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Konica AR 4-digit serial?
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:45 am    Post subject: Konica AR 4-digit serial? Reply with quote

While searching for other glass I saw a "Konica Hexanon 1:1.8 52mm" followed by a 4 digit serial, without "No." prefix and with focal length 52 on the silver ring and yellow EE marking - so, otherwise a normal looking lens. The serial number goes "7 5 91" - so the 7 and 5 are double-spaced and 91 together. I have looked at many copies of this version of this lens but can't find any reference to 4-digit serial Konica lenses.

It is the "version for Revue Autoreflex TTL": https://www.buhla.de/Foto/Konica/Objektive/e52_18.html#Daten

Anyone know another 4-digit Konica AR lens?
I think it is a B-type lens according to this: http://forum.mflenses.com/konica-hexanon-codes-t57083.html


PostPosted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 1:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

To me, it's likely an error during engraving, like a number wasn't being engraved in the blank spaces or perhaps a pre-production unit destined for testing.
I too couldn't find any serials that were odd, so please post some pictures of the lens.


PostPosted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 5:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

On second look, it appears that the seller has just cloned out some parts of the serial number. I couldn't notice it last night but I see it now. Still, the chrome ring part of the lens does belong to the "early chrome ring version" while the depth of field scale seems to belong to the "version for Revue Autoreflex TTL". Does the "early chrome ring version" have the '52' on the backside as well? I don't know Konica lenses at all and I can't find pictures of the back of that model, but it does seem to be a mixing of parts even if the serial number is normal.








PostPosted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

... photoshopped ...



The three "missing" numbers clearly were edited out by software.

S


PostPosted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 5:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

stevemark wrote:
... photoshopped ...

The three "missing" numbers clearly were edited out by software.

S


Indeed, I had missed it the first time on the small resolution photos on the auction site.
Is the rest of the lens normal? As it doesn't seem to correspond exactly to one of the variants listed on Buhla.


PostPosted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 7:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Teemō wrote:
stevemark wrote:
... photoshopped ...

The three "missing" numbers clearly were edited out by software.

S


Indeed, I had missed it the first time on the small resolution photos on the auction site.
Is the rest of the lens normal? As it doesn't seem to correspond exactly to one of the variants listed on Buhla.


This lens is, indeed, a B-type, an early B-type.
The early ones have large block letters on the front ring and the words "Lens Made in Japan" written on the back of the aluminum DOF ring.
The serial numbers of the early B-types go from 7400000 to 7490000. In my database i have over 200 of them, the earliest being 7400247, the last 7488840. So it would seem Konica made 90,000 of them.
The 52/1.8, in its 3 versions, was the most common Hexanon lens until 1973, when it was replaced by the 50/1.7.
This one looks like all other lenses of this type and I can't see anything odd about it.
Incidentally, the lengths that some people go to in order to hide lens' serial numbers never ceases to amaze me. You'd think they stole it....


PostPosted: Sun Aug 02, 2020 9:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

konicamera wrote:
Teemō wrote:
stevemark wrote:
... photoshopped ...

The three "missing" numbers clearly were edited out by software.

S


Indeed, I had missed it the first time on the small resolution photos on the auction site.
Is the rest of the lens normal? As it doesn't seem to correspond exactly to one of the variants listed on Buhla.


This lens is, indeed, a B-type, an early B-type.
The early ones have large block letters on the front ring and the words "Lens Made in Japan" written on the back of the aluminum DOF ring.
The serial numbers of the early B-types go from 7400000 to 7490000. In my database i have over 200 of them, the earliest being 7400247, the last 7488840. So it would seem Konica made 90,000 of them.
The 52/1.8, in its 3 versions, was the most common Hexanon lens until 1973, when it was replaced by the 50/1.7.
This one looks like all other lenses of this type and I can't see anything odd about it.
Incidentally, the lengths that some people go to in order to hide lens' serial numbers never ceases to amaze me. You'd think they stole it....


Thank you for the informed reply. I completely agree re. the hiding of serial numbers, particularly when many auction items are sold to overseas!
For this version, it would be a "early chrome ring version". So then, did they make a Japan-market variant marked only in meters in the style of the previous variant? I say this because the '52' is marked on the backside, not directly next to the aperture/depth of field scale.


PostPosted: Sun Aug 02, 2020 10:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Teemō wrote:
Thank you for the informed reply. I completely agree re. the hiding of serial numbers, particularly when many auction items are sold to overseas!
For this version, it would be a "early chrome ring version". So then, did they make a Japan-market variant marked only in meters in the style of the previous variant? I say this because the '52' is marked on the backside, not directly next to the aperture/depth of field scale.


The focal length of B-type Hexanon lenses is usually indicated exactly where it is on your lens. On the later B-type lenses the focal length is indicated in the same place, but the numbers are half the size because the surface on which it is engraved is only half the width it is on the earlier version.
This said, the same lens could have a slightly different appearance on one market than on another. Some early lenses had the distance scale only in feet (North-American market) others only in meters (rest of the word). But one can see this only in the very earliest lenses. On some the distance is indicated as ‘ft’, on others as ‘feet’ (same thing for ‘m’ and ‘meters’). Some had ‘metres’ written with the British spelling. But by the end of the 1960 all Hexanons had both feet and meter scales.
I always considered that two lenses are of a different version only if they differ visually in an obvious manner (and I mean at first glance, not after a 15-minute examination with a loupe), or if they have an entirely different optical formula. In the case of Hexanon lenses, if you accord ‘version’ status to each perceivable difference, you wind up with literally dozens of versions. My approach and the reasons for it are described here: http://konicafiles.com/3-hexanon-ar-lenses/-lens-types/ (scroll down for a description of each version)