Hexanon 60mm f/1.2
Konishiroku · LTM · 1955 · Gauss-derived, 8e/6g (1955); 7e/6g (1999 reissue)
Known as “the phantom Hexanon”
Also known as: Konishiroku Hexanon 60mm f/1.2 · Konica Hexanon 60mm f/1.2 · Hexanon 60mm f1.2 · Hexanon 1.2/60 · ヘキサノン 60mm F1.2 · Hexanon (L) 60mm F1.2
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hexanon 60mm f/1.2 (Konishiroku, 1955) | LTM | 1955–1957 | — | About 200 (oldlens.exblog.jp) to at most about 300 (oldlens.com) — collector estimates; Konishiroku published none |
| Hexanon (L) 60mm f/1.2, limited reissue (Konica, 1999) | LTM | 1999–1999 | — | 800, at ¥190,000 (MAP Camera; oldlens.exblog.jp) |
- Production of the original is given as about 200 by oldlens.exblog.jp and as at most about 300 by oldlens.com; the difference is the difference between two collectors' estimates, and no factory figure exists.
- The designer is not named by any source consulted — Japanese or English. Konishiroku's optical department of the 1950s is thinly documented compared with Nikon's and Canon's, and this page leaves the credit blank rather than guess.
- Where it stands in the race: announced (as a development) in October 1954, a year after the Zunow 5cm f/1.1 and the same autumn as the Fujinon 5cm f/1.2; on sale in December 1955, two months before the Nikkor-N 5cm f/1.1. oldlens.com describes it plainly as Konishiroku's answer to the Zunow.
How to tell them apart
- The odd focal length: 60mm, chosen — no source explains why — where every rival chose 50
- Original: chrome, Konishiroku engraving, eight elements. Reissue: black, Konica engraving, seven
Hexanon 60mm f/1.2 (Konishiroku, 1955):
- Chrome barrel engraved Konishiroku Hexanon 1:1.2 f=60mm; 58 mm filter; 425 g; 52 × 61 mm (oldlens.exblog.jp)
- Supplied with a metal Hexanon front cap, a dedicated 60mm finder with parallax correction, a hood and UV, yellow and orange filters (oldlens.com)
Hexanon (L) 60mm f/1.2, limited reissue (Konica, 1999):
- Black barrel engraved Konica; seven elements in six groups; multicoating on the twelve air-glass surfaces; a floating element for the 0.8 m close focus; an 8 cm hood that rotates 90° out of the finder's way; its own 60mm finder in the box (MAP Camera)
- Hexanon 60mm f/1.2 (Konishiroku, 1955): Shown at three Tokyo department stores in October 1954 among Konishiroku's products under development, released in December 1955 and listed as a new product in the January 1956 Shashin Kōgyō (oldlens.com). A collector's lens from the day it was made; the finder alone adds sharply to the price of an example that has kept it.
- Hexanon (L) 60mm f/1.2, limited reissue (Konica, 1999): Konica's centenary-era homage, sold to the same screw mount. The optics were redesigned; this catalog keeps it on the page because the market files it under the same name, and says here that it is a different lens.
Specifications
- Formula
- Gauss-derived, 8e/6g (1955); 7e/6g (1999 reissue)
- Construction
- 8 elements / 6 groups
- Aperture range
- f/1.2
- Weight
- 425 g
- Filter
- 58 mm
- Years manufactured
- 1955–1957
- Country
- Japan
What reviewers say
- MAP Camera staff, the 1999 reissue (blog) — Clean, well-separated blur at f/1.2 and natural colour from a lens with period coatings — "F1.2カメラとは思えないほど素晴らしい描写", rendering so good you would not believe the f/1.2.
- Shige (Shige's hobby), the reissue on a Leica M8 (blog) — Enough resolution for the M8's ten megapixels, big soft blur from the focus point outward at f/1.2, and a general lift by f/4; the APS-H crop hides the edges where a fast lens shows its faults. The 1999 lens, not the 1955 one.
History
Konishiroku, the company that became Konica, joined the fast-lens race of the 1950s with a lens nobody else would have specified: 60mm, not 50, at f/1.2. It was shown as a development at three Tokyo department stores in October 1954 — a year after the Zunow 5cm f/1.1 and the same season as the Fujinon 5cm f/1.2 — and reached the shops in December 1955, two months ahead of Nikon’s 5cm f/1.1. Eight elements in six groups, 425 grams, a 58 mm filter, a chrome barrel engraved Konishiroku, and a dedicated 60mm finder because no rangefinder had a frame for it.
Then almost nothing. The two Japanese collectors’ sites that have studied it put the run at about two hundred or at most three hundred, and neither names the designer; Konishiroku’s optical department is a thinner archive than Nikon’s or Canon’s. Wide open it flares and glows, as every lens in the race did; by f/4 it is sharp. It is the phantom of the four — the one a collector is least likely to ever handle — and the story of the race it belonged to is told at length in One tenth of a stop, in the Stories section.
In 1999 Konica recomputed it as a seven-element lens in a black barrel and sold eight hundred at ¥190,000, still in the Leica thread. That is the Hexanon 60mm f/1.2 most people have seen, and it is a different lens.
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 wanted — shot with a Hexanon 60mm f/1.2? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
- Konica Hexanon 60mm F1.2 LTM — SN 00315
- Konica Hexanon 60mm f/1.2 LTM Limited Edition
- Konica Hexanon 60mm f1.2 Viewfinder Is Rare Brightline Finder From Japan
Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.