Konica Hexar RF
The Konica Hexar RF is a 35mm rangefinder camera which was produced between 1999-2003. The camera used the "Bayonet Konica KM-mount", a copy of the Leica M-mount, thus sharing interchangeable lenses with those designed for Leica M cameras. In the passionate world of Leica rangefinder photography, the Konica Hexar RF has a strong base of support for being the best M-mount camera out there (compared most closely to the Leica M7 and Zeiss Ikon). While not seen too often on the used market due to its limited production run, high cost and cult following, the Konica Hexar RF has a lot of good things to boast about.
In addition to accepting Leica M-mount lenses, the Hexar RF features a bright rangefinder that has a 0.6x magnification. The wider magnification allows the Hexar RF to be easily used by photographers wearing glasses and easily supports wide angle frame lines. To this latter point, the Hexar RF has six: 28mm & 90mm (combined), 35mm & 135mm (combined) and 50mm & 75mm (combined). The camera has a metal, vertical-traveling focal plane shutter with a top speed of 1/4000. The shutter is electronically controlled and therefore battery dependent but the upshot of that is the Hexar RF offers an AE (Automatic Exposure) mode that is basically Aperture Priority. There is also an AEL mode for being able to point the camera at a scene and lock the exposure before recomposing - handy when dealing with backlit subjects or other tricky lighting conditions. Another feature that sets the Hexar RF apart from the Leica M7 and Zeiss Ikon is the motorized film advance which operates to load the film, advance the film and rewind the film - plus the Hexar RF has a continuous firing mode that can fire up to 2.5fps. To round out the list of features is an exposure compensation dial with a range of +/- 2 (in 1/3 stop increments) and an electronic self-timer.
The Hexar RF does include a hot shoe - though the camera does not support any sort of TTL flash. The built-in light meter operates in a center-weighted pattern and reads off the shutter curtains. ISO is manually set with a selectable range of 6-6400 and there is an option to read DX codes off the film can. Lastly the Hexar RF uses two CR2 batteries for power.
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