Introduction
Konica Hexanon AR 40mm f1.8 is a pancake standard lens, it was shipped as kit lens with Konica SLR cameras during a couple of years in mid and late 70’s. While it is not a wide angle lens it is wider than a normal 50mm lens, which allows for better street photography as it includes more of the environment with maintained good charactrictics of a 50mm, without introducing a wide angle lens distortions and also better background blur than a 35mm with equivalent speed/aperture. Sometimes it’s hard to explain it but in many situations 40mm focal length feels just right. When it was introduced some photography magazines considered it the sharpest lens produced ever (for its time that is), there is no hard proofs on that though. You can find it very cheap at about 20-30$. Let’s see if it still is justified to buy this lens today.
Sample Images
Specifications
Focal Length: 40mm
Aperture Range: 1.8 – 22 (in full stops)
Number of Aperture Blades: 6
Min Focus: 0.45 m
Filter Size: 55mm
Lens Mount: Konica
Weight: 140g
Length: 27mm (focus ring at infinity)
Elements/Group: 6/5
Variations
There are not any variations of this lens to my knowledge, all look the same.
Handling
This is a so-called pancake lens, which is very flat, only 27mm long. On small Nikon Z bodies it is not obtrusive at all, which is a big plus in everyday and street photography, where 40mm focal length is mostly used in. The lens + Nikon Z adapter is 51mm long, which is shorter than Nikon 50mm/1.8 AF-S G lens alone, 53mm long. The build quality seems to be good, all metal, focus is a little stiff, which can be due to the age and also my sample has a little throw when you rotate the focus ring in opposite directions (also due to the age I think) other samples may be free from this. Aperture ring clicks only at full stops.
Optical Features
Sharpness (Infinity)
At F1.8 soft in center, midframe and corner, still usable center sharpness. 2.8 sees a little improvement but still soft. At f4 the center sharpness is good, the midframe and corner soft but usable. Very sharp in center at 5.6 and sharp in midframe and corner. At f8-f16 excellent sharpness across the frame, F22 a little less sharp. In general the contrast is low on wider apertures but good at 8 and smaller openings.
Sharpness (Portrait)
For portraits we look at points, where it matters; center, inner center circle and outer center circle.
First let’s look at the center of the image!
At 1.5m distance the sharpness in the center is soft at f1.8 but usable, good at 2.8 and Excellent at 4.
Second the sharpness at the inner circle periphery
At 1.5m distance the sharpness at inner circle is very soft at f1.8 but still usable, at 2.8 it barely improved but very good at f4.
And lastly at the outer circle periphery.
At 1.5m distance the sharpness at outer circle is too soft and hardly usable at f1.8, at 2.8 it is much better and at f4 it is good. It gets better at f5.6 and f8 but never comes to the same sharpness and contrast level as in the center.
At f1.8 the lens have some spherical aberrations, which affects the sharpness and contrast everywhere but goes away at 2.8.
In general it seems that sharpness is better at closer distances than near infinity.
Sharpness (Close-up)
The sharpness at 1.8 is soft partly because of the spherical aberrations but it is usable, it gets a real boost at 2.8 reaching a very good level and at f4 and beyond it is excellent until f16, where the diffraction eats some of the sharpness and at f22 it is even softer. Generally the sharpness is much better at closer distances. In the following images you can see a picture taken at near minimum focus distance and then a crop from the same image, both without any post sharpness or clarity adjustments (only lighting and contrast were adjusted).
Lens Distortion
The lens shows some barrel distortion, which is easily fixed in post if required, otherwise it is so small and in the case of applications relevant for this lens negligible.
Vignetting
At F1.8 the vignetting is about 1.7 stops, stopping down just one stop to 2.8 it goes down to about 0.5 stops and at F4 and beyond there is almost no vignetting at all.
Flare Resistance
The lens suffers from flares of all types. The veiling flare can easily ruin the picture by decreasing the image contrast dramatically and as soon as you have a strong light source (like sun) in the image or near the edge of the frame you will get different ghosting flares. Here are three examples, 1. Sun just outside the frame 2. Sun in the frame, 3 Sun at the edge of the frame, 4. The same as 3 but I moved a step to cover the lens by the tree shadow.
Chromatic Aberrations
Chromatic Aberration seems to be well enough controlled so that it does not bother you in normal situations. Of course if you really try you can find it in extreme conditions and at a very low level but normally it is negligible.
Coma
The lens does suffer from heavy coma aberrations, more specifically sagittal astigmatism. To get rid of it completely you have to stop down as far as f8, where light points start getting the shape of six pointed stars, this is not good at all. see the images!
Sun Stars
You can get 6 pointed stars from f11 (sometimes from f8) with this lens. The star rays are not well defined before F11 but at F16 – F22 very well defined and nice (that is subjective) but rather small, see also the image in the Flare section, where sun is in the image.
Focus Breathing
As you can see in the following image the lens suffers from focus breathing quite a bit.
Bokeh
Bokeh is a subjective matter. In my eyes the bokeh of this lens is on most occasions and mostly at close distances pleasing, though there are some occasions when the subject is 1-2 meters away with a difficult background, when the bokeh gets busy and agitating. Here you can see 1 case of pleasing bokeh and 1 case of bokeh that looks beautiful/creative to some but looks disturbing/distracting to others plus two arranged photos for demonstrating the for- and background bokeh.
Alternatives
Nikon Nikkor Z 40mm f2
Nikon’s own 40mm made specially for Nikon Z cameras. it is larger (46 mm long, 170g) but you don’t need any adapter to use it on Nikon Z cameras so the overall length will be shorter and lighter. It has autofocus, better overall sharpness and much better sharpness wide open plus better contrast and much better flare resistance but about 5-6 times more expensive (277$ new, 220-240$ used)
Voigtländer Ultron 40mm F2 SL II
With a length of 25-30cm (depending on mount) it is very close in size and more modern lens (Nikon F (FX), Canon EF, Pentax KAF), manual focus only, about 10 times more expensive (300$-400$ used)
Voigtländer Ultron 40mm F2 SL II -S
A newer version of the above with Nikon Ai-S mount, manual focus only and more expensive than Nikon’s without being any better (419$ new)
Voigtländer Nokton 40mm 1:1,2 Aspherical
The fastest 40mm around, available in Nikon Z, Sony E/EF, VM mount. 315g, 54mm long. Manual focus only but one and a third steps faster, much better stopped down sharpness, much nicer bokeh but about 18 times more expensive (799$ new)
Sigma 40mm F1.4 DG HSM Art
Autofocus 40mm, 2/3 stop faster. With its 1200g weight and 131mm length it is like a bazooka on your camera. Nikon F (FX), Canon EF, Sigma SA Bayonet, Sony FE mount. (799$ new)
Laowa Argus 45mm f/0.95
Not a 40mm but not far from, even faster than the Voigländer Nokton by one stop, 2 steps faster than the Konica 40/1.8, which means 4 times more light to the sensor, nicest bokeh of all but with lemon shape bokeh balls instead of round ones produced by Konica, manual focus only, no electrical contacts whatsoever, available in Nikon Z, Sony E, Canon RF, 835g 110mm long (599$ new)
For other camera mounts there are several other native alternatives like Canon EF 40/2.8 STM, Pentax HD DA 40/2.8, Pentax SMC DA 40/2.8, Pentax SMX DA 40/2.8 XS, Zeiss Batis 40/2 for Sony FE
Conclusion
| What I like | Not good / Not bad | What I don’t like |
|---|---|---|
| Size Center sharpness from 2.8 Overall sharpness from F5.6 Bokeh most of the time Chromatic Aberrations control Price | Build quality Bokeh in certain situations Color rendition | Wide open sharpness Contrast Flare resistance Coma Spherical Aberrations wide open |
The positive sides of this lens are its small size, very good sharpness in the center area from F2.8 and superb cross the frame sharpness stopped down to f5.6 and bokeh in about 60%-70% of the times when wide open, good control of chromatic aberrations and its low price (around $20-30). The negative sides are general sharpness wide open, contrast, micro contrast, somewhat busy bokeh in about 30%-40% of cases, flare, coma, spherical aberrations. So, should you buy it? If you are on a tight budget or want to test a fast focal length of 40mm (which is quite fun and practical for street or everyday photography) to see if this a focal length for you, go for it! For the price it’s a no brainer. The Konica Hexanon 40/1.8 is usable on a modern camera, just avoid using it wide open and it can produce razor sharp images in right conditions, which makes you happy. You should have its shortcomings in mind and photograph consciously though, otherwise if you really like the focal length and you think you use it often, try to save some money and get a more modern 40mm lens e.g. a used Nikon Z 40/2 if you have a Nikon Z camera or a Voigtländer Ultron 40/2 if you have other cameras for about 200-300$ and if it will be used for more than 20% of your photography and Autofocus is not necessary aim for Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.2.
More Sample Images
