Both Konica and Minolta produced 50mm f/1.2 lenses in the Konica AR mount and the Minolta SR mount and these fetch in excess of AUD$450 and rightfully so given the optical properties of these ultra-fast primes.įrom a mirror-less camera perspective, both mounts are easily adapted to Sony NEX, Samsung NX and 4/3 or Micro 4/3. Hexanon quality was undeniable and just like Minolta, this proud Japanese optical company also paired with Leica and produced the formidable Hexar RF range.Ĭoming back to the above lenses, both are f/1.4 and sit one notch below the flagship lenses produced by their respective companies. The redeeming element of this philosophy was that their Hexanon lenses were the benchmark used by the Japanese government against which all other domestic products were compared. Konica on the other hand was always a smaller player and considered itself a modest producer of tried and true products. Not to mention that the Leica CL was twinned with the Minolta CLE - both tapping into a wealth of Japanese electronic know how and combined German-Japanese optical brilliance. Whilst never as big as Nikon, Canon or Olympus Minolta held its ground well throughout the 1970s and well into the 1990s. Minolta maintained a strong presence in the 35mm SLR market and was the first camera producer to generate a successful autofocus body complete with an array of lenses and accessories. Konica on the other hand started its life off as a company dedicated to photographic supplies such as film, paper and eventually press ready bodies such as the Koni-Omega. On the one hand we have Minolta an established mid-weight Japanese optical company whose main focus was in the area of enlargers, the earliest coupled aperture 35mm bodies and a strong presence in copying equipment. Both are six element in five group lenses with slight variations in layouts and coating mass is almost identical and the physical size differences are negligible.Īnd that’s where the similarities end! Though these two companies would eventually come together in the 1980s to manufacture Konica Minolta products and although both have been commissioned in the last thirty odd years to produce prime lenses for Leica, their philosophies could not be more different. Two heavyweight performers from the late 1960s - early 1970s both super fast at f/1.4 and very similar in focal length. Konica Hexanon AR 57mm f/1.4 & Minolta Rokkor PF 58mm f/1.4