Konica Hexar woes.

[hamradio]

So, I bought an inop Hexar AF on ebay, thinking it'd be a simple shutter button cleaning/fix. I got it today, removed the top cover cleaned the shutter button contacts, cleaned the aperture and power contacts, reassembled it. Still the same insane operation. Most of the time it behaves like this:

Pop battery in. Turn camera on. Lens goes in and out slightly, then the whole thing freezes up and flashes 0. I put a junk roll of film in to test it...it'll take the leader up, advance a frame, then read 0 again and flash. To clear this, I have to take the battery out, press the rewind button, and reinsert battery. Then it does the same stuff.

Every once in a great while, I can get it to do...something. For instance, I can get the shutter to focus and fire, get the power/mode switch to react, get it to show an ISO setting, etc. But this is very rare. Once, it even froze up trying to focus and left one of its autofocus LEDs on.

Anyone highly familiar with these cameras have any additional repair advice? I'm not going to drop the money to send it in to Konica, and it'll go back on eBay if I can't sort it out. Live and learn, I suppose...

Thanks!

 

[hamradio]

A little update. I messed with it a bit more, and could get it to pretty reliably take up the film leader, set its own ISO off of DX coding, and show me that frame 1 was ready (as well as cycle through all modes). However, as soon as it tries to fire the shutter, problems. Error 22 is showing, which seems to be quite bad from a little quick googling.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

How was it represented on eBay? How much did you pay?

 

[hamradio]

How was it represented on eBay? How much did you pay?

It was fairly represented, stating that it acted crazy when the shutter button was pressed. A bit of a gamble on my part...I had hoped I could clean the shutter button contacts and be on my way. The price also reflected a broken camera. Oh well, back on eBay it goes.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

I have one that I had the shutter replaced by Russell Knize who does a full replacement. Quite reasonable. IM me if you want his contact info.

 

[giannidalmas]

Hi!
I actually have a Konica Hexar AF with a probable circuit board issue: the start up times are extremely erratic, taking from 3 to 10 seconds after the camera is turned on moving the main dial to "P"... sometimes it never turns on. I had to remove the battery, put a new one, and after a while the camera would turn on. Since many weeks it's completely dead, it won't turn on even with fresh new batteries.

So the Hexar AF is now sitting on the shelf, close to my other Hexar (the RF, with Error 11 and 13).

@Richard S. (rich815) : I believed nobody was servicing the Hexars anymore... May I contact you about Russell Knize service?

Thanks!

 

[CropDusterMan]

What a shame...truly an awesome camera. There's gotta be a service guy out there somewhere.

 

[emjo]

I had some success with my 'dead' Hexar. Perhaps it can be of some guidance? https://jabcam.wordpress.com/2016/08/24/topic-resurrecting-konica-hexar-af-from-the-dead/

 

[babak69]

Hi, I am entirely new to this site, and o to rangefnder cameras. Having read so much positive reviews about the Konica Hexar AF I finally purchased a Silver model which is cosmetically in a great condition. However I really don’t understand the metering process and was hoping someone could help me out here. It could be that the camera is defect altogether which would be such a shame!!! I have loaded it with an ISO 400 film to shoot indoors. When in the aperture priority mode, the display shows the exact same speed from f2 to f4.8, e.g. 1/50th of a second, and in the same light conditions it shows 2” from f5.8 to f22. Also I see a real change in the aperture from wide open to the smallest only when moving from f4.8 to f5.6. I guess there must be something wrong with the metering here? I really appreciate it is someone could explain to me what is it I am experiencing and if there is a way to solve the problem. (I live in the Netherlands and haven’t found any repair shop who wants to look at the camera due to lack of spare parts.) Thank you!!

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Hi, I am entirely new to this site, and o to rangefnder cameras. Having read so much positive reviews about the Konica Hexar AF I finally purchased a Silver model which is cosmetically in a great condition. However I really don’t understand the metering process and was hoping someone could help me out here. It could be that the camera is defect altogether which would be such a shame!!! I have loaded it with an ISO 400 film to shoot indoors. When in the aperture priority mode, the display shows the exact same speed from f2 to f4.8, e.g. 1/50th of a second, and in the same light conditions it shows 2” from f5.8 to f22. Also I see a real change in the aperture from wide open to the smallest only when moving from f4.8 to f5.6. I guess there must be something wrong with the metering here? I really appreciate it is someone could explain to me what is it I am experiencing and if there is a way to solve the problem. (I live in the Netherlands and haven’t found any repair shop who wants to look at the camera due to lack of spare parts.) Thank you!!

Have you developed a roll yet and seen if there are truly any issues? I'd do that first. Manual is here which may help: http://www.butkus.org/chinon/konica/konica_hexar/konica_hexar.htm

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

I have one that I had the shutter replaced by Russell Knize who does a full replacement. Quite reasonable. IM me if you want his contact info.

Correction: shutter button mechanism replaced

 

[babak69]

Have you developed a roll yet and seen if there are truly any issues? I'd do that first. Manual is here which may help: http://www.butkus.org/chinon/konica/konica_hexar/konica_hexar.htm

Thanks for your reply Richard S. No I still haven't. Will do that soon. But Just listening to the sound of the shutter with between different apertures I feel there is too much shidt in the speed.