If you are looking for absolute sharpness wide open, I don't recommend this. Then you won't need to worry about flare, unless your light source is in the frame.īuild quality is good - solid metal, and compact. Still, it's better to also attach a real lens hood if flare is a concern. On the plus side, the front element is recessed, providing an ad-hoc lens hood. The background looks as if it was painted with brush strokes.įlare for this lens is greater than most other lenses of similar focal length. It can produce swirling out of focus highlights in some situations. Like many former USSR lenses, it is excellent. The quality of the out of focus areas is one of the main reasons to get this lens. At f/5.6 and higher, the entire image will be extremely sharp, on par with the best 35mm lenses. This is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on your subject and how you want to portray it. At f/2, assuming you are using it full-frame, expect blurry corners, and a sharp center. This lens is excellent for portraits or other low depth of field work wide open.
#Most interesting film bokeh lenses full#
After a few minutes you will get used to it though and the lens will be pure fun! Read full review.Įxcellent lens for the artistic photographer One thing that I don’t like about the Helios is it’s ergonomics: the aperture and focus rings seem to be in the wrong places: aperture near the front of the lens and focus on the rear, opposite of most lenses you can encounter today. If you shoot mirrorless or canon or A-mount, you h ave no excuse. Now the Helios can somehow do the same trick, but at f/2 instead of f/1.2, and at 10% of the price. I love the Tomioka not just for being a 1.2 but for its magic bokeh producing an impression, or rather a suggestion of gentle concentric rings capturing the viewer’s focus onto the eyes of the subject. My all-time favorite is the 50mm f/1.2 Tomioka, the fastest 50 for m42 mount ever.
#Most interesting film bokeh lenses manual#
I have a drawer full of 50mm lenses, from modern Sony’s and Canons through Sigmas and all manual SLRMagic f/1.1 to older Maxxums and Rokkors all the way to classic Yashicas and Takumars. Helios 44 was standard on the Zenit and - if I remember correctly - optional on a Zorki. This lens reminds me of the 1980’s - the years of Lomo and Zenit cameras.