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Helios 44-2 58 mm f/ 2 Lens

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Helios 44-2 58 mm f/ 2  lens

Helios 44-2 58 mm f/ 2  lens

Helios 44-2 58 mm f/ 2  lens

Helios 44-2 58 mm f/ 2  lens

Optical design

Helios 44-2 58 mm f/ 2  optical design

Format: 35mm SLR

Type: Prime lens

Focusing: Manual Focus (MF)

Lens mounts: M42

First year of production: 1950

Last year of production: 1990

Optical design: 6 elements in 4 groups

User reviews (11)

Photos (78)

Tests (0)

Owners (221)

Views (80538)

Average price: $50

Specifications:

Focal lengthMax. apertureMin. apertureBladesMin. Focus (m.)Filter Ø (mm.)Weight (gr/oz)Length (mm/in)
58mmf/2.0f/1680.549230/8,157/2,2

Additional information:

The Helios 44-2 58 mm f/ 2  (Russian: "Гелиос") is a fast standard lens with a single coating. This lens was developed basing on Biotar 2/58 (Carl Zeiss Jena) lens.

This was one of the most spreaded lens that were released for a "ZENIT-E" camera. Helios 44-2 58/2 has a thread mount M42x1. Aperture control is manual with a pre-adjustment ring. In spite of it's popularity and low cost Helios 44-2 58/2 provides very vivid, contrasting and enough sharp images.

Images taken with this lens are airy and have a nice and a little bit swirly bokeh.

Resolution by the lens technical passport: 38/20 lp/mm
 


Links to online resources:
Posted by: Yarkii   Date of publication: 05.02.2011



Photos taken with this lens Helios 44-2 58 mm f/ 2 :


Beetle bokeh
Autor: Foto Klok
5 0 5291

Spring Flowers Blue
Autor: SharkDD
5 0 904

Katia helios
Autor: Antonio Pedroni
4.83 0 5610

Faunus
Autor: NerveNet
4.8 2 2032

Mechanical quality3.7363
Optical quality3.8563
Usability3.7562
Pricing / Value4.6963
Bokeh4.7161
Overall lens rating
4.15

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Owner reviews: Helios 44-2 58 mm f/ 2

NerveNet 11.03.2020 22:32:27
Period of use: 3 years

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.




gheed 03.02.2016 11:25:00
Period of use: 6 months

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