Helios 44-2 58mm F2 Russian Lens for Sony E NEX (for E-mount cameras)

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Helios lenses were produced in very large quantities, and since Helios 44-2 is very popular, there are many spare parts around the world. But most people will tell that the saving grace of many less-than-stellarly-built Soviet lenses is their overall image quality in relation to their cost. what’s more, these very soviet designs are being rebranded as »meyer-optik görlitz« and sold for a premium as leica m-mount lenses. Next, Meyer Optik Gorlitz (umlaut passed over because my American fingers are too fat and lazy to manipulate all those keys) which you hold up as a beacon of quality just filed for bankruptcy.

Unfortunately my copy produces only very minor swirl bokeh or I have not found the right recipe yet. Our frequent coverage of lenses and cameras from the former Soviet Union might make us seem like ardent fans of the subgenre, but I can assure you it’s not the case (true at least for the members of the CP writing staff who aren’t named Jeb). By purchasing anything using these links, Casual Photophile may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you.The issue with soft edges is less pronounced the further away the subject is from the lens, as greater distance results in increased depth of field at infinity. e. 44М-7) which also have better contrast due to better coatings and blackening of the lenses (but fewer aperture blades).

These are quite rare anyway, and are partly plastic, whereas all other models I’ve owned have been all metal.The 44-2 version itself has been produced in different variants and at different factories (KMZ, BeLOMO and Valdai) in the Soviet Union. Once the top was off I found the damage from the ding was worse than I expected, the spring attached to the lever had snapped for one. If you’d like proof that Soviet era lenses are lacking in quality control I’ll send you this giant box full of them and they can collect superior German dust in your superior German basement. makes it a wonderful choice for general purpose photography, and its surprisingly good center sharpness and subject isolation at f/2.

That said, I do recommend ditching the Zenit and mounting the lens to a Pentax M42 mount camera like the Spotmatic or the SV for an easier shooting experience, unless you really like fighting with your equipment. As you stop down the lens the focus point is moved away from the center of the image, compared to where the focus was at f/2. There is a pile of Soviet lenses here that cannot be sold and must be repaired (but never will be, because they aren’t worth the time). Don’t know if this post will help at all, it features further images I’ve made with Helios (and their successor the Zenitar) lenses, perhaps something like you’re aiming for? While cooking food on a barbecue on a tiki-torch lit evening, I whipped out the Helios 44-2 58mm to see what it was capable of in low light.

I’m not entirely sure what people are expecting, but if clinical sharpness is required, it seems strange for them to be using vintage manual focus lenses in the first place.

I sometimes liked the results, although the Helios focal length on a crop camera is a bit too “tele” for me. With a 58mm lens on a full frame camera you don’t have much change of capturing a Chinese Water Deer or Barn Owl up close. Helios-44 is a Soviet copy of the Carl Zeiss Biotar 58mm ƒ/2 lens produced under the Helios lens brand. If a Helios-44 fell into my lap for a few dollars I wouldn’t turn it down, that said I don’t think I’d go out of my way too far to get one.But there’s one lens in my collection that quietly and consistently reminds me that I don’t know it all, and that lens is the Helios 44M 58mm f/2. The 44-2 lens exhibits impressive center sharpness and adequate micro-contrast, while its corners are capable of resolving details when shooting subjects from a distance and using a stopped-down aperture. The lens has longitudinal CA across the whole image that is reduced by stopping down, by f/4 it is at negligible levels and completely gone by f/5. The follow-up versions of the reviewed lens but with 8 or 6 aperture blades, with lens coating though, the later the version the better coating. I’m using the M42 to Canon EF adaptor as this allows me to then adapt to Sony with a Metabones and to Fuji with an EF to FX adaptor.