The early Helioses (like the one in this review) have 13 aperture blades (that’s 5 more than the later 44-2) and also have an M39 mount rather than M42. As you and others may know this can be a risky business but even if you get a dud you have at least contributed to a worthwhile cause. The Soviet Union manufactured millions of this lens in different variants and it shipped as standard lens on many Soviet (Zenit) cameras. At the end of Wold War II the Russians took the Zeiss’ designs and materials back to Russia and copied them.

The Biotar was initially manufactured for cinema use, and then adapted for the Exakta mount in 1936. Later Helios-44 versions have a more "normal" rendering although the core characteristics are still there. I have one of the older versions of this lens it’s heavier slightly shorter with a narrow stop down ring at the front of the lens, this needs stopped down after you choose the aperture or you end up taking pics wide open, this lens has been paired with my Pentax SV for around ten years and is always my go to sunny 16 combination, I pick this up when I start to lose it with medium format ( a work tool ) which happens several times a year the simplicity of a sunny 16 combination always frees up the mind and gets the creative juices flowing once again, the Pentax SV is an ideal no nonsense tool and once you familiarize yourself with an old Helios lens you will find yourself using both without thinking, it becomes second nature a perfect pairing although I’m sure it would work on other cameras I’ve never found the need. I definitely felt that with the Helios 44-2 / HP5 shots with Danni that the shots were more crisp and sharp where they needed to be - obviously film and development/scanning is a factor here too folks so these are just my thoughts but I do feel like in this completely subjective and unscientific test I have to give this round to the 44-2! We do our best to ensure that when we’re reviewing a camera or lens, that the camera or lens is as good as it would have been when it was just a few years old.

And yeh a screen seems to work best with the smaller cameras, and the larger ones beg a greater level of immersion, that a viewfinder gives. There are even some wild stories about serial numbers starting with double zeroes that were reserved for bribing foreign dignitaries and spies. With a 58mm lens on a full frame camera you don’t have much change of capturing a Chinese Water Deer or Barn Owl up close.

The beauty of bokeh is in the eyes of the beholder and it seems that it looks quite pretty and attractive in quite a number of people’s eyes. Travel photographers have a lot of freedom in selecting the tools, compared to photographers specializing in one thing. While this lens has decent sharpness and stunning bokeh, it flares excessively compared to many modern lenses and is prone to spherical aberrations.Dont misundestand me, its adequate and good but just a bit softier for me (i shoot mostly city structures recently). On full-frame cameras the lens is always sharp enough for portraits, when your subject is in the middle of the image frame. I have owned at least one variation of the following models – 44-2, 44-3, 44M, 44M-4, 44M-5 and 44M-6. A revived Biotar by the “new” Meyer-Optik Görlitz, same optical formula but with 14 blades aperture and faster at f/1. Reflections: Ok so the first thing that is worth stating is how amazing both Sophia and Danni are, they are two of my fave people to shoot with!