The Konica Hexanon AR 52mm F1.8 is an inexpensive yet very good normal lens with a 6E5G optical formula. Takes 52mm filters and the minimum focusing distance is 45cm.
This lens is very soft wide open, but there is a huge sharpness improvement at f4 and at f5.6 it's very sharp. The older F1.7 version of this lens is much better in this aspect.
It's a mixed bag of feelings and characteristics. For example, its soft rendering at wider apertures can render dreamy portraits and at mid apertures it's sharp enough to resolve a 24 MP full-frame sensor from edge to edge.
Is it bad ? No. But don't expect tack-sharp images at apertures wider than F3.5. Use it wisely and you may get some interesting results.
Pros:
- Inexpensive
- Very sharp from F5.6
Cons:
- Don't expect sharp images if used wide open
