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SOVIET LENS: Helios 44m-4 58mm f/2
This is my Soviet lens test: Helios 44m-4 58mm f/2, which came as a gift along with the old Zenit camera. I was not expecting much, however I found it is still a pretty nice lens, especially when I nail the focus right.
In some shots exposure is too high as the sun came up and did not want to shoot in all open aperture. Focus is very shallow when fully open.
There is one more thing - the colors change for when changing the aperture (more grayish when closed), so better not to play with when shooting one scene, it might be a pain sometimes to match them. (Nobody shot colour photography in Soviet Union, colour films where unavailable for amateurs, the pros did not shot with these lenses).
This lens is not a Russian beauty as sometimes I find it designated. It is perhaps World's cheapest lens and soviets produced heaps of it. It is a far from perfect copy of some Zeiss lens. And it is interesting because it is so imperfect. Still pretty cinematic and sometimes sharp results on Olympus EM-1 M2 camera, shot indoors, in the morning sun.
If you want to know more about terrible Soviet photo equipment please read this piece from Roman Yarovitcyn Life as a 1990s Russian newspaper photographer, shooting on a cheap Soviet camera.
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By This is my Soviet lens test: Helios 44m-4 58mm f/2, which came as a gift along with the old Zenit camera. I was not expecting much, however I found it is still a pretty nice lens, especially when I nail the focus right.
In some shots exposure is too high as the sun came up and did not want to shoot in all open aperture. Focus is very shallow when fully open.
There is one more thing - the colors change for when changing the aperture (more grayish when closed), so better not to play with when shooting one scene, it might be a pain sometimes to match them. (Nobody shot colour photography in Soviet Union, colour films where unavailable for amateurs, the pros did not shot with these lenses).
This lens is not a Russian beauty as sometimes I find it designated. It is perhaps World's cheapest lens and soviets produced heaps of it. It is a far from perfect copy of some Zeiss lens. And it is interesting because it is so imperfect. Still pretty cinematic and sometimes sharp results on Olympus EM-1 M2 camera, shot indoors, in the morning sun.
If you want to know more about terrible Soviet photo equipment please read this piece from Roman Yarovitcyn Life as a 1990s Russian newspaper photographer, shooting on a cheap Soviet camera.