Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Konica Hexar AF

Konica · Fixed lens · 24×36mm on 35mm film · 1992

Also known as: Konica Hexar · Konica Hexar Silver · Konica Hexar Classic · Konica Hexar Gold · コニカ ヘキサー

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Hexar (black) 35mm compact 1992 — No figure published
Hexar Gold 35mm compact 1993–1993 — 500 units (English Wikipedia; the same figure from Japan Camera Hunter)
Hexar Rhodium 35mm compact 1994–1994 — No figure published
Hexar Silver / Hexar Classic 35mm compact 1993 — 2,000 units as the 'Classic' (English Wikipedia; the same figure from Japan Camera Hunter). Mike Eckman and David De, who date the silver body to 1997, give no figure
  1. The name on the camera is Hexar. "Hexar AF" is a retronym, coined after the Hexar RF of 1999 — a Leica-M-mount interchangeable-lens rangefinder that shares nothing with this camera but the name — made it necessary to say which Hexar was meant. The page is titled the way the market searches for it, not the way the top plate is engraved.
  2. The lens is the reason to care, and its ancestry is assumed rather than documented. Mike Eckman describes the 35mm f/2 Hexanon as based on the W-Nikkor 3.5cm f/1.8, with a widened gap between the second and third elements and a revised seventh element. David De, comparing the two directly, is explicit that the connection "is assumed, but not officially documented by either company", and notes the counts differ — seven elements in five groups for the Nikkor, seven in six for the Konica, with the second group apparently uncemented and the front element of the rear group turned the other way. Both are modified Xenotar types.
  3. David De also reports that Konica chose to undercorrect spherical aberration in this design and let the camera's autofocus computer compensate for the resulting focus shift — a claim that appears in no other source consulted and rests on his reading of the optics rather than on anything Konica published.
  4. Konica sold the same optical formula as an interchangeable lens twice. A Hexanon 35mm f/2 in Leica screw mount appeared in spring 1996 in a limited edition of 1,000, distributed in Japan only through one shop, Fujisawa Shōkai — which camera-wiki suggests may have proposed the project — and reportedly sold out in two months. A second run of 1,000 followed in September 2001 at ¥114,000, the same seven-element optical design in a more compact barrel with a focusing tab, ten diaphragm blades and multicoating on all twelve air-to-glass surfaces, revived under Konica's older UC designation and numbered 0xxx/1000 on the bezel. Camera-wiki's page on Konica screw-mount lenses is the source for both figures. The lens editions are the only place in this family where a quantity is attached to something Konica actually shipped in volume — and they are lenses, not cameras.
  5. Every account of the missing silent mode gives the same explanation and none of them documents it. Wikipedia says intellectual-property concerns, Eckman and David De say legal trouble, Japan Camera Hunter says copyright. No patent, no lawsuit and no Konica statement has been produced by any of them. The one verifiable part is that the mode is still in the firmware and can be brought back by a button sequence.
  6. Camerapedia lists a fourth special edition, a Hexar Titanium, that no other source consulted here mentions. Japan Camera Hunter separately reports having seen a half-frame Hexar and describes it as unofficial. Both are recorded as claims rather than as variants: neither has a date, a figure or a second source.
  7. English Wikipedia's specification for the lens says the design "appears influenced by Nikon's 35mm f/1.8", which is the same claim as Eckman's and David De's, made with the same hedge. Three independent write-ups all decline to state the lineage as fact, and that agreement to hedge is itself the strongest evidence about how well the point is documented. A fourth account widens it rather than settling it: camera-wiki, describing the screw-mount edition of the same optic, records that the design "was described as a modified Xenotar, but it is said that it was evolved from the Summicron 35mm f/2 and Nikkor 3.5cm f/1.8" — two ancestors where the English literature names one, and stated in the same passive voice as everyone else's.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Silent mode: autofocus, shutter and film advance all damped together, which is what the reputation rests on
  • A 35mm f/2 Hexanon behind a barrel that does not retract, on a body far larger than the rest of this segment
  • Projected brightline framelines set at the upper left of the finder, with automatic parallax and angle-of-view correction
  • 46mm filter thread — a size that belongs to rangefinder lenses, not to compacts
  • Manual focus is set by a button on the top plate, not by a ring on the lens

Hexar (black):

  • Matte black cast-aluminium body — the version almost every surviving example is
  • Silent mode available from the factory, reached through the camera's own menu

Hexar Gold:

  • Gold-plated body fittings
  • Supplied in a wooden display case

Hexar Rhodium:

  • Champagne-coloured top and bottom plates with a faintly pink cast
  • Brown leather covering in place of the black

Hexar Silver / Hexar Classic:

  • Silver chrome finish
  • Silent mode absent from the menu as delivered — recoverable by a documented button sequence

Serial-range notes

(none published)
Konica published no serial table for the Hexar and none has been assembled independently. The Gold's 500 and the Classic's 2,000 are edition claims, not serial blocks, and no source consulted says whether either edition was numbered on the body.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film
Finder
reverse-Galilean with projected framelines, automatic parallax and angle-of-view correction · 0.59× magnification · no rangefinder image
Shutter
electromagnetic leaf shutter driven by a stepper motor, stepless · B, 30s – 1/250, stepless
Film advance
motorised, about 2 frames a second
Back
hinged; a quartz data back appears on some later bodies
Meter
Silicon photodiode reading from the front of the body, not through the lens, driving programmed AE, aperture priority and metered manual. Exposure compensation ±2 EV. Because the cell is external, a filter on the 46mm thread has to be compensated for by hand. Film speed by DX code or set manually.
Weight
490 g
Dimensions
137.5 × 76.5 × 64.5 (English Wikipedia) mm
Country
Japan
Original price
US$1,200 list, with a street price around $800 (Mike Eckman). No Japanese list price was found in any source consulted here. (today $2,680)
Accessories
HX-14 dedicated flash, which clips to the body and raises the weight to about 670 g · 46mm filters — the thread is shared with rangefinder lenses rather than with compacts

Not a rangefinder. The finder looks like one and the framelines behave like one, but focus is measured by an active-infrared system and confirmed by a lamp — the camera has no coincident image.

Figures we worked out rather than found: Nothing here is computed. The 500 and the 2,000 are published edition figures; the standard black camera has no number and none is estimated for it.

Where sources disagree

Year of release
  • February 1992 (Mike Eckman)
  • 1993 (English Wikipedia, Camerapedia and Japan Camera Hunter, all tying the launch to Konica's 120th anniversary)

Better supported: Unresolved

Eckman is the only source giving a month, which usually means he had something dated in front of him, but he does not say what. Against that, three sources put the camera in 1993 and give a reason for the year — the anniversary — which is also a reason a 1993 date might have been inferred rather than found. The `year` field carries 1992 because the earlier date is the harder claim to have invented; the disagreement is unresolved.

The silver body: what it is
  • Hexar 'Classic', 1993, silver chrome, 2,000 made, Konica's 120th anniversary edition, with auto-bracketing (English Wikipedia; Japan Camera Hunter gives the same 2,000 and the same anniversary)
  • Hexar Silver, April 1997, a later model with silent mode removed and no anniversary attached (Mike Eckman; David De independently dates his to 1997 and calls it the better-featured, definitive version, supplied with a data back)

Better supported: Unresolved

Four years apart, with opposite meanings: a commemorative limited run at the start of the camera's life, or a revised model near the end of it. Eckman and David De agree on 1997 and arrived there separately; Wikipedia and Japan Camera Hunter agree on 1993 and on a figure of 2,000 that the 1997 camp does not contest so much as never mention. Eckman calls the 1997 camera cost-reduced while David De calls it better equipped, so the two who agree on the date disagree about what changed. Both readings are recorded in the variant.

Body weight
  • 490 g without batteries (English Wikipedia)
  • 536 g, camera alone (Mike Eckman; 670 g with the HX-14 flash attached)

Better supported: Unresolved

Forty-six grams apart with both described as the bare camera. Neither source states whether film or a lens cap is included, and no third figure was found.

What reviewers say

History

The camera says Hexar on the top plate and nothing else. “AF” was added later by the market, once the Hexar RF of 1999 — a Leica-M-mount rangefinder that shares only the name — made it necessary to distinguish them. This page is titled the way people search, and the engraving is worth knowing before buying: a listing that reads simply “Konica Hexar” is this camera, and one that reads “Hexar RF” is not.

It is the odd one in its own segment. The premium compacts of the 1990s were an argument about miniaturisation; the Hexar is 137.5 mm wide and around half a kilo, with a 35mm f/2 that does not retract and a 46mm filter thread borrowed from rangefinder practice. What Konica bought with the volume is silence. The shutter is a leaf driven by a stepper motor, the advance is geared for quietness rather than speed at about two frames a second, and silent mode damps the autofocus, the shutter and the film transport together — which is the whole claim. Quiet compacts are common; a camera in which nothing at all makes a noise is not.

The lens has a genealogy that everyone repeats and nobody has documented. It is a modified Xenotar of seven elements in six groups, and it is traced to Nippon Kogaku’s W-Nikkor 3.5cm f/1.8 of 1956 — seven elements in five groups, itself a modified Biometar with a cemented rear pair. Mike Eckman states the descent flatly. David De, who put the two designs side by side, is careful: the connection “is assumed, but not officially documented by either company”. English Wikipedia says the design “appears influenced by” the Nikkor. Three sources, three hedges, and no patent or statement from either firm. Konica thought well enough of the formula to sell it twice as an interchangeable lens — 1,000 in Leica screw mount in spring 1996, through a single Tokyo shop, and 1,000 more in 2001 under the older UC name.

The versions are where this entry earns its place, because the sources contradict each other about the same object. The black camera is the standard one and has no published figure. The Gold is 500 units, and Eckman dates it to March 1993 and calls it the 120th-anniversary edition. Then comes the silver, and there are two mutually exclusive accounts of it. English Wikipedia and Japan Camera Hunter describe a Hexar Classic of 1993: silver chrome, 2,000 made, the 120th-anniversary camera, with auto-bracketing. Mike Eckman and David De arrived separately at April 1997 for a silver body with no anniversary attached at all — and even they disagree about it, Eckman calling it cost-reduced and David De calling it the better-equipped, definitive version. What both accounts agree on is the finish and the fact that silent mode is gone from the menu.

Why it is gone is the most-repeated unsourced claim in this family. Every account says the same thing in different words — intellectual property, copyright, legal trouble — and not one produces a patent number, a case, or a sentence from Konica. The verifiable half is that the capability was never removed from the firmware: a button sequence brings it back, and the sequence is public. The Rhodium is in similar shape, dated 1994 by Eckman and described as commemorating a hundred years of Konica camera making, while Japan Camera Hunter files rhodium under sample production alongside a brown-leather black body it says never reached retail. Camerapedia adds a Titanium that nobody else mentions. Between the release year, the silver, the Rhodium and the Titanium, four separate questions about this camera are open, and the only two numbers anyone has published — 500 and 2,000 — both belong to cameras almost nobody owns.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the Konica Hexar AF
Konica Hexar AF — hgr00, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Sample photo taken with the Konica Hexar AF
Konica Hexar AF, black, with the HX-14 flash — Rriemann, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Konica Hexar AF? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $890 across 35 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $800–$1,000). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 3 days: up 1% from $880.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$890$800–$1,00035
2026-09-10$880$800–$1,00034
2026-09-06$880$760–$1,00035

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Canon AF35M · Canon AF35ML

Lenses for this body: W-Nikkor(·C) 3.5cm f/1.8

Sources (6)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.