Konica Hexanon AR 40mm f/1.8

16 Nov, 2011AR Primes, Konica, NEX 3, Short Telephoto, Standard
Konica Hexanon AR 40mm f/1.8

The 40mm focal length works out to be a nice long standard lens on APS-C or a very short telephoto. This is a great general purpose focal length, so how does this old Konica Hexanon AR 40mm perform?

The lens is well made, typical of this vintage lens. My copy has a slightly loose focus ring; the lubricant seems to have dried out a bit. The lens is well constructed and fairly small. I would say it borders on being a pancake lens, but isn’t really much smaller than some of the more compact 50mm f/1.8 lenses (like the Olympus OM 50/1.8).

The lens is 6 elements in 5 groups. It is fairly light at 140g (5oz). Minimum focus distance is 0.45m (1.5ft). The diaphragm has 6, slightly curved, blades. The aperture ring locks just past the f/22 stop, which can be a bit annoying on the NEX if you accidentally turn the ring to that point, you have to find the lock and unlock it again.

NEX 3 Optical Characteristics

NEX 3 MTF 50 (Sharpness)

NEX 3 MTF 20 (Resolution)

NEX 3 Lateral Chromatic Aberration

The lens has minor barrel distortion of -0.51% (numeric average between all apertures), following shows the coefficients and a sample test chart.

NEX 3 Distortion


All data gathered using Imatest.

Conclusion

This lens has is acceptable at f/1.8. It will work well for available light photography for subjects without a lot of detail (like portraits). It is reasonable resolution. Center and partway sharpness is very good at f/2.8 (this is most of the frame) and edges between f/4 and f/5.6.

The lens shows noticeable lateral chromatic aberrations (color fringing in the corners). Longitudinal CA in the bokeh is fairly noticeable for a large aperture short telephoto. It is magenta in front and green behind the focus point. It improves on stopping down. Color fringing around high contrast objects is severe wide open, but also improves on stopping down.

The lens has strong Coma visible at f/1.8. Light sources in the corners will produce odd shapes (see gallery). Pretty much gone by f/2.8.

Flare will be updated if I shoot a sample gallery with the lens.

Distortion has minor barrel distortion.

Bokeh will be updated if I shoot a sample gallery with this lens.

Pros:
– Compact size standard
– Focal length can be nice on APS-C
– Improves nicely on stopping down

Cons:
– Corners at larger apertures
– Coma wide open

Uses (sample):
– Available Light Portraits
– General Purpose (stop down for corner performance)

This lens is a good value slightly long standard lens. If you think 50mm is too tight, but 35mm too wide, there aren’t a whole lot of lens choices in this range. This lens could be better at f/1.8, but isn’t bad. It really is nice across most of the frame at f/2.8, and the entire frame by f/5.6.

If you like my review, you might shop for camera gear at Adorama.

The gallery images are © 2011 Eric Tastad, and may only be used for personal evaluation of the lenses. The images were exported straight from camera with my default LR3 settings for the NEX 3, which have some sharpening set since it is a fairly high resolution sensor and LR tends to under sharpen.

6 Comments

  1. RussellInCincinnati says:
    January 26, 2014 at 2:26 pm

    What was the measured focal length for this lens? You’ve made it clear that most “35mm” lenses are about 38mm focal length. Does the Hexanon AR measure out to 40mm focal length, or is it like the mild wide angles, having a measured focal length of about 43mm?

  2. admin says:
    January 27, 2014 at 10:05 pm

    That might have been before I started measuring them regularly, and I don’t think I have that lens anymore. If I recall it would have been 42mm (what most of the 40s I have tested have been). Just as a reminder, this is at 1:53 or 1:35 magnification, so at infinity it might be closer to advertised. A Super Tak 35mm f/3.5 I just measured at about 35 or 36 mm and noticeably wider when mounted on the camera vs the Canon 35mm f/2 (which measures about 37). The difference is mostly academic, but easy to see when the camera stays in one spot and you swap lenses.

  3. kku says:
    March 8, 2014 at 2:56 pm

    I tried this lens, the 50mm/1.7 and the 57mm/1.4. All of them were very sharp on my EOS M. Judging from only the pics, I think the sharpest lens was the Hexanon 50mm/1.7, sharper than 1956 Jupiter 8 T* 50mm/1.8. I’m impressed by these numbers of 40mm/1,8. I bet the 50mm/1.7 could score higher numbers.

  4. bojuju says:
    June 15, 2014 at 10:38 am

    If you test the Konica 50 1.7, be sure to get the early rubberized version with a closer (0.45m) focusing

  5. scarlatti24 says:
    September 17, 2015 at 11:31 pm

    Love my Konica 40mm lens. If I compare Erics MTF50 charts with Cosina Voigtlander 40mm f/1.4 S.C. Nokton. The Konica is not much behind at F2.8 and on par at F4 (for a fraction of the Voigtlanders price).

    Konica 40mm f1.8 pancake:

    Cosina Voigtlander 40mm f/1.4 S.C. Nokton:

  6. skennama ( ray63) says:
    October 10, 2018 at 9:31 am

    The 50 mm F1.8 Hexanon. Gives very good results @ f5.6 on a Fuji expro 1,, A mild post edit can bring it very close in definition to modern optics such as the 50 mm Fuji F2, XV lens….Konica sourced their raw optical glass from Switzerland in early film days . I doubt if the 40 mm is of that standard ?……………..May be Tokina poivided pre made elements for assembly ? .I am about to try a Konica 40mm F1.8 on an X-T 1.. If anyone is interested. .My big surprise is Fuji’s 27 mm F2.8 ( 41mm on a “c” sensor ) and very at a relatively low price.