1/30/2024 0 Comments Helios 44![]() ![]() Sharpness: While sharpness looks very similar in full size shots, 100% crops reveal that 1 st and 8 th lenses are a little bit softer than the others, but not by much and it’s worth noting that flaring can also affect the perceived sharpness. To my surprise there is plenty of difference in both aspects. I’m a big fan Helios flares, so I was very curios to see if there is any difference there too! All lenses were set to f/2 to see how sharp they are wide open. I was mostly looking at the differences in sharpness and flares. It’s a completely unscientific test, but good enough to see the difference between these lenses. 4 of them were the earlier 44-2 models with step-less aperture adjustment and 4 were 44m models, which are the newer models. I decided to see how much difference there really is between 8 Helios 58mm lenses. Since then I’ve learned a lot about these lenses and Helios 44-2 has become my favorite lens, so I decided to revise it with more up to date info and additional test (second part of the post)Ī lot of people claim that the Helios 58mm lens can either be an amazing value for money Zeiss Biotar 58mm equivalent or a worthless paper weight. In fact so much fun, I am taking one out for a spin in the near future and hopefully post more swirly bokeh photos in this blog.I originally created this post in 2012. These lenses are fun, relatively cheap and have a cult following. This was the primary reason I did the test. Hence the only usable ones to me for photography are the 44M and newer 44M-4 (SN88158346). The 44-2 and older 44M-4 (SN87405245) do not focus to infinity. Perhaps this difference is from the coating of the lens – single coated vs multi-coated lens. The verdict? Seems like all have a similar bokeh effect and more or less the same center sharpness (handheld). Helios-44-2 (8 blades, stepless aperture) These were attached to a Kipon M42-FX BAV-Eyes 0.7X adapter and mounted on a Fuji X-T1 to have full lens coverage with no crop (and hence full extent of the swirly bokeh) on the APS-C sized Fuji sensor. They are, in order of manufacture year, the Helios-44-2, Helios-44M, Helios-44M-4 (2 lenses). Recently I conducted a quick and dirty comparison of four Helios-44 lenses for their swirly bokeh and center sharpness. Camerapedia has a good description of the many variants. The Helios-44 lens comes in many variants and were made by several different former Soviet eastern bloc manufacturers. The sharpness falls off steeply toward the edges at this aperture. The subject matter is best placed in the center of the frame as that is where the lens is sharpest at full aperture. Lastly, you need to open up the lens to its largest aperture – f2. With modern lenses perfectly designed through the aid of computers, you only get perfectly round light bokeh. It is a unique imperfection of the Helios lens design. For example, light coming through leaves or light coming from the many buildings in a city background at night or light coming from a lighted Christmas tree. So the background should have many points of light. The swirling effect of the bokeh seem to come from imperfect formation of light circles from the center of the frame (where they are round) to the edges of the frame (where they are elliptical). The right conditions usually mean the right camera to subject distance, in this case from about 2 to 4 metres for the camera to subject distance. ![]() It suits portraiture best when the right conditions are met for the bokeh to swirl around the subject. I must admit I love the swirly bokeh of the Helios 58mm f2 lens. ![]()
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