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The Helios 44M arrived in da lab
#1
I was almost surprised that it made it to Oz - as mentioned I purchased it from a shop in Ukraine and it was sitting at the airport in Kyiv for weeks.

Nicely little lens apparently. A bit coarse maybe - the aperture blades look like there we chipped off a tank - they aren't really black like in western lenses. 

Still - looks brand new. Let's see what it can do now :-)

Meanwhile, I finished the first set of tests of some old Minolta MC Rokkors (also got some Nikkor non-AI, Canon FD, Olympus PM and a Takumar). Without revealing too much - a 42mp sensor is a challenge for these oldies. ;-)

I reckon I will also supply MTFs at 24mp which may be a little fairer here. Still - don't believe all these wonder stories from Youtube ...
Chief Editor - opticallimits.com

Doing all things Canon, MFT, Sony and Fuji
#2
Wonder stories?
stoppingdown.net

 

Sony a6300, Sony a6000, Sony NEX-6, Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS, Sony Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* E 16-70mm F4 ZA OSS, Sony FE 70-200mm F4 G OSS, Sigma 150-600mm Æ’/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary, Samyang 12mm Æ’/2, Sigma 30mm F2.8 DN | A, Meyer Gorlitz Trioplan 100mm Æ’/2.8, Samyang 8mm Æ’/3.5 fish-eye II | Zenit Helios 44-2 58mm Æ’/2 
Plus some legacy Nikkor lenses.
#3
Certain people probably believe some of these old lenses have magical qualities and exceed modern designs.
I wouldn't believe in any of that, and definitely not about the Helios. Smile
#4
I have owned three Helios, all three costed together with adapter less than 50 $ (with one resold for the same price bought so they costed with adapter around 25$)
There are variations the newer ones with coating are in a different league with much better contract, you wouldn't believe it's the same lens
on EOSRP the non coated 44M2 Helios is horrible for the colors and contrast, it's extremely prone to flare and has a strong yellow/greyish color cast, wide open it's not sharp at all, stepped down also not impressive but at least you have some contrast.
Swirly bokeh yes it has esecially 44M2 and that's wehere the magic ends, if you are after swirly bokeh and ready to spend time editing or are happy with just black and white because of severe color cast or if you have names for color cast and flare like " lens character" you will absolutely love it otherwise you will use it once, write your own review in a photography forum and then forget that you own it till a discussion about it pops up somewhere
#5
(06-15-2022, 06:36 AM)stoppingdown Wrote: Wonder stories?

The vintage guys on Youtube are often telling the tale that the old lenses are stellar in performance.

I think the best you may expect is a passable performance with some special bokeh character. I can certainly see the latter for instance - the MC Rokkor 58mm f/1.4 is super soft at f/1.4 but it has a super bubbly bokeh. I can well imagine that this can be interesting in certain scenarios.
Chief Editor - opticallimits.com

Doing all things Canon, MFT, Sony and Fuji
#6
When I was younger I shared a very nice house with a bunch of hippies, one of whom was Peter Rostgaard ..... in his school days he belonged to the well respected Hertford camera club ..... he walked away with first prize in it's annual photo contest every year without fail ..... 
   
..... his gear was the Zenith E with the humble preset 44M.2 Helios lens ...... 

 I remember in our regular house slide shows, his series from the Watchfield summer music festival ...... his shots were all very good but one in particular stands out as proof that you don't need top level glass for top level photos .....  
 the shot had all the optical faults that we would now decry ....... low contrast ...... softish resolution ........ but the flare from the lens created this magical dream world look that absolutely made the image ....... when the slide came up on the screen there were gasps from everyone ..... (perfectly composed advancing figure with streaming sun flares)

....... unfortunately when a friend and I made this site he had already past on ...... along with the photo !!

 link to our site:

http://www.76stationroad.hippies.co.uk

 I learned a lot from that guy !!
  


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