"Legendary" Konica mount Lens Survey. What lenses are TOP on your list?

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I figured this would be of interest to a lot of Konica users out there to have a "Legendary" Lens survey. Just reply with what you think are the very best lenses for the Konica camera. 3rd Party lenses are Fine or lenses that require an available Konica adapter to use them. (TX, T, Nikon, M64 etc..)

Here are my favourites:

Konica Mount:

Hexanon 57mm f1.4 - Fast "tele-normal" lens. Good weight and feel.

Soligor 17mm f3.5 - WIDE (104 degrees), not prone to flare. Beautiful construction. Super close focusing (4 inchs)

Post as many as you like. Rate it and even post a reason why you like it.

Have fun.

Mike.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2000

Answers

""Legendary" Konica mount Lens Survey. What lenses are TOP on your list?"

Personally besides the 57 mm f-1.4 I really like the 21mm F=4 and the 135mm f=3.2 Hexanons...

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2000

Legendary Konica mount lens survey. What lenses are top on your list? "Legendary" Konica mount Lens Survey. What lenses are TOP on your list? "Legendary" Konica mount Lens Survey. What lenses are TOP on your list?

21 mm f4 is a favorite of mine too. I own both a 135 mm f3.2, a 105 mm short mount macro and a 100 mm f2.8. The 100 mm f2.8 is sharpest of the lot - highly recommended. Due to my botanical intersts, the 55 mm macro is the most indispensible lens of my collection. Highly recommended unless you want to go beyond 1:2. I have a 300 mm f.4.5 and I am not too impressed by it (have any of you experience with the flourite f6.3 300 mm?). 28 mm f 3.5 is also good. I am less impressed by the normal lenses. The 52 mm f1.8 is not to be recommended. I am sure that the 40 mm f1.8 is better. I THINK that the 57 mm f1.4 and the 57 mm f1.2 are both in between - both somewhat soft. A systematic comparison with MTF-data is required. Are any one aware if these lenses have been tested by any photo magazines?

Peter

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2000


photo magazine test reports

hi peter,

on the topic of test reports, in Modern Photography's "Photo Buying Guide 1980" there's a condensed test of the 57mm f1.2, I believe the full report should be in Modern Photography, June 1969. In the same issue are tests of 85mm f1.8 & 100 mm f2.8. The June 1972 issue had a review of the 55 mm f3.5 macro while the 40mm f1.8 was tested in June 1979.

Popular Photography May 1976 did an extensive test of "normal" lenses. The Konica's covered were: 57mm f1.2, 50mm f1.4, 50mm f1.7 & 55mm f3.5 macro.

Popular Photography (August 1979) tested 3 Konica lenses: 40mm f1.8, 28mm f1.8 and 100 mm f2.8. And in the September 1983 issue they tested the 35mm f2.0, 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.8. Hope this helps,

cheers, glenn

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000


Can you scan in any of these Lens tests for the Konica manuals for Free project?

Hi Glenn, (and others who may have access to this information) Would it be possible to get a hold of these test reports and scan them in? I am not sure if you know or not but the Konica SLR users have started up a Manuals for FREE project and we are looking for these tests to put up. You can see all the manuals in full here: Photography Blue Book web site. Server #1 Photography Blue Book web site. Server #2 Thanks for your help, Mike

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2001

21mm f/4 - a great lens; 24mm f/2.8 - also great 40mm f/1.8 - best of the normals; 55mm Macro - super macro 85mm f/1.8 - dynamite portrait (and general purpose)lens

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2000


My Favorites

These are the ones I use most. I have had uniformly great results with them.

40mm f1.8 Hexanon AR Sharp and handy 55mm f3.5 Macro Hexanon Close focusing and sharp 57mm f1.4 Hexanon AR 135mm f3.2 Hexanon AR Incredibly sharp 24mm f2.8 Hexanon AR 28~85mm f4.0 Tokina RMC I get better results with this than ANY Hexanon Zoom. 300mm f4.5 Hexanon AR Sharp and hand-holdable.

-jwk-

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2000


Favorite Lenses

Kids, I must confess to owning or having owned the following greats: 40mm f/1.8 Hexanon-absolutely great all-round lens. 50mm f/1.7 Hexanon-I'm talking about the "old" one. 55mm f/2.8 Vivitar Macro-sharp and focuses down to 1:1 in its own mount. 135mm f/3.2 Hexanon-my old standby for close-ups and medium tele work, until it was stolen, anyway. 100mm f/4 Novoflex w/bellows-this I picked-up dirt cheap and was surprised by the high quality macro shots possible with it. Great portrait lens, too. 500mm f/8 Quantaray "Black Cat" mirror-this lens was great! I have found nothing else as good, including my Tokina mirror which was the closest match. It, too, grew legs and walked away.

Jon from Deepinaharta, Georgia

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2000


Favorite Hexanon Lenses

What a tough choice! Although I have generally been pleased with all of my Hexanon lenses, let me try to rank order my favorites as follows:

1. 100mm, f/2.8, "EE" model. I would buy a Konica body to use this lens.

2. A tie between the 40mm, f/1.8 and the 135 mm, f/3.2. Both are outstanding but I use them for different reasons. The 40mm is attached to one of my bodies, generally the TC-X, at all times. The close focus ability and sharpness of the 135mm, f/3.2 is outstanding.

4. 50mm, f/1.4 and 1.7. I cannot discern any image diffrence between these two lenses and enjoy them both.

If I could only pick one, it would be the 100mm, f/2.8.

-- Anonymous, November 27, 2000


"Legendary" Konica Mount Lenses

Hi, Mike: You know how much equipment I have, but their are two lenses with which I've taken 90% of my pictures. I've had both for a quarter of a century and they are still my favorites - the Konica 57mm f/1.2 and the Konica 200mm f/3.5 If I had to list a third it would be the Konica 100 f/2.8

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

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