Article By Bill
Using old lenses - some thoughts if you wish to try it.
At last weeks meeting, during Tim Gamble’s talk on Light Painting he mentioned the use of old manual lenses on his Sony digital camera. Fitted via an adapter, he mentioned one lens in particular.
This was the 58mm f2 Helios 44-2, its an old Russian lens (now referred to as FSU - Former Soviet Union) and many may remember it as one of the standard lenses of the Zenit (Or Zenith) E camera which was at the budget end of the market in the mid-late 1960’s.
The original lens ( a copy of the pre war German Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar whose design was taken by the Soviets as part of the WW2 war reparations) and later variations were sold in their millions and were made in several different factories in the FSU. This led to variations in quality, much has been written about this on the internet. I personally have used several over the years and never had one that could not produce an acceptable image.
The lens sells on average on eBay between £20-60 and can sometimes be found cheaper (strangely often when sold with a Zenith E Body) and partly because of the price they are very popular, their two ring preset aperture system makes them a favourite with video users as there are no noisy click stops to spoil the sound.
The Helios 44 series lenses are well known for their Bokeh. In his talk Tim employed the well known technique of reversing the front element of the lens. This produces a unique bokeh , examples of which can be found on line. The simple construction of the lens makes it fairly easy to reverse the element and again instructions can be found on line. Special tools needed can be bought quite cheaply or improvised. It is something I have not personally done despite having dismantled many lenses over the years, and yes, they did not all go back together!
The attached photos show the lens on a Zenith E camera and a couple of comparison samples from different factories. These are denoted by the small symbols on the lens ring.
Generally, the first two digits of the serial number on FSU cameras and lenses denote the year of manufacture.
Bill Salkeld
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