Hexanon 21mm "fisheye"

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I recently saw a lens advertised as 21mm f4 hexanon "Fisheye". Did Konica make such a lens??? I have a Hexanon 21mm f4 lens, but it is not what I would call a fisheye. Stright lines remain stright. They my diverge but they remain stright. I understand that in a fisheye lens, stright lines can bend. This is confusing because I have seen three different Hexanon 21mm f4 lenes and no two looked the same on the outside!

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2000

Answers

21mm Hexanons

David,

The 21mm Hexanon is -NOT- a fisheye lens. It is exactly the opposite - rectilinear. That means straight lines are captured straight, where a fisheye curves everything. A fisheye is similar to a front door peephole. In fact, I remember reading an article where you can make a crude fisheye out of one. A true fisheye captures a circular image, a 180 degree hemisphere. There are some that fill the frame, but still round everything off (A <180 degree fisheye, if you will.)

My Konica F System list chart shows UC Hexanon 15mm f288, item #703-105. This is a fisheye lens.

There are lots of inexpensive ways to play around with fisheye lenses. Take a look at: http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/third/wierd.html

The Hexanon AR lenses differ in external appearance depending upon which epoch they are from:

Epoch I Auto-Reflex: No lock on chrome aperture ring, Fluted focusing ring. "EE" Epoch II, Autoreflex: Locking button, black ring, some fluted, some rubber focusing rings. "EE"

Epoch III Transition: "AE" most have rubber focusing rings, most go to f16.

Epoch IV, F system years: Older lenses updated and marked "AE" most have rubber rings, and many locking buttons changed from round to a sheet-metal blade.

Bear in mind that low-production items (21mm) probably received only minor cosmetic updates. Most real changes are in the 35 - 50mm and short zooms, which often changed completely.

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2000


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