Just bought mine few days ago! For just 40 euros! Awesome! As I expected, after watching many TH-cam review videos like yours! Since I use a GH4, I don't get all the benefits from a Full-frame camera (swirl bokeh), but I'm truly amazed! Highly recommended lens, but be aware of the various editions (zebra edition, manufacturing year and factory etc.!). Nice video btw, thanx!!
Congratulations! And that is an awesome price! I think if you navigate your subject well, you could get some really cool bokeh. But regardless, the image is really cool, it’s really unique. Great colors. Just a cool all around image. Hope you do some great work with it, and thanks so much for coming through, and for the kind words, I really appreciate that. I don’t take it for granted.
Hi! Great video. I've got the Helios 44M 58mm however when I put it on my Lumix s5ii with adapter I cna't focus, meaning it move the ring but nothing is in focus whole the time. Is this something with the adapter? Inifinity focus issue? HELP!?
@@GoceVVV nothing is in focus at all? From any distance? It sounds to me like it's either defective glass, or more likely you just need to adjust your focus ring. I'm not a big Tech person, and lucky for me I have a shop that I go to when I buy vintage lenses so he can clean them up and fix any imperfections. I would either find somebody to help you, or if you know what you're doing, adjust your focus ring. The one problem I did have with my adapter was that when I first put it on, all of the numbers were on the bottom of the lens, so I had to take my adapter apart, and spin the ring inside of it 180 degrees to get the numbers to show up on top so I could see them. But I don't think that would have anything to do with focus. Hope that helps, and thanks so much for coming through and for the kind words, I really appreciate it.
Double aperture ring was a good idea in the era of film photography, before cameras started controlling the aperture. Maybe you have noticed that some vintage lenses have a small pin on the flange? The camera pressed it when you press the shutter button and aperture sets to desired value. Pretty much like in modern digital cameras. Modern cameras focus when the aperture is wide open. And this is exactly how you want to focus your vintage film camera using double aperture rings, especially in low light situations.
I’m so glad I made this video, I’ve learned more from this video than I have in a very long time. :-) Thank you so much for this, I really appreciate it, and thanks for coming through, I don’t take that for granted.
@@RockWILK oh yeah, it is a very interesting lens. But It's got another trick under the sleeve. Try to reverse the front element or the front and rear. You'll be surprised.
I can explain the double aperture ring. Japanese SLR cameras were popular in the West. These cameras from the 70s and even 60s had a jumping aperture. In early cameras there was metering at the working aperture using the depth of field preview button (Like in Spotmatic for example), then a mechanical aperture reader was invented, so the exposure meter could know how closed the aperture, so then metering on the open aperture can be possible. Most of the Japanese mechanical DSLRs that we admire and love, from primitive models like the Yashiсa fx-3 to shining legends like the Pentax LX work this way. Soviet cameras... Ok, there were Soviet cameras close to the functionality of the Japanese ones of that time. And there are versions of “Helios” with a jumping aperture for these advanced cameras, but this was not mainstream. These cameras were expensive for Soviet people and... let's just say that the more complex they were, the more unreliable they were. So the most popular models like the Zenit-E remained at the level of development of the very first SLR cameras from fifties, with the exception of the returning mirror. No TTL exposure meter, no exposure information in the viewfinder, no jumping aperture - mechanically they were bad copies of the second leica with a mirror, a prism and a selenium exposure meter. So this second aperture ring was the only way to focus wide open and then relatively quickly close the aperture to the working value.
And this is why rangefinder cameras remained popular in the ussr for so long. You just set the aperture and don’t worry about anything. It's easier than twisting this ring back and forth on underdeveloped "zenit"
Wow. This is amazing and makes total sense. I actually find myself getting focused in exactly this way, so I kind of found my way around this lens instinctively, but this information is amazing to have and really interesting. This is one of the great things about youtube, getting knowledge like this after just posting a video about buying a lens on Ebay. So cool. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to drop this knowledge on my post.
@@RockWILK I must say for me it is a kinda funny to watch how in the West people play with helios-44 and other soviet lenses. We had a cult of these lenses, but in general it has long been dispelled. When asked for advice on a mechanical lens, I strongly recommend staying away from the soviet junk and getting a japanese lens instead. Soviet lenses used to make sense because they didn't cost anything. Like 6-8 dollars or something like that. I mean... for a Ukrainian student who spent half a year saving $300 for his first DSLR, such offers made a lot of sense (my first dslr was sony A100, it costs me $400 in 2010). Japanese lenses were next level more expensive. But then the West discovered soviet lenses, created a cult around them, and now these lenses can cost more than Pentax or Minolta and this makes no sense.
@@dima1353 it is funny how at some point, somebody somewhere anoints a piece of gear as "special" or "legendary" and people just follow. Lol. At the end of the day, what difference does it really make? Any decent lens attached to your camera will help you to tell a great story. And very few people will wonder what lends you used. Personally, I love the way this lens looks, but at the end of the day, it also makes no difference to me which of my lenses I use, other than getting the right focal length for the right shot. But other than that, it's all about what we are shooting, not what we are shooting with. :-) I made a full-length feature on a phone, that became an award-winning film, so I am aware that gear does it really matter at the end of the day. And if you have a lens that is relatively wide, but not too wide, you really don't ever have to change lenses to tell a beautiful story. But the cool thing about vintage lenses like the Helios is that they're so cheap, if you enjoy investigating such things, it's fun. It's like people who enjoy antiques, it's like walking through history, and if you're not spending too much money, why not? But at the end of the day, if you're doing this professionally, it's probably a good idea to get a lens with great build quality, so that you have something you can count on.
Here I am looking for how a Helios will look on my S5II and I see a lens the that looked familiar. Sure enough it's one I sold to Rock... Glad you you are enjoying it!
You're naming my setup brother. My S5 and S1H with the Helios is butter, and my "versatile" lens is the same Sigma 24-70, ha ha. We don't need to discuss the other 10 lenses I have. Great assessment of the lens and it's usability.
I actually have the lighter 28-70. Great lens as well. And you have the dream set up in my opinion. :-) as far as those other 10 lenses..., I've been there. Lol. Those were my aps-c days, I had so many lenses that looked awesome on my shelf and stayed right there all the time. :-) Once I started using vintage lenses and anamorphic lenses, that kind of cured my gas. Really enjoyed a lot of your work over on your channel, looks like your life is good being around such great organizations and documenting them. Making real contributions. Thanks so much for coming through here, I really appreciate it, and I really appreciate your work.
I’ve never had either of those in my hands, but I’m sure those are great combinations. Pretty funny, adding a $50 lens in front of cameras like that. But then again, the Batman, and I’m sure many other films have used this lens, so it ain’t about the money. :-)
@@RockWILK to me it's been about the lenses for most of my life. You find a lens, you check how big the image circle is, and you adapt/DIY/modify the lens to a camera that will take the biggest advantage of what the lens has to give. The camera itself is not that important, it's just a tool to capture the image from the lens. I still modify IMAX projection lenses to Pentax 6x7 (just cause if they could project a 65mm wide film, they can take a 65mm image circle, and usually much more), so the GFX and X2D sit in an interesting niche. They can take some "full frame" lenses beyond their official capabilities. A second hand first gen GFX sells for not much more than $1700 nowadays, so it's not even that hardcore of an investment. I'm from Eastern Europe, those Helios lenses would be added as a free camera cap some years ago cause there were hundreds of thousands of them produced for the Eastern Bloc countries :) Also the name - 44-2 means it's the 44th design KMZ manufactured, version (or generation) 2. There were at least 7 versions of that lens, the general design was always a double gauss (basically a carbon copy of the Carl Zeiss Biotar 58/2 and other Biotar/Planar lenses), but the quality control and coatings were different for each version, also at some point they ditched the two ring aperture. The two aperture rings are there to aid focusing with the ancient light metering systems in soviet cameras. You'd set your preset ring to the aperture you wanted to use for the picture, say f/8, which would actually close the aperture on the lens, so your viewfinder would get dim and it would be difficult to nail focus. So you use the other ring to open the aperture, focus your image, and then close back to the previously preset value without having to move the camera away from your eye. In later designs they figured how to manufacture an automatic aperture, you only had 1 aperture ring, and a small bolt sticking out the rear of the lens that would get the aperture engaged by a lever while taking a picture. The Helios 44-2 and 44-3 (and all soviet lenses from that era) had the ancient two ring "aperture preset" design, 44-4 and later versions had what we know as a "normal" aperture ring :)
I'm looking forward to watching your film man....I wrote a long ass coment and accidently deleted it. With that said, I hope you and I can set up a zoom call or something. You inspire me a lot to put myself out there and do things my way. I'd like to talk to you about that a little more. Keep up the great work.
If you’re doing stuff for yourself, I would definitely say do it your way. Because why not? That’s probably the best opportunity to do things your way. And that’s probably the best way at the end of the day. It’s good to learn from others, and collaboration is awesome, but it’s really important to develop your own style and your own thing. That’s the true essence of an artist, what separates you from everybody else, the things that you do that nobody else would do, the stuff that represents who you are. That’s everything.
Ha! That canoe sounds like a great children's book. ;) And yeah, if you need a true wide-angle lens, this Helios definitely will not get the job done. 😉
I agree. I generally run around with either a 28 mm or 35 on my camera, but I love the way this lens looks. And I love how light it is. But definitely it’s not a wide angle lens. :-) I definitely find myself using it quite a bit, and I do think it could be a lens that someone could use for everything if that’s their style. But it’s limiting, for sure. Thanks so much for coming through, I really appreciate that.
@@RockWILK often working within limitations - self imposed or otherwise - is incredibly rewarding re: tight framing. I just have a semi-wide preference from growing up playing hockey and spending a lot of time developing peripheral vision
Wow. I think everybody I know who has a Helios lens has this double aperture setup. That's pretty amazing. Thanks for mentioning that, I think it's important for people to know for things to look for. Much appreciated
@@mex5341 I've never seen any of those other variations, the 44 - 2 is the one everybody talks about pretty much. The one that I have really reminds me of my anamorphic lenses, so it just fits in with my workflow very well, but I'm sure all of them have a cool unique quality.
Just bought mine few days ago! For just 40 euros! Awesome! As I expected, after watching many TH-cam review videos like yours! Since I use a GH4, I don't get all the benefits from a Full-frame camera (swirl bokeh), but I'm truly amazed! Highly recommended lens, but be aware of the various editions (zebra edition, manufacturing year and factory etc.!). Nice video btw, thanx!!
Congratulations! And that is an awesome price! I think if you navigate your subject well, you could get some really cool bokeh. But regardless, the image is really cool, it’s really unique. Great colors. Just a cool all around image. Hope you do some great work with it, and thanks so much for coming through, and for the kind words, I really appreciate that. I don’t take it for granted.
Hi! Great video. I've got the Helios 44M 58mm however when I put it on my Lumix s5ii with adapter I cna't focus, meaning it move the ring but nothing is in focus whole the time. Is this something with the adapter? Inifinity focus issue? HELP!?
@@GoceVVV nothing is in focus at all? From any distance? It sounds to me like it's either defective glass, or more likely you just need to adjust your focus ring. I'm not a big Tech person, and lucky for me I have a shop that I go to when I buy vintage lenses so he can clean them up and fix any imperfections. I would either find somebody to help you, or if you know what you're doing, adjust your focus ring. The one problem I did have with my adapter was that when I first put it on, all of the numbers were on the bottom of the lens, so I had to take my adapter apart, and spin the ring inside of it 180 degrees to get the numbers to show up on top so I could see them. But I don't think that would have anything to do with focus. Hope that helps, and thanks so much for coming through and for the kind words, I really appreciate it.
Double aperture ring was a good idea in the era of film photography, before cameras started controlling the aperture. Maybe you have noticed that some vintage lenses have a small pin on the flange? The camera pressed it when you press the shutter button and aperture sets to desired value. Pretty much like in modern digital cameras. Modern cameras focus when the aperture is wide open. And this is exactly how you want to focus your vintage film camera using double aperture rings, especially in low light situations.
I’m so glad I made this video, I’ve learned more from this video than I have in a very long time. :-) Thank you so much for this, I really appreciate it, and thanks for coming through, I don’t take that for granted.
@@RockWILK oh yeah, it is a very interesting lens. But It's got another trick under the sleeve. Try to reverse the front element or the front and rear. You'll be surprised.
@@andriimartynov83 hmmm. Might have to try that. Thanks!!
I can explain the double aperture ring. Japanese SLR cameras were popular in the West. These cameras from the 70s and even 60s had a jumping aperture. In early cameras there was metering at the working aperture using the depth of field preview button (Like in Spotmatic for example), then a mechanical aperture reader was invented, so the exposure meter could know how closed the aperture, so then metering on the open aperture can be possible. Most of the Japanese mechanical DSLRs that we admire and love, from primitive models like the Yashiсa fx-3 to shining legends like the Pentax LX work this way.
Soviet cameras... Ok, there were Soviet cameras close to the functionality of the Japanese ones of that time. And there are versions of “Helios” with a jumping aperture for these advanced cameras, but this was not mainstream. These cameras were expensive for Soviet people and... let's just say that the more complex they were, the more unreliable they were. So the most popular models like the Zenit-E remained at the level of development of the very first SLR cameras from fifties, with the exception of the returning mirror. No TTL exposure meter, no exposure information in the viewfinder, no jumping aperture - mechanically they were bad copies of the second leica with a mirror, a prism and a selenium exposure meter.
So this second aperture ring was the only way to focus wide open and then relatively quickly close the aperture to the working value.
And this is why rangefinder cameras remained popular in the ussr for so long. You just set the aperture and don’t worry about anything. It's easier than twisting this ring back and forth on underdeveloped "zenit"
Wow. This is amazing and makes total sense. I actually find myself getting focused in exactly this way, so I kind of found my way around this lens instinctively, but this information is amazing to have and really interesting. This is one of the great things about youtube, getting knowledge like this after just posting a video about buying a lens on Ebay. So cool. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to drop this knowledge on my post.
@@dima1353 Makes sense. And SO USEFUL for filmmaking. Amazing.
@@RockWILK
I must say for me it is a kinda funny to watch how in the West people play with helios-44 and other soviet lenses.
We had a cult of these lenses, but in general it has long been dispelled. When asked for advice on a mechanical lens, I strongly recommend staying away from the soviet junk and getting a japanese lens instead. Soviet lenses used to make sense because they didn't cost anything. Like 6-8 dollars or something like that. I mean... for a Ukrainian student who spent half a year saving $300 for his first DSLR, such offers made a lot of sense (my first dslr was sony A100, it costs me $400 in 2010). Japanese lenses were next level more expensive. But then the West discovered soviet lenses, created a cult around them, and now these lenses can cost more than Pentax or Minolta and this makes no sense.
@@dima1353 it is funny how at some point, somebody somewhere anoints a piece of gear as "special" or "legendary" and people just follow. Lol. At the end of the day, what difference does it really make? Any decent lens attached to your camera will help you to tell a great story. And very few people will wonder what lends you used. Personally, I love the way this lens looks, but at the end of the day, it also makes no difference to me which of my lenses I use, other than getting the right focal length for the right shot. But other than that, it's all about what we are shooting, not what we are shooting with. :-) I made a full-length feature on a phone, that became an award-winning film, so I am aware that gear does it really matter at the end of the day. And if you have a lens that is relatively wide, but not too wide, you really don't ever have to change lenses to tell a beautiful story. But the cool thing about vintage lenses like the Helios is that they're so cheap, if you enjoy investigating such things, it's fun. It's like people who enjoy antiques, it's like walking through history, and if you're not spending too much money, why not? But at the end of the day, if you're doing this professionally, it's probably a good idea to get a lens with great build quality, so that you have something you can count on.
Here I am looking for how a Helios will look on my S5II and I see a lens the that looked familiar. Sure enough it's one I sold to Rock... Glad you you are enjoying it!
Ahh!! There you go. Once I got it all worked out, it's being its beautiful Helios self. Thank you for working with me.
Helios 44 is the greatest lens even made in lens history.
😉🙏
You're naming my setup brother. My S5 and S1H with the Helios is butter, and my "versatile" lens is the same Sigma 24-70, ha ha. We don't need to discuss the other 10 lenses I have. Great assessment of the lens and it's usability.
I actually have the lighter 28-70. Great lens as well. And you have the dream set up in my opinion. :-) as far as those other 10 lenses..., I've been there. Lol. Those were my aps-c days, I had so many lenses that looked awesome on my shelf and stayed right there all the time. :-) Once I started using vintage lenses and anamorphic lenses, that kind of cured my gas. Really enjoyed a lot of your work over on your channel, looks like your life is good being around such great organizations and documenting them. Making real contributions. Thanks so much for coming through here, I really appreciate it, and I really appreciate your work.
I got a minty copy for $100 like five years ago and love it.
Awesome when you find a mint copy of any vintage lens. So cool. Thanks so much for coming through here, I really appreciate it.
In my book it absolutely CAN be your one&only under one condition - you slap it onto a GFX or X2D.
I’ve never had either of those in my hands, but I’m sure those are great combinations. Pretty funny, adding a $50 lens in front of cameras like that. But then again, the Batman, and I’m sure many other films have used this lens, so it ain’t about the money. :-)
@@RockWILK to me it's been about the lenses for most of my life. You find a lens, you check how big the image circle is, and you adapt/DIY/modify the lens to a camera that will take the biggest advantage of what the lens has to give. The camera itself is not that important, it's just a tool to capture the image from the lens. I still modify IMAX projection lenses to Pentax 6x7 (just cause if they could project a 65mm wide film, they can take a 65mm image circle, and usually much more), so the GFX and X2D sit in an interesting niche. They can take some "full frame" lenses beyond their official capabilities. A second hand first gen GFX sells for not much more than $1700 nowadays, so it's not even that hardcore of an investment. I'm from Eastern Europe, those Helios lenses would be added as a free camera cap some years ago cause there were hundreds of thousands of them produced for the Eastern Bloc countries :)
Also the name - 44-2 means it's the 44th design KMZ manufactured, version (or generation) 2. There were at least 7 versions of that lens, the general design was always a double gauss (basically a carbon copy of the Carl Zeiss Biotar 58/2 and other Biotar/Planar lenses), but the quality control and coatings were different for each version, also at some point they ditched the two ring aperture.
The two aperture rings are there to aid focusing with the ancient light metering systems in soviet cameras. You'd set your preset ring to the aperture you wanted to use for the picture, say f/8, which would actually close the aperture on the lens, so your viewfinder would get dim and it would be difficult to nail focus. So you use the other ring to open the aperture, focus your image, and then close back to the previously preset value without having to move the camera away from your eye. In later designs they figured how to manufacture an automatic aperture, you only had 1 aperture ring, and a small bolt sticking out the rear of the lens that would get the aperture engaged by a lever while taking a picture. The Helios 44-2 and 44-3 (and all soviet lenses from that era) had the ancient two ring "aperture preset" design, 44-4 and later versions had what we know as a "normal" aperture ring :)
I'm looking forward to watching your film man....I wrote a long ass coment and accidently deleted it. With that said, I hope you and I can set up a zoom call or something. You inspire me a lot to put myself out there and do things my way. I'd like to talk to you about that a little more. Keep up the great work.
If you’re doing stuff for yourself, I would definitely say do it your way. Because why not? That’s probably the best opportunity to do things your way. And that’s probably the best way at the end of the day. It’s good to learn from others, and collaboration is awesome, but it’s really important to develop your own style and your own thing. That’s the true essence of an artist, what separates you from everybody else, the things that you do that nobody else would do, the stuff that represents who you are. That’s everything.
@RockWILK great words man. I'll take along that with me.
@@mylesvpolk very cool. And once I finish this film, we can definitely have that conversation. Have a great day!
An almost 60mm lens is indeed bad at being a wide angle lens. I similarly wish my canoe could fly.
Ha! That canoe sounds like a great children's book. ;) And yeah, if you need a true wide-angle lens, this Helios definitely will not get the job done. 😉
I have one. It's fun, but pretty damn janky unless you have it on a tripod or gimbal. And too tight for my liking for a one size fits all.
I agree. I generally run around with either a 28 mm or 35 on my camera, but I love the way this lens looks. And I love how light it is. But definitely it’s not a wide angle lens. :-) I definitely find myself using it quite a bit, and I do think it could be a lens that someone could use for everything if that’s their style. But it’s limiting, for sure. Thanks so much for coming through, I really appreciate that.
@@RockWILK often working within limitations - self imposed or otherwise - is incredibly rewarding re: tight framing. I just have a semi-wide preference from growing up playing hockey and spending a lot of time developing peripheral vision
Being used these USSR lenses and never seen double aperture ring )
Wow. I think everybody I know who has a Helios lens has this double aperture setup. That's pretty amazing. Thanks for mentioning that, I think it's important for people to know for things to look for. Much appreciated
@@RockWILK and price difference cuz there are few variations of 44-2 , i prefer 44m-4 cuz it has more swirling bokeh
@@mex5341 I've never seen any of those other variations, the 44 - 2 is the one everybody talks about pretty much. The one that I have really reminds me of my anamorphic lenses, so it just fits in with my workflow very well, but I'm sure all of them have a cool unique quality.
@@RockWILK there's a very cool video by Simon's Utak about all the different versions of the Helios 44, highly recommended
@@KNURKonesur I'm pretty sure I linked that video in the description of this video here.