The Soviet Kit Lens-Helios 44M lens test on the 550D

C

Chris Watson

Well-known member
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]Not all kit lenses are created equal. Case in point? While Canon owners have to make due with slow, plastic, and generally OK kit lenses, those dirty communists from the USSR got a Carl Zeiss lens with thier Zenit 35mm cameras. Not really, but almost. When WWII ended and the Soviets took over East Germany, they discovered that there was a plant that made Carl Zeiss lenses. As the spoils of war, Russian lens makers took the blueprints of those lens designs and made their own copies of the Carl Zeiss Biotar design and sold it as the Helios brand which then became the kit lens of the aforementioned Zenit cameras.

While these lenses are common throughout Eastern Europe and Russia, they are pretty hard to find in the States. To get one of these gems today, you have to order from somewhere in Russia and wait 3 weeks for it to arrive. Imagine my surprise when I walked into a Pawn Shop earlier today and saw a Zenit camera complete with a mint condition Helios 44M (one of the earliest versions of the lens). $35 later, I not only have a classic Russian camera but one of the SWEETEST lenses I ever slapped on to my t2i. I don't have a Carl Zeiss Biotar to compare this lens to but all I can say is that it has a certain "wow" factor and character. For one thing, it has the signature "swirly" bokeh which to some people is ugly while to others (myself included) it's dreamy. It certainly stands out. Besides that characteristic, the lens has great color rendition and pretty sweet lens flare. Anyway, I'm pretty wowed by this $35 piece of glass. Take a look for yourself to see what I'm excited about.....

http://vimeo.com/10942299

Two warnings:

1. It's a cats/dogs/plants test reel. They're pretty shots but the subjects are dead boring.

2. There's a longish take at :49. I just held the shot to show how gorgeous the bokeh can be with this lens and how the lens flares create an interesting picture. Feel free to skip to 1:19 if you get bored with it :).

If you like the lens, the good news is they are selling for next to nothing on Ebay. Of course, none of the sellers are from the States and you have to wait 3 weeks to get one (usually from Russia or one of the former Soviet states) but for less than the cost of the Canon 50mm 1.8, it's certainly worth it. Next on my list is the Mir 24M (35mm f/2), Volna-9 (50mm 2.8), and maybe a Jupiter 85mm 2.0. I think it's safe to say I'm a fan of Russian lenses now :)

Anyway, I hope this encourages some of you to seek out alternative lenses for your Canon DSLRs. There's some really interesting lenses out there once you look beyond the Canon and Nikon brands and do some research.

Chris W
Watson Videography
www.dallasweddingfilms.com [/FONT][/FONT]
 
here's a little something i did with 80% russian glass including the mir24, helios 40, 44 & 77 and jupiter 9...



here's one place to check what's available, including mirror compatibility test for the 5D.
the webmaster is very nice, please thank him for such an extensive documentation online for the rest of us.

http://t.hacquard.free.fr/site1/zenit_obj_1_en.html
 
Yes the Helios 44 is a great lens. Excellent for anamorphic adapters too. On top of that if you have an older preset as I do, it means you can do clickless aperture pulls as well.
 
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I'm really liking how these things how lens flares, but the bokeh might be too intrusive once it gets large enough. Still, excellent finds. I'll have to keep an eye out.
 
The bokeh is definitely a love it or hate it thing. I don't think I'd take it on a corporate shoot but for weddings, it would fit right in definitely.

Chris W
 
Chris Watson said:
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]Not all kit lenses are created equal. Case in point? While Canon owners have to make due with slow, plastic, and generally OK kit lenses, those dirty communists from the USSR got a Carl Zeiss lens with thier Zenit 35mm cameras. Not really, but almost. When WWII ended and the Soviets took over East Germany, they discovered that there was a plant that made Carl Zeiss lenses. As the spoils of war, Russian lens makers took the blueprints of those lens designs and made their own copies of the Carl Zeiss Biotar design and sold it as the Helios brand which then became the kit lens of the aforementioned Zenit cameras.

While these lenses are common throughout Eastern Europe and Russia, they are pretty hard to find in the States. To get one of these gems today, you have to order from somewhere in Russia and wait 3 weeks for it to arrive. Imagine my surprise when I walked into a Pawn Shop earlier today and saw a Zenit camera complete with a mint condition Helios 44M (one of the earliest versions of the lens). $35 later, I not only have a classic Russian camera but one of the SWEETEST lenses I ever slapped on to my t2i. I don't have a Carl Zeiss Biotar to compare this lens to but all I can say is that it has a certain "wow" factor and character. For one thing, it has the signature "swirly" bokeh which to some people is ugly while to others (myself included) it's dreamy. It certainly stands out. Besides that characteristic, the lens has great color rendition and pretty sweet lens flare. Anyway, I'm pretty wowed by this $35 piece of glass. Take a look for yourself to see what I'm excited about.....

http://vimeo.com/10942299

Two warnings:

1. It's a cats/dogs/plants test reel. They're pretty shots but the subjects are dead boring.

2. There's a longish take at :49. I just held the shot to show how gorgeous the bokeh can be with this lens and how the lens flares create an interesting picture. Feel free to skip to 1:19 if you get bored with it :).

If you like the lens, the good news is they are selling for next to nothing on Ebay. Of course, none of the sellers are from the States and you have to wait 3 weeks to get one (usually from Russia or one of the former Soviet states) but for less than the cost of the Canon 50mm 1.8, it's certainly worth it. Next on my list is the Mir 24M (35mm f/2), Volna-9 (50mm 2.8), and maybe a Jupiter 85mm 2.0. I think it's safe to say I'm a fan of Russian lenses now :)

Anyway, I hope this encourages some of you to seek out alternative lenses for your Canon DSLRs. There's some really interesting lenses out there once you look beyond the Canon and Nikon brands and do some research.

Chris W
Watson Videography
www.dallasweddingfilms.com [/FONT][/FONT]
Click to expand...

Looks great, also why has the community never spoken on these lenses before? These are the least expensive primes I have ever seen. They are going for less than $50 , am I missing something here? These lenses and specifically your examples look amazing, you just convinced me.

Are there any things I should know about these lenses as for as drawbacks and I need to lookout for?

Once again thank you, great footage and an amazing find!
 
Cieloent said:
Looks great, also why has the community never spoken on these lenses before? These are the least expensive primes I have ever seen. They are going for less than $50 , am I missing something here? These lenses and specifically your examples look amazing, you just convinced me.

Are there any things I should know about these lenses as for as drawbacks and I need to lookout for?

Once again thank you, great footage and an amazing find!
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments. I don't remember how exactly I came across the Russian primes. I think it was in an Ebay search for Carl Zeiss lenses and some Russians put "zeiss copy" next to a Mir 1 or a Helios (which they are by the way). From there, I went to some photo forums where they seem to have a bit of a cult following. After seeing the pics made from some of these lenses, I can see why. Almost all the brands I've seen have "character" which is appealing to me.

As for why you've never heard of them before, they are pretty obscure and from a section of the world not known for world class optics. Like I said, I pretty much stumbled on them quite by accident so it's easy to see why they aren't mentioned as much as German and Japanese glass on here (and most places).

A tip on getting a Helios in the States is to go on Ebay and search for Zenit cameras. For decades, the Helios was the kit lens to these cams and they're easier to find here in the US attached to the cam than not. Good luck!

Chris W
 
Chris Watson said:
Thanks for your comments. I don't remember how exactly I came across the Russian primes. I think it was in an Ebay search for Carl Zeiss lenses and some Russians put "zeiss copy" next to a Mir 1 or a Helios (which they are by the way). From there, I went to some photo forums where they seem to have a bit of a cult following. After seeing the pics made from some of these lenses, I can see why. Almost all the brands I've seen have "character" which is appealing to me.

As for why you've never heard of them before, they are pretty obscure and from a section of the world not known for world class optics. Like I said, I pretty much stumbled on them quite by accident so it's easy to see why they aren't mentioned as much as German and Japanese glass on here (and most places).

A tip on getting a Helios in the States is to go on Ebay and search for Zenit cameras. For decades, the Helios was the kit lens to these cams and they're easier to find here in the US attached to the cam than not. Good luck!

Chris W
Click to expand...

Thank you my friend. Now my last question is what exact mount do you need for these lenses, and is the aperture ( I'm assuming ) controlled by the lens and not the actual camera?


I mostly do narrative work and music videos and can see how I might have just found a gold mine!!
 
I'm not Chris, but you'll need a M42 to EOS adapter like this one.

M42 to EOS adapter

of if you would like Focus confirmation, then this.
M42 to EOS w/focus

The focus adapter won't gibe you auto focus ability with your manual lens.
What it will do is communicate with your camera via the dandelion chip, and when your lens is focused properly your camera will beep. Think of it like focus assist.
 
also, there is nothing new about these besides being now rediscovered by some for video.
there have been quite a worship about the russian zeiss copies for decades in the still world already...
http://www.mflenses.com is a great place to get better awareness of the myriad of possibilities for swapping lenses to shoot moving images.
it's now really a DP's dream to be able to choose lenses with distinctive character to better depict the picture and craft subtle details via the appropriate glass selection.
it's like we always had basic tints like red - green - blue but now this blue can be of any variation from cyan to teal or navy and everything inbetween, whatever suits your vision.
exciting times for imagemakers indeed...
 
Cieloent said:
looking for a wide angle lens, do they have one?
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For wide angle, look for the MIR 38mm or MIR 24mm.

You can find the MIR 38 rather easy on ebay. I found mine here in the states.

However the MIR 24 is a bit harder to find, but out there.

I don;t think that Helios or Jupiter 9 (s) are available in wide focal lengths.
 
Cieloent said:
looking for a wide angle lens, do they have one?
Click to expand...

Yeah, there's the Zenitar 16mm 2.8 which is in reality a fisheye but on a crop sensor it's just a wide angle. The colors are very vibrant. Then there's the Mir 20M which is 20mm 3.5 and the Mir 47 which is 20mm 2.5. Hope this helps!

Chris W
 
rhervag said:
also, there is nothing new about these besides being now rediscovered by some for video.
there have been quite a worship about the russian zeiss copies for decades in the still world already...
http://www.mflenses.com is a great place to get better awareness of the myriad of possibilities for swapping lenses to shoot moving images.
it's now really a DP's dream to be able to choose lenses with distinctive character to better depict the picture and craft subtle details via the appropriate glass selection.
it's like we always had basic tints like red - green - blue but now this blue can be of any variation from cyan to teal or navy and everything inbetween, whatever suits your vision.
exciting times for imagemakers indeed...
Click to expand...

Mflenses.com is one of my favorite places to hang out but it was this thread that made me see the possibilities of the old Soviet lenses......

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/31430-soviet-lenses-club-22.html

So far I have a Helios 44M, the Mir 24M (awesome lens!), and a Jupiter 9. On my radar is the Helios 40 (85mm 1.5) and the Volna-9 (50mm 2.8). Not only does Soviet glass look great but they represent easily the best bang for the buck when it comes to quality primes. All the ones I have are serious overachievers for their price and I'm very happy with them.

Chris W
 
Chris Watson said:
Yeah, there's the Zenitar 16mm 2.8 which is in reality a fisheye but on a crop sensor it's just a wide angle. The colors are very vibrant. Then there's the Mir 20M which is 20mm 3.5 and the Mir 47 which is 20mm 2.5. Hope this helps!

Chris W
Click to expand...

Do you have personal experience with the Zenitar fisheye on a crop sensor?
I have been checking this one; looks great in full frame, but then have heard some negative comments for it's application on the GH1 (barrel distortion etc.)
 
I haven't seen pics of it taken with a 4/3 camera but on an APSC sensor camera (1.6 crop factor), it looks fine and alot of the "fishiness" is cropped out. I'm sure it's even more the case with the GH1 but I don't have personal experience with the lens or the cam.

Chris W
 
I am presently buying vintage Nikon manual primes, but when I get the kit of Nikons I want, I definitely want to branch out into other specialty lenses. I think that the variety of lens choices these HD-DSLRs offer is one of their main advantages, and I am so excited to start using classic glass on these new cameras.

Now, I did an eBay search on "Mir" and a whole lot of lenses are available. Are all of these lenses based on Zeiss copies? Is there a list of Zeiss Soviet designs available? I would want to start with those lenses. However, from what I see on eBay, almost all of the Mir lenses are cheap enough to experiment with, without having to second mortgage the farm.

I was really impressed with the color in the OP video. I am finding that the vintage Nikons produce more muted colors, and while I personally like that, having lenses with a different color rendition would be handy. Thanks for the thread.
 
David G. Smith said:
I am presently buying vintage Nikon manual primes, but when I get the kit of Nikons I want, I definitely want to branch out into other specialty lenses. I think that the variety of lens choices these HD-DSLRs offer is one of their main advantages, and I am so excited to start using classic glass on these new cameras.

Now, I did an eBay search on "Mir" and a whole lot of lenses are available. Are all of these lenses based on Zeiss copies? Is there a list of Zeiss Soviet designs available? I would want to start with those lenses. However, from what I see on eBay, almost all of the Mir lenses are cheap enough to experiment with, without having to second mortgage the farm.

I was really impressed with the color in the OP video. I am finding that the vintage Nikons produce more muted colors, and while I personally like that, having lenses with a different color rendition would be handy. Thanks for the thread.
Click to expand...

Just a word of warning with starting down the path of Russian primes. You'll want to get them all :2vrolijk_08:. So far I have the Helios 44M, the Mir 24M, and the Jupiter-9 and I already have space reserved for the Helios 40 (85 1.5) and maybe a Zenitar 16mm 2.8. It's a slippery slope :cheesy:.
 
Recommendations on a good tele lens then?

Just bought both the 44M and the Mir 24, also got my old Nikkor 50mm, so with a nice tele it will be complete for my part. Suggestions?
 
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