Some of these have extremely sharp detail and creamy background, and still things could pop more and blend less with the background. Since a lot of the color is very much affected by RAW PP (even defaul, like in all these cases), don't just by these samples color.Īgain, a bit unrelated to the lens, I find less sharp, SOnnar constructions to have a more 3Dish look. It's by no means perfect, but definitely has marked very strong points as well as weaknesses (corners wide open, violet sensor reflections under sun in frame, colors are different than other lenses). I hadn't used the lens that much to be fair, and I enjoyed it. This was all from a 20 min session today, not a selection of best images. And while not a gem or collectible, I find it a pleasure to use.
It's mechanically sound, robust, quite nice a lens. It's still a rather cheap lens, from $30 to $60, widely available, and a proven formula.
If you have it, post you best photos with it. It also has a lot of astigmatism near the edges wide open, in part because it seems extremely well corrected in the center. It's like a tiny aftertaste that I can't define that doesn't make me love it. The color rendition doesn't tick as much as other lenses. I think it's a lens that is wonderful even if not my favorite. This thread is to invite to post samples of 44M-7, but also welcomes 44M-6, 5 and 4. Most of it, about the swirl, the (non) differences between M44, 44M-4/5/6/7, the manufacturing dates, the plants used, the sample variation.the fakes? A lot.
My next step will be to try it in studio conditions where we can control flare a lot more and see what happens.I think a lot have been sayd about the Helios lenses. It has a style which doesn’t look very now, it’s not super clean and invisible, but I can see myself using it a lot, especially once I get used to its technicalities. So far this actually looks like a pretty cool portrait lens. It vignettes, too, but in a way that nicely highlights the face when shooting head and shoulders. I would say it handles flare tolerably, but then these days many of us are actively looking for flare and the slight contrast loss in this lighting scenario actually worked quite well. These photos have obviously been processed, but I’ve kept the original bokeh / blurring in the one on the left (do you like it? I know nothing about bokeh).Įven without contrast correction the original shot was pretty good, especially considering that there was a window directly behind Darryl and the Helios doesn’t come with a hood of any kind (but you can buy most accessories, including hoods and caps for its 49mm filter size dirt cheap). What I love about this lens is that it’s designed to focus quite close (around 40cm) so you can frame a head-and-shoulders portrait, and it doesn’t distort the face too much (perhaps because its 58mm and not 50?). Now I’m writing this up I’m not actually convinced that I remembered to close the aperture or if I shot everything wide open! But actually the aperture control is a useful thing to have as you can open the aperture quickly to focus without changing your aperture setting. Once you’ve set the aperture size (which moves in massive 1-stop clicks) you then have a separate ring to actually close the aperture (this moves smoothly so you can make fine adjustments, but it’s pot luck whether you get 1/3 or 1/4 of a stop).
#Helios lens flowers manual
Focus is manual, naturally, but it turns out that it also has a manual aperture. The Helios definitely has some eccentricities, especially if you mainly shoot modern digital DSLRs. Only two of the 12 shots I took were actually in focus but then I haven’t used a manual focus lens since the 90s! If the camera was on a tripod and I was a bit more disciplined I think we would have got more. This sort of natural light shot is my bread and butter and I’ve done it so many times with so many lenses that I can quickly tell I’m going to like a lens or not. My testing was done at the start of a headshot shoot, where focusing is critical but at least both the model and I stand fairly still. I added a basic £6 Canon / M42 adapter from eBay, blew out the dust and it was ready to go.
#Helios lens flowers full
The shots above were taken with my Helios 44-2, which I bought for £5 in Newark market from a guy who stood in the rain with two boxes full of Praktikas, Zorkis and other cold war cameras and lenses. So how does this thing work in shooting daylight portraits? It seems that when people buy vintage gear their first impulse is to use it for photographing flowers and cobwebs in the garden, which is great fun but not much use to anyone who wants the lens for a specific use. I’ve seen lots of reviews of this lens but never in a portrait scenario.
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