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

Hexanon 50mm f/1.9 (Leica screw mount)

Konishiroku · LTM · 1955

our own finding

Also known as: Konishiroku Hexanon 50mm f/1.9 · Konishiroku Hexanon 50mm f1.9 · Konishiroku Hexanon 1.9/50mm · Konishiroku Hexanon 1:1.9 f=50mm · Konishiroku Hexanon 5cm f1.9 · Konica Hexanon 50mm f/1.9 LTM · Konica Hexanon 50mm f1.9 L39 · Konica Hexanon 50mm f1.9 M39 · Konica Hexanon 50mm F1.9 Leica · Konica Hexanon 1.9/50mm · Hexanon 50mm f/1.9 · Hexanon 50mm f1.9 · Hexanon 50mm F1.9 L · Hexanon 1.9/50mm · Hexanon 1:1.9 f=50mm · Hexanon 5cm f/1.9 · Hexanon 5cm F1.9 · ヘキサノン 50mm F1.9 · 小西六 ヘキサノン 50mm F1.9 · コニカ ヘキサノン 50mm F1.9 · Hexanon 50mm F1.9 Lマウント

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Pre-production lens No. XC3012, metre scale LTM 1954 XC3012 (Leitz Photographica Auction 49, lot 315) —
Early production, 39.5 mm filter LTM 1955 3121063 (Westlicht auction 7, lot 357, on a Honor SL, via Camera-wiki)
3121034 (on a Honor S1 in Shashin Kōgyō, September 1957, captioned as an early lens by Camera-wiki)
3121550 (Leitz Photographica Auction 35, lot 242) 		—
Later production, 40.5 mm filter LTM — 3123726 (Leitz Auction 9, lot 364)
3124014 (Leitz Auction 13, lot 281) 		—
  1. Dates. Konishiroku showed the lens as a development at three Tokyo department stores in October 1954, together with a version on a prototype Konica II with an interchangeable lens (Camera-wiki, after Hagiya). The October 1955 Photo Art table lists it with its price 'not fixed yet', and Miyazaki gives December 1955 for its release; Hagiya's 'Summer 1955' is thought too early by Camera-wiki, and Japanese Wikipedia says 1955. Leitz dates lens no. 3121550 to 1954 and the prototype to c.1954. Shashin Kōgyō still listed the lens in Summer 1957, and it reached the Honor from September 1957. No end date is recorded; Dewhirst guesses 1957 or 1958.
  2. Bodies. Konishiroku made no screw-mount camera of its own (Aqua Camera; Shige's hobby). Hagiya found the lens in no Konishiroku advertisement, from which Camera-wiki infers that it was not sold directly. It was offered on the Chiyotax IIIF from early 1956 as the dearer alternative to the Hexar 50mm f/3.5, on the Leotax F and T (the Leotax T manual lists it; Leica Copies Japan records six Leotax T bodies with one), and on the Honor S1. Shōwa Kōgaku also sold it alone (Camera-wiki; Leica Copies Japan). Camera-wiki's Chiyotax page gives ¥41,100 for the Chiyotax IIIF with the Hexanon from its announcement in February 1956. Dewhirst writes that it does not appear that these cameras or the lens were ever marketed in North America.
  3. Groups. Six elements in five groups is the count in Camera-wiki, Leica Copies Japan, Dewhirst, Shige's hobby and Japanese Wikipedia (5群6枚). One Flashback Camera listing gives '5-element, 6-group', which is impossible as written and is most likely the Japanese 5群6枚 turned round.
  4. Focus and weight. The production scale stops at 3.5 ft; Camera-wiki, after Hagiya, gives the true minimum as 3.3 ft, and Dewhirst and Shige's hobby give 1.0 m. The prototype's metre scale ends at 1 m. The 260 g weight is Dewhirst's alone.
  5. Prices. Shōwa Kōgaku sold the lens for ¥23,500 (Hagiya, via Camera-wiki). A US Department of Commerce list of Japanese retail prices on 31 March 1957 gives ¥52,000 for the Leotax F with the Hexanon f/1.9, the same as with the Topcor f/2 (Leica Copies Japan). In the 1960s U Camera of Shinbashi is said to have cleared the lens at ¥5,000 (Hagiya, via Camera-wiki). Leitz Auction results: Auction 9, lot 364, no. 3123726, €768 including premium against €800–900; Auction 13, lot 281, no. 3124014, €420 including premium against €700–800; Auction 35, lot 242, no. 3121550, unsold at €800–1,000. Dewhirst (2021) puts good examples at about $200 fifteen years earlier and $500 or more at the time of writing.
  6. Related lenses. A substantially similar Hexanon 48mm f/2 was fixed to the Konica IIA from early 1956 and to the Konica III and IIIA (Camera-wiki). Dewhirst's statement that a version of the f/1.9 itself was used on those cameras is not supported by Camera-wiki's account and is not followed here.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Rigid chrome barrel in Leica 39 mm screw mount, rangefinder-coupled, with a focusing tab and infinity lock; aperture ring at the front, 1.9 to 22, ten blades (Camera-wiki; Leica Copies Japan)
  • Front ring engraved Hexanon 1:1,9 f=50mm and Konishiroku with the number; never Konica
  • Not the Hexanon 48mm f/2 or 50mm f/1.8 fixed to the Konica III and IIIA, the Hexanon 47mm f/1.9 of the Konica Auto S, the Konica AR 50mm lenses, the 1990s Hexanon L 50mm f/2.4 or the M-Hexanon 50mm f/2

Pre-production lens No. XC3012, metre scale:

  • Name ring engraved 'Hexanon 1:1,9 f=50mm' and 'Konishiroku No XC3012'; no 'Japan' (Leitz lot photographs)
  • Focusing scale in metres, from infinity down to '1 Metre', with 2.5 and 3 m marked; the production lens is scaled in feet (Leitz lot photographs)
  • Three milled rings of the same width, two on the focusing ring and one on the aperture ring, and every aperture from 1.9 to 22 engraved on both sides of the depth-of-field scale; no red R infrared index visible (Leitz lot photographs; Leitz lot text: 'three-row milled barrel and fully engraved depth-of-field scale')
  • Focusing tab with a round knob; at the rear, a mount flange held by three screws around the inner cam ring (Leitz lot photographs). Leitz's text says only 'Leica M39 mount' and does not state that the lens is rangefinder-coupled
  • Plain chrome front cap with no lettering, where the production lens has a Hexanon cap (Leitz lot photographs)

Early production, 39.5 mm filter:

  • Filter thread 39.5 mm, an odd size (Leica Copies Japan; Flashback Camera; Shige's hobby; Japanese Wikipedia)
  • Focusing ring with a double row of mills; a wider milled band on the aperture ring; some numbers left out of the depth-of-field scale (Camera-wiki)
  • Name ring reads 'Konishiroku No' and the number, with no 'Japan'; feet scale ending in an ∞ sign; red R infrared index (photographs of no. 3121550, Leitz Auction 35)

Later production, 40.5 mm filter:

  • Filter thread 40.5 mm (Leica Copies Japan; Flashback Camera; Camera-wiki; Dewhirst)
  • Focusing scale in feet from infinity to 3.5 ft; aperture ring at the front; red R infrared index on the depth-of-field scale (Camera-wiki)
  • Name ring reads 'Konishiroku Japan No' and the number; infinity engraved 'INF' in red (photographs of nos. 3123726 and 3124014, Leitz Auctions 9 and 13)
  • Metal front cap embossed Hexanon (Leitz Auction 9 photograph; Camera-wiki)

Serial-range notes

3121063–3124549
Camera-wiki gives seven-digit numbers from 3121063 to 3124549 for the production lens, with a large gap between 3121063 and 3122276. Its own caption to a Shashin Kōgyō photograph of September 1957 reads an early lens on a Honor S1 as no. 3121034, below that lowest number; the conflict is left as found. Camera-wiki does not say whether the sequence is continuous or shared with other lenses, and no production figure has been published. The early 39.5 mm and later 40.5 mm lenses have not been tied to number ranges.
XC3012
The number on the Leitz Auction 49 lens, lot 315, is outside the production format. Camera-wiki treats letter-prefixed numbers as a sign of experimental lenses for other Konishiroku screw-mount lenses: the only known collapsible Hexanon 50mm f/3.5, no. LB2025, and the Hexanon 50mm f/1.8 of the Konica FR, nos. 1234563 and 1234565.

Specifications

Formula
Six elements in five groups (Camera-wiki; Leica Copies Japan; Dewhirst; Shige's hobby), a modified double Gauss (Shige's hobby). Dewhirst finds it closest to Voigtländer's Ultron
Construction
6 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/1.9–f/22
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
1 m
Weight
260 g
Filter
39.5 mm (Early production, 39.5 mm filter) · 40.5 mm (Later production, 40.5 mm filter)
Years manufactured
1955
Country
Japan
Coating
Single-layer, amber in reflection (Dewhirst; visible in the Leitz lot photographs)
Material
Chrome, rigid barrel (Camera-wiki; Leitz Auction lot descriptions)
Original price
¥23,500, the lens alone, sold by Shōwa Kōgaku, maker of the Leotax (advertisement reproduced in Hagiya, Sekai no Raika renzu p.185, as cited by Camera-wiki); still listed at its original price in the Summer 1957 Shashin Kōgyō lens table (today ¥147,000)

What reviewers say

History

The Hexanon 50mm f/1.9 was the fast standard lens that Konishiroku, the company later called Konica, made in Leica screw mount in the mid-1950s. Konishiroku made no screw-mount camera of its own. It supplied the lens to the makers of Japanese Leica copies: the Chiyotax IIIF, the Leotax F and T, and later the Honor S1. Shōwa Kōgaku, maker of the Leotax, also sold it on its own for ¥23,500. Hagiya found no Konishiroku advertisement for it. It is a rigid, rangefinder-coupled chrome lens of six elements in five groups, a modified double Gauss, with a ten-blade diaphragm, a focusing tab with an infinity lock, a feet scale and an amber coating.

Konishiroku first showed it in October 1954, at an exhibition of products under development in three Tokyo department stores, alongside the Hexanon 60mm f/1.2 and a version for a prototype Konica II with interchangeable lenses. It was listed in 1955 without a price and went on sale, by Miyazaki’s account, in December 1955. Shashin Kōgyō still listed it in the summer of 1957, and no end date is recorded. Production numbers run from 3121xxx to 3124xxx. The early lenses take an odd 39.5 mm filter and have a double row of mills on the focusing ring. Later ones take 40.5 mm, and in the photographs of later examples the name ring adds “Japan” and infinity is engraved INF in red.

Lot 315 of Leitz’s 49th auction comes from before all of this. It is numbered XC3012, not in the production sequence, and is scaled in metres where the production lens is in feet. It has three milled rings of the same width and every aperture engraved on the depth-of-field scale. Leitz calls it apparently pre-production and dates it c.1954, the year the lens was exhibited. Camera-wiki describes a lens with the same features, pictured in a 1987 Japanese Konica history, as perhaps a prototype. It does not give that lens’s number, so it may or may not be this one. Konishiroku’s other experimental screw-mount lenses also carry numbers that fall outside the production sequence, among them a collapsible Hexanon 50mm f/3.5 numbered LB2025.

For a buyer, the early and later lenses differ mainly in the filter thread: a 39.5 mm filter is hard to find, and Shige’s hobby fitted a slip-on Canon hood to get round it. The lens focuses to about one metre, and Dewhirst found its focusing more heavily damped than a modern lens. Shige’s hobby found it sharp at the point of focus, busy in the out-of-focus areas and prone to flare against the light. Leica Copies Japan finds the Konishiroku lenses most often on the cheaper Leotax T, but a lens sold with a body is no proof that the two left the factory together. On Leitz’s figures, ordinary examples have sold for a few hundred euros.

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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

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Hexanon 50mm f/1.9 (Leica screw mount)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $370 across 20 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-09 (middle half $260–$660). First day tracked.

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

Sources (13)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, 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.