Some of the lenses have a physical switch to go between Auto and Manual mode, whereas others have a pin on the rear of the lens which must be depressed for the aperture to stop down. But you can definitely put it to the test when passing animals that are a little less weary of human presence. The wild sample variation definitely brings the average sharpness down but don't expect razors even from the best copy. I don’t think it’s just that they’re brighter, more that they have character plus there’s a lot less fringing/aberration on contrasting edges despite the age.

This isn't the best photo to showcase the sharpness from edge to edge but you can see that it's better on film than on digital. Out-of-focus areas look unusual and swirly effect adds additional accent to the subject in the center. i’m tired of reading the same rehashed drivel in regard to lenses from the soviet union: »rip-offs«, »lackluster« »sub-par« … what is it with you united statesians (because it’s exclusively you people writing in such a manner) that makes you think you’ve got a free pass to drop condescending and thinly-veiled jingoism in your online articles?The one I have currently – a Helios 44-2 – is the one I’ve had the longest, and has a battered, paint worn body, circular cleaning marks on the front and back of the lens and even a bubble within the glass. Thus, aperture adjustments are necessary to mitigate this effect and you’ll generally find a sweet spot at around f5. The Soviet Union manufactured millions of this lens in different variants and it shipped as standard lens on many Soviet (Zenit) cameras. Majority of lenses were made in M42 thread mount but there are also versions for: M39 ( with SLR flange distance ); Zenit Start; K-Mount.

Everyone has their own way of traveling, but I think your gear has to be ready for a sudden rain and has dust resistance (imagine going to a beach). This of course won’t appear in every image, you sort of have to get the distance and focus just right to get it to get the out-of-focus area to swirl this crazy. 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.This is one of the rare Soviet lenses whose optical quality gets very close to the standard set by its forebears. If your camera doesn’t depress the pin at the moment the shutter is released (and unless it’s an actual M42 film camera of a certain era, it won’t), then you’ll be stuck with a lens that’s permanently wide open, ie at its widest aperture of f/2. This image was shot up close which caused the background to blur too much for the swirl I was looking for. The major functional differences between the different Helios lenses relate to the way in which the lenses focus. The Jupiter 9 is my favorite short tele, and if I could only keep one lens for portraits this would be it.

They don’t, far from it actually, and they can be a lot of fun on APS-C cameras where you’re cropping for only the best parts of the lens. 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. I love them, but the first time I got one I thought there was a manufacturer fault and the aperture numbers went the wrong way on the barrel.I think one thing to note is that the swirl of the bokeh on the 44-2 is also slightly more pronounced (I feel) than the 44-M (having shot both on film fairly extensively I feel fairly comfortable making that assertion).