If there’s one thing I know for sure it’s that I have pretty much settled on my current stable of camera bodies - these include various NIkon’s which those of you who hang around here will no I prattle on about them a lot and for M42 shenanigans I keep two very lovely Spotmatic cameras handy! This is not a review of the Spotmatic but it is fair to just say at this point that for me its the best M42 camera!
Lenses lenses lenses! That’s what we’re really here to talk about - the reason I even own the Spotmatics is to give myself access to the wonderful world of M42 lenses and in particular I love Eastern Bloc/Soviet glass. There’s some beauties available - this blog is the first in a series running some fairly subjective and unscientific tests, basically I’m just gonna shoot the heck outta these things and report back on how i get on in a fairly ad hoc manner - sound good? good! Let’s go!
We’re starting with a lens i think every photographer should own - the Helios 44. In fact we are starting by comparing two slightly different versions of this lens:
Helios 44 which is the first version of the Helios it came in M39 mount with 13 aperture blades a funky purple looking lens coating and just generally a bit more exotic (read expensive) and looks uber cool in silver.
Helios 44-2 which was the next iteration now in a native M42 mount it is much more common (read cheap) has 8 aperture blades but looks pretty much exactly the same except now in black.
Build quality is comparable across both lenses - the aperture selector is easier to turn on my Silver Helios but the focus ring feels smoother on my Helios 44-2 so let’s call it a draw. It’s worth stating at this point that any assessment of Eastern bloc/Soviet equipment (or any vintage kit for that matter) should be seen as being applicable to ‘this specific lens’ rather than ‘this applies to every copy ever made of this lens’ time and tide have no doubt been unkind to some of this gear over the years and frankly some of the build quality out of the former Soviet Union wasn’t brilliant to start with so YMMV (quite a bit) In fact that’s one of the reasons for writing this blog - there are some many flipping (often contradictory) views on which lens is best etc etc that there really is no susbtitute for finding these things out for yourself!
Right - on with the review! The caveat here is that I didn’t shoot the lenses alongside each other (I told you this was unscientific) these shoots took place on different days, on different film, under different lighting with a different model - so you know, there are lots of differences but this feels like more of a real world comparison so let’s see how they shape up… the one thing that was the same was these were both shot on the Silver Spotmatic F.
This first set were taken back in August with the very talented, amazing and lovely model Sophia - we made the most of that late summer sunshine for this one, these were shot on a roll of ever so slightly out of date Kodak Gold 200 which I rated at 100 ISO and we used a reflector to bounce some of that natural light and give the images a little ‘pop’
Next up we have a set shot with the equally talented, amazing and lovely Danni - shot with the same Spotmatic F but everything else is different!! These were shot on Ilford HP5 pushed to 1600, light was fairly mixed sometimes overcast/sometimes bright.
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! Thank you to both!! :) You Rock!!
So what do we think? Is the more expensive (and cool looking) Helios 44 worth the extra cash? Do those extra aperture blades make any difference in real life use? What about lens coatings? Sharpness? Bokeh? Contrast?? Should you just stick with the cheap 44-2 and move on with your life?
Let’s just agree that ‘sharpness’ as a concept is massively overrated OK? OK! that being said…looking at the images my initial reaction to the colour shots with Sophie was that they are acceptably sharp but I wasn’t blown away with the sharpness, I am usually pretty good at nailing critical focus but felt like I consistently just missed it with some of these shots, not so much that it detracts from the image but I noticed…. ya know? Maybe it’s because the focus ring was a little more stiff on the Helios 44 I don’t know.
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!
When you consider that I paid £10 for the 44-2 lens and about £60 for the Helios 44 then it’s really a no brainer!! In fact I have now sold the Helios 44 for £70 (£10 profit)!! And I’ve invested the proceeds into acquiring a Carl Zeiss Biotar lens - basically the grandparent to the Helios line! I paid exactly £70 for the Biotar and when it arrives I’m going to run a similar non scientfic test to see how that performs! Either way I’ll be keeping the Helios 44-2 when it comes to bang for your buck it cannot be beaten!