Well, these super rare lenses sell for way too much, but I really wanted to get my hands on a 13-bladed Helios to see if this would improve the swirl quality even further. It also led me to dream of the silver “unicorn”, the 13-bladed Helios 44 with the red П sign that stops down to f/22. This collection of knowledge is really helpful and provides all you need to know to identify your Helios lens. Since the beginning of my adventure with 50mm lenses, I have known about the “ complete list of Helios lenses” and gotten all my info from there. I will then also correct the lens focus so that it actually allows for infinity focus. If I should keep this lens, I will add the m39-m42 ring again and use an m42-EOS adapter where the alignment is better. The m39-EOS adapter I bought won’t allow it to focus to infinity and it’s completely misaligned with the DOF scale facing down. The zebra is a great lens and there’s only one thing that really, really annoys me: The coating is simple yet very beautiful in its steely blue colour. The aperture has 8 blades which are not rounded at all, but they open and close smoothly and are perfectly clean. This actually works better than any of the other lenses, where you have to close the aperture all the way down right from beginning, which results in a dark viewfinder and false exposure values due to the camera getting confused with the selected aperture value. For framing and focusing, you leave the lens wide open and when you half press the shutter (for metering), you swiftly close the aperture with your index finger and take the shot. You choose your desired aperture on the camera (for Av mode operation) and preset this value on the lens. This allows for rather fast use with a modern DSLR:
#HELIOS LENS INDIA FULL#
You can also see the dual aperture ring, where the front ring is used to preset the aperture in full stops and the second, slightly larger, ring is used to close the aperture to that value.
The build quality is actually so rigid that I’d rather be afraid for the lens to damage whatever it bumps into. The front lens is slightly recessed, which should help against flaring from far outside the image frame and protect the lens against scratches from bumps. I did not encounter that issue last year when I used the lens quite a lot.Īs you already know, if you have read my other article, this lens is from the MMZfactory with this logo:
It requires some force to be turned, which can result in the lens unscrewing from the camera in some instances. Unfortunately, the focusing ring is a little bit on the hard side. The depth of field (DOF) markings and the distance scale on the barrel are painted in white and the key points are in red. It’s a nice looking lens, with glossy black paint and chrome accents on the focusing ring.
The first candidate is my original Helios 44 58mm f/2 “zebra” In this article, I will compare three close relatives, two first generation Helios 44 and a second generation Helios 44-2, to find the one for me. But maybe there’s an even better Helios out there? I actually liked the Helios so much that I decided to keep it no matter the outcome of my final verdict. (Read my article about this lens to find out a little more about it.)ĭuring my various comparison runs and also whenever I used this lens, I was positively surprised at how well it performed. When I first got my Helios 44 58mm f/2 “zebra”, I was under the assumption that I had bought a Helios 44-2, and so was the guy who sold me the lens. This image nicely shows the swirly bokeh around the center:Īnother example at a longer distance to the subject: In addition, due to this getting stronger toward the image borders, the bokeh balls look as if they were circling/swirling around the center. This results in the out of focus highlights (bokeh balls) to not be round at all – we usually call this cats-eye effect. Being a blunt copy of the Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f/2 it also comes with the same problem that is the so-called “swirly bokeh” caused by strong vignetting inside the lens barrel. The Helios 44-series is well known and loved for its optical flaws. The Helios 44-series originated in the USSR and the unusual specs (among “standard primes” for cameras using 135 film which usually featured a 50mm focal length with an f/1.4 or f/1.8 aperture.) quickly give away the fact that this lens is a copy of the famous Zeiss Biotar design which also sports 58mm and an f/2 pre-set aperture. (Not very useful as there aren’t any tests yet.) I also experimented with page jumps, so you can go to the top of the page and select the test you want to read about without having to scroll all the time. I won’t be around for the next three weeks, so I can’t really work up any comparison material. This article will be released and new paragraphs will be added over time.
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