Japanese Speed King Battle: MS Optics ISM 50mm f1 vs. Konica Hexanon 60mm f1.2
Cult lens maker extraordinaire Miyazaki san recently went supersonic with his latest speed star lens, the MS Optics ISM 50mm f1.0 And with a price tag of $1700 USD it clocks in at a fraction of the cost of the Japanese speedy legends for Leica, ie. the classic LTMs from Canon, Nikkor, Fujinon, Zunow, etc.
As modern Japanese glass goes, there were only 3 options prior to the release of the MS Optics ISM 50mm f1. You had the choice of the Konica Hexanon 60mm f1.2, Konica Hexanon 50mm f1.2 and the Voigtlander Nokton 50mm 1.1, of which only the Hexanon 60mm f1.2 ever became desirable among the masses. Just for yucks let’s see how the ISM would fare against the Hexanon 60 mano a mano.
The Konica Hexanon 60mm f1.2 has its highly coveted status stamped. But is the five figure price tag more of a reflection of rarity rather than performance? Did Miyazaki create magic with something so small, light and relatively affordable?
If you give a hoot, let’s take a closer look.
Tech Specs
MS Optics ISM
- 7 elements / 5 groups Gauss type with 10 full multi-coat surfaces
- f1.05- f11 min/max aperture
- 55mm filter size
- 16 rounded aperture blades
- Focus 0.8m – ∞
- Length 40mm, Diameter 50mm
- Weight 180g
Konica Hexanon
- 7 Elements / 6 Groups
- f1.2 – f16 min/max aperture
- 58mm filter size
- 10 Aperture Blades
- Focus 0.8m – ∞
- Length 65mm, Diameter 60mm
- Weight 430g
Ergonomics
The Konica Hexanon is obviously much heavier and bigger than the MS Optics ISM. At roughly 50% longer, 20% wider and over 200% the weight, the Hexanon wears down on your shoulders and neck that much more. In addition with the Konica Hexanon being so wide, your fingers could have some trouble getting into the lens release button when you want to unmount.
The aperture ring on the Hexanon does click into place which is something I always appreciate. The ISM’s aperture ring does not click and also like all Miyazaki san lenses, you need to be careful when changing the aperture to not move the focus as well.
Sample Images
The following example are SOOC and taken on a Sony A7R. Here is a 100% crop of an image side by side from each lens. Before we dive into some more sample images, care to make a guess which is which?
Give yourself a pat on the back if you said the one on the left is the ISM and the one on the right is from the Hexanon. Here is a closer look in detail of each lens.
MS Optics ISM 50mm f1
Konica Hexanon 60mm f1.2
The following is a side by side comparison throughout each aperture with the MS Optics ISM on the left and the Konica Hexanon on the right. Note – The Hexanon stops down to f16 but the ISM does not so that was omitted.

ISM @ f1 vs. Hexanon @ f1.2

@ f1.4

@ f2

@ f2.8

@ f4

@ f5.6

@ f8

@ f11
Wide open in low light
MS Optics ISM on JCH Streetpan (self dev in Cinestill Df96, scanned on Plustek 8200i)
Konica Hexanon on JCH Streetpan (self dev in Cinestill Df96, scanned on Plustek 8200i)
Closing thoughts
Well there you have it. I hope these images can help you on your decision should you be interested in either lenses. It may not be exactly an apple to oranges comparison but the information is here nevertheless for you.
Only you can judge which one suits your needs and tastes and whether or not the prices justify the means to the ends. In the near future I hope to be able to compare the MS Optics ISM to the Voigtlander Nokton 50mm 1.1. That outta be interesting as they’re much closer in price range.
-MN
Thanks, that was interesting. Since not all of us are Japan-centric, I’d love for you to slide the 7Artisans 50mm f/1.1 into your forthcoming MS-vs.Voigtlander shoot-off … if only to see how a wildly overextended Sonnar design fares against the Gausses.
Erwin Putts reviewed it few years ago. Look at his blog archive.
i’ve checked the archive and it’s not there anymore. In short he was pleased with the 7artisan 1.1 and qualified it as producing a classical look. unbeatable for the price.
Thank you for the quite informative comparison:
1. The Hexanon has a glow that seems colored in sunlight (face of the model), and ISM perhaps at night . The 3rd of the “WIDE OPEN IN LOW LIGHT” shows even a different, colder overall color of the lights.
2. I get the feeling that at the closed end of the aperture scale the Hexanon has a wider depth of field (corner), or the ISM’s field is moved towards the model. The building seems to become faster in focus, from f5.6 onwards, but the ISM needs f11 for that.
The B&W photos make it a bit harder to compare as they are very different in nature.
Great article! Question: when you’re using the Df96 to develop the JCH Streetpan, what temperature, time and agitation method are you using? The examples you posted look great, so I’m curious.
Thanks man. I pretty much just followed the instructions, 75°F (24°C) for about 4 minutes 15 seconds and agitated constantly for the first 1 minute and for 10 seconds every minute after that.
Really appreciate that test. Thank you!
But its really hard to judge picture quality looking at two pictures fitted in 720 pixels wide image. Its 360 pixels wide for each of them.
Thanks for the comment. If you right click on the image and open in new tab, the images should be a lot bigger
Oh! Thank you!
But to be honest JPG compression is so high (like level 2 of 12 in photoshop) – that one still cant judge a quality
just look at that: https://www.japancamerahunter.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/hex_vs_ism12.jpg
Thanks for this comparison! I’m wondering if we’d see different corner sharpness results for both lenses if we used a Leica M240/M10, with their thinner sensor stacks, to test with.