Analog Therapy: Fujifilm 400 – Konica Hexar RF – 7Artisans 50mm f/1.1… at f/2.

Normally my nerdery Random Neural Firings come in single file allowing me to describe my nonsense in one or two blog posts.

This time not so much.

A number of unrelated events ended up crashing into each other unexpectedly. For a number of reasons. Mainly time. Where I usually get out and about fairly frequently a little thing called “the hawk” has delayed my usual shenanigans. This changed what would have been a couple of analog therapy galavants into one. Which actually worked out well and made for a nonsense comparison I had not considered previously.

Still there? Good. Here we go. This is post #2.

KEH came for my neck recently.

In my defense, I was not even on their website. I was minding my own business somewhere on the internets and a KEH ad whispered:

You want a Konica Hexanon M mount 50mm f/2 lens for the Konica Hexar RF, don’t you?

Why yes. Yes, I do.

Here you go. See, it is far more affordable than the Leica option.

<Makes the mistake of looking at sample images taken with that lens on Flickr.> Then I should definitely buy it then, right?

It made it into my virtual cart and everything. That is when the voice of reason crashed the party.

You already have an M mount 50mm lens! One you really like. You have always gone on about how well it behaves stopped down to f/2. Use that instead. If you get another 50mm lens that will be just another decision you will need to make.

…dang it voice of reason. Always messing things up between GAS and I.

So I decided to prove this assertion and fight off another unnecessary lens purchase (Big talk from someone who once collected nearly all of the native 50mm-ish Sony primes.) by taking the 7Artisans 50mm f/1.1 out for a spin.

The ground rule was simple. Start at f/2 and no wider and adjust as need be.

The thinking was this. Since the 7Artisans behaves itself at f/2, both sharper and little vignetting, it would be theoretically redundant to pick up an f/2 lens. As mentioned earlier this would mean deciding between the two lenses when the day called for 50mm. In addition to being redundant, the 7Artisans has the additional hat trick of an f/1.1 aperture. So I should be fine as is.

The only problem is I always use this, and every film lens given the opportunity, wide open so a bit of self restraint would be needed.

To confirm this lens f/2 performance I put in a roll of Fujifilm 400. Developed at home with Cinestill CS41. Camera and lens used as mentioned.

I have prattled on about this lens across many posts over many years. But this camera has become a real star also. I have gone through quite a string of M mount cameras that never quite measured up to my target camera. The Leica M6. Fully worth it, but it was priced beyond my reach and fiscal sensibilities. Tried this Konica Hexar RF after reading the specs and reviews and I could not be happier. Anyhoo. On to the images. Used side by side with another more pedestrian camera many of these pics will look familiar if you saw my last post and they will be seen in a follow up companion post. Here they are.