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Helios 44-2 58 mm f/ 2 Lens
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Owner reviews: Helios 44-2 58 mm f/ 2
Strengths:
- bright f/2 aperture
- swirly bokeh effect
- good build quality (all metal)
- smooth focus operation
- nice aperture preset system
- cheap
Weaknesses:
- lack of sharpness wide open
- it doesn't like front light
- hits the mirror on 5D, 5D mark II and 5Ds starting at 3 meters
Comments:
This is a nice cheap all metal made lens, a bit heavy compared to todays Canon's 50mm lineup. Very good build quality but as far as I know there are several other "versions" of this 44-2 from different plants and depending on the version you get you may experience poorer build quality.
Wide open this lens is not very sharp but you will get nice results, be carefull with front lights as the lens doesn't controls them well lowering contrast some what. At f/5.6 you will get very sharp images.
My copy has no oil on the aperture blades and the focus ring is smooth, prezise and well damped.
I like the aperture preset system, it takes a bit go get used to it. But works great. Set your needed aperture in the preset ring and then you can easily focus at full apertureand then close prezisely the aperture to your preset very quickly.
Color rendition is ok, but I prefer Canon or Nikon lenses in this regard.
One important issue with my copy is that you have to use it carefully on cameras from Canon's 5D line up, mine starting at 3 meters hits the mirror on the 5D, 5D mark II and 5Ds.
Strengths:
- Good build quality
- Smooth focus operation
- Very interesting Bokeh effect
- Great for portraits
- Easy to disassemble, clean and put back together
Weaknesses:
- Unintuitive apparture selection mechanism
- No click for selection of apperture
- Not sharp compared with modern standards
- Heavy for a 58mm f/2 lens by todays standard
Comments:
I love this lense. And taking into account the price; ~25 Euro on Ebay, its a superb performer with interesting effects. I use it with an adapter on a micro four thirds body making it a 116mm full frame equivalent. This is therefor my go to portrait lens.
After purchase I disassembled the lens and cleaned and lubricated all moving parts. This was easy and intuative.
I recommend this lens!
/Gheed
