, especially vertical alignment. My Hexar went to Konica USA several times for this and finally the repair person admitted to me it was almost impossible to maintain vertical alignment. With any luck, yours is from later on in the production run and perhaps Konica addressed this problem. Mine is now sold. Best of luck,
Click to expand...
Somewhere along the line, they started adding a drop of a waxlike substance over the wheel that carries the excenter. It stays in place fine, but if you do need to turn it, you'll be having quality time with an X-acto knife.. Been there, done that..
 
Verical Allignment

Verical Allignment

My method of "fixing" the vertical alignment problem is to shoot with wide angle lens at f5.6 or slower. The depth of field is tremendous and no worries about whether the rangefinder is aligned.
 
Great buy Frank. I've had my RF for just on 4 years. I take it away hiking all the time generally worn in a waist bag because I'm carrying a rucksack and believe me it's a tough little camera. I've only had the vertical alignment done once and that coincided with me lending the camera one night to my wife (though she swears she didn't drop it). My only long term concern is the availability of spare parts if repairs are needed. Konica built a vastly underrated but supurb camera then failed to support it in any way, shape or form.
 
One strong point about the Hexar RF that no one has yet mentioned is the top shutter speed of 1/4000th of a second - and accurate at that.

As someone whose normal film is Tri-X at ASA 1000, this is a distinct advantage over an M2-M6 body (where the 1/1000th speed is unlikely to be accurate) - those two extra stops allow me to use ASA 1000 film under a wide variety of lighting conditions, and also to exploit shallow depth of field in pretty bright conditions.

I have a bunch of M bodies, but the Hexar RF has it's place.

SMALL VERSITILE HEAVENLY KIT: The Hexar RF loaded with Tri-X at 1000; two lenses: 28/35/50 tri-Elmar and 35mm or 50mm summilux (depending on mood). This covers 95% of my shooting needs.
 
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