#Helios 44 manual#
#Helios 44 iso#

If to remember that this lens has been produced in 1993, then it seems that we have two enough different conclusions: But don’t forget: the absence of sharpness – is a payment for this. This lens is the simplest way to get possible the best and coolest bokeh which you ever have seen with a near-fifty. The middle became acceptable at F5.6 and corners became the same just from F8.0. Bad news: there is no sharpness in middles and corners at F2.0-4.0. A lot of lenses from the middle of the 20 century have the same behavior. Average news: not too bad coma and chromatic aberrations on wide-open apertures. The geometric aberrations are almost absent, vignetting is OK, especially for modern digital sensors. The lens is on the minimal focusing distance 0.5m, lights are on infinity (cityscape) Test #2 Light bubbles bokeh – long distance Test #1

Test conditions: lens was focused on 1m, houses were fixed in infinity distance on the ground. Test conditions: the lens was focused on minimal distance on the scale (0.5m), buildings are on “infinity”-distance. Helios 44M-7 58mm 1:2.0 aberrations Vignetting

#Helios 44 iso#

M-mode, ISO fixed, WB fixed, SteadyShot – OFF. Camera: Sony A7II (24mpx, full-frame, tripod, remote control).Distance: > 200 meters to center focus point.Long-distance resolution test Testing methods description Original target image (printed in horizontal orientation on 10cm X 15cm glossy photo paper) RAW processing: Capture One, default settings.That is to avoid the effect of field curvature.

#Helios 44 manual#

The test was repeated for every F-stop on every focus position with manual focus adjustment for each shot.

Target: 10-15 cm picture, printed on glossy photo paper.

Helios 44M-7 58mm 1:2.0 sharpness С lose-distance resolution test, minimal distance Testing methods description Thus, this copy with index 7 has been considered as a very good copy.Īnd one more feature – Russians had large deviations in quality, that’s why just one copy does not give us an idea about IQ of other copies of this lens. Lenses were tested after assembly in the factory and, depending on the test results have obtained an index and a corresponding front ring. The numbers in the index show the lens’s resolution if it applied to “M” versions: I would not want to go deeper into history in this article, but one note should be posted here: One of the most popular lenses in the world. Anyway, optically they are a continuation of the same parent. So, “Helios-44” was born in 1958, but since that time the lens got a lot of modifications. In Russian, it meant “ Bio Tar Krasnogorski” (“Biotar from Krasnogorsk”, the first factory is based in Krasnogorsk town near Moscow). Historically, Helios-44 is a copy of Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 2,0/58, and the first incarnations called “БТК”.

This lens is from the latest generations of Helios’s 58mm era, only one modification was created after this 44M-X but was produced in small amounts and considered as rare. The tested lens has been produced in 1993 on Valday, Russia (the factory is here – 57★8′49″ x 33☁3′32″). Helios 44M-7 58mm 1:2.0 specifications Name engraved on lensĬonfidence in the test results of reviewed copies Lens review: Helios 44-7 58mm 1:2.0 MC Zenit Directly with the camera Zenit-122 instead of the back cover. One day I spotted in the sale Гелиос 44М-7 at an attractive price. Perhaps this is the result of globalization, perhaps – Photographers protest against the principles of modern lenses – sometimes too featureless. And Helios 44M-7 58mm 1:2.0 is from the top of that list. The popularity of Russian lenses has grown considerably over the past few years.