Vintage Lenses - Helios 44

About a year ago, I discovered what many already know. Old camera lenses can work with new cameras. Since then, I’ve started to collect and learn about them. What I find especially interesting is that they are a little piece of history. Personal, everyday history. I wonder, who was the original owner? What sorts of pictures did they take with this lens?

This is the Helios 44. As far as vintage lenses go, it’s one of the most popular, mostly because under the right conditions, they can create some nice swirly bokeh. I like them for the general aesthetic they produce.

According to this website, this particular lens was manufactured in 1966 in the MMZ (Belomo) plant, in Minsk, Belarus. It’s called the “Zebra” because of the chrome stripes on the focusing ring. Earlier versions were completely chrome. It has a M39 mount, which requires a M39 TO M42 adapter ring to work with my M42 to EOS-M adapter

I had a pretty strict weight limit on my flight to Nur-Sultan, so I only took four vintage lenses with me. This was one of them. It was my go-to lens for close ups, such as this bottle of kumis:

I like the way it renders the texture of objects, like these statues:

You can't get infinity focus until you step down to about f11, but when you do, the results are pretty nice:

Overall, I really like this lens. However, the focusing ring can be a bit sluggish. Often I had to use one hand to keep the lens from unscrewing from the adapter when focusing, which of course is a hassle, but it is what it is.