I've been staying at home for quite a few days now, but this is Day 1 of the official government policy of Stay At Home.
I cut my grass, trimmed my edges, aerated the grass with my garden fork (550 thrusts with a four prong garden fork is 2200 holes !), transplanted my tomato seedlings into bigger pots, sowed some sunflower seeds, exercised Ruby and took this photo of my Helios family !
These are my vintage Helios 44M lenses, they are all the same focal length i.e 58mm f2, but all made in different years and all render slightly different images. They are all Russian and the design is based on the classic Carl Zeiss Biotar 58mm f2 lens. The 44M-4 is renowned to be the sharpest, The 44M-2 is meant to create the best bokeh (it swirls under the right circumstances). You might think there's a lot of value in the lenses, well the most I've paid £20-00, £10-00 , £5-00, one came bundled in a bag of lenses for £20-00 and one was free, rescued from my camera clubs cupboard when we had a clearout !
The logo on the inside of the lens indicates it was built at the KMZ factory - Krasnogorskiy Mechanicheskiy Zavod. The factory, situated in the town of Krasnogorsk, It built both military and commercial optics and was a massive factory. At it's height the factory probably employed 30,000 workers from a town of 100,000 inhabitants. The first two digits of the serial numbers indicate the year of manufacture and these range from 1976 to 1990.
If you look in my photostream you will see several photos with these lenses .... flowers with beautiful bokeh, portraits, whippets !
They are fine lenses producing photos of top quality when attached to my Sony A6000 via an M42 mount to Sony E Mount adapter
I think you can call me a bit of a geek. I might introduce you to the Industar family on another day.
This shot was created with a Samyang 12mm manual focus lens on my Sony A6000
Ha ha, brilliant! This is so you! My Dad would have a wonderful time talking with you and exploring all these lenses. He is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and built his first Box Brownie as a youngster in the 1930s and has been taking photos ever since with an array of lenses and cameras. I like your Helios collection!
Love them and the price you paid for them. You don't find them in charity shops in Malta, otherwise I would try my luck in getting a couple myself. What amazes me is how you know remember so well how they perform. It's good to slow down a bit though not when you are forced to do it. I have been housebound for some ten days now and am missing the oudoors.
Love this! I'm quite busy--painted my daughter's room for her return from college, and we have gardening projects to do. I found an old Minolta mount Sigma zoom recently (really wish I didn't get rid of my old Minolta x700) and I've been wondering if there is any way to convert it to my canon 7d mII. I'll be following along with your progress!
@darylo DAryl, just go onto Amazon and search for minolta to Canon 7d adapters. You will be surprised how cheap they are, you shoot in Aperture Priority and Manual Focus ....great fun :)
@sangwann Dione thank you for all your support and great commnents :)
@casablanca Thanks Casa' , your father gave you a great introduction into photography :)
Hello Phil - now I like vintage equipment and love my Nikon/Bronica/Yashica/Pentax gear. I have just purchased a couple of Helios 44's. A 44-2 for the swirly bokeh and a 44k-4 for.....the swirly bokeh. how is flare with these lenses? Have you ever used them with film cameras? Is there any noticeable difference in their performance? Kind regards
March 19th, 2021
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@sangwann Dione thank you for all your support and great commnents :)
@casablanca Thanks Casa' , your father gave you a great introduction into photography :)
@ruthmouch thank you so much Ruth, stay safe too
@allie912 thank you allison for you regular visits and support, very much appreciated
@gamelee ha ha lee , cheers