photography

Helios Dreams - Shooting Portraits with the Helios 40-2N

 

There really aren’t that many lenses left on my “flipping heck I really really really want to own that” list - I am fortunate to have owned / sold on some pretty amazing glass in my time! That being said there is one that I have finally managed to tick off the list - the Helios 40-2! I’ve had one in my sights for a few years now - just casually waiting for the opportunity to bag it at a price that made sense - and that time has arrived my friends! Behold the Helios 40-2N 85mm 1.5!

You will probably have heard about the Helios 44 series of lenses, they are small, cheap and plentiful - easy to obtain and every photographer should own (at least) one! I’ve written about these sovet era lenses previously HERE and HERE But the Helios 40-2? This is a different beast all together! It’s big, heavy, relatively rare and unless you get very lucky they can be quite expensive too.

The eagle eyed among you will note that it is mounted on to my Nikon F2 - that’s right, this ‘N’ in the name Helios 40-2N stands for Nikon - although strangely enough it won’t quite make infinity focus…. I haven’t seen any othe reviews mention this but it definitely doesn’t focus to infinity, nearly but not quite. The good news is that this first and foremost a portrait lens and in that role it’s not often you’ll want infinity focus, but even still. Anyway with that minor gripe out of the way let’s dive into some lens geekery shall we?

I could quite easily write a whole blog post about the history of post world war two lens design and manufacture in the USSR and fellow eastern bloc/satellite country the DDR (but I won’t)!

Suffice it to say that this lens is based on a 1930’s German Carl Zeiss design and then WWII happened and long story short it didn’t end well for Germany in lots of ways, one of which was having large swathes of their industrial and technological knowledge taken as reparations - optics and lens design being one these technologies. And so not long after that the Soviets started churning out lenses that were strangely similar to those 1930’s German designs…. any who…enough with the history lesson because while there is certainly a long heritage to this lens’ design, my version is actually my most modern lens (by quite some margin) using the serial number to date it this Zenit Helios 40-2N was built in 2016! Yep that’s right - they still make them in Russia to this very day! This late version has a redesigned housing (and IMHO a more user friendly lay out) than the older versions - its also cheaper to buy than the classic versions.

Some folks like to shoot the older style perhaps because this has an aesthetic appeal or it complements their other camera gear, but me I’m a shooter first and foremost and I love this more modern looking lens, not just that but the handling is very good, the focus ring is smooth as silk - some of those older versions are more than 50 years old so it’s a bit of pot luck whether you’ll have a nice smooth focussing action after all that time!

The Helios 40-2 is well known for creating wonderfully swirly bokeh and heck yeah - it certainly does do that well, but it’s more than a one trick pony, I think there are several stand out features which make this lens a must for your camera bag.

I took it for a spin on a portrait shoot with the lovely Danni and the Nikon F2 - I shot two rolls of 35mm film that these first images are from a roll of expired Konica Pro 160 which I have to say I like VERY much, it being expired at least 10 years ago I gave it an extra bit of light and rated it as 100. In an unusual move for me I tried my best to shoot all of these wide open at 1.5 or very occasionally stopped down to f2 - reasons for this are that those wider apertures play to the dreamy charachteristics of this lens and I wanted to make the most of them.

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The image above was the very last frame on the roll and it’s probably my favourite of the whole shoot! Shooting wide open - especially with a manual focus camera like the F2 presents a challenge and even though the depth of field isn’t quite even across both of Danni’s eyes - I actually don’t care! I am coming more and more to the idea that critical sharpness is not that important when it comes to overall image quality, and yet some folks obsess over it! I’m much more into the overall look and feel of an image, what kind of textures are at play - you can see that the Helios 40-2 is capable of critical sharpness but as with many great portrait lenses it isn’t so sharp as to be unflattering. Things dissolve into a lovely dreamy mush out towards the edge of the frame - again this is perfect for framing your subject in the centre and giving them a little more POP!

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The trees lined up in the distance caught my eye for this composition and I really love how this shot came out - the out of focus areas have a painterly feel, plants in the bottom right corner doing that melty/dreamy thing again and there’s a bit of refined swirl going on in the background. I’ve read that you need to have the correct distance between you, your subject and the background to really make the swirls appear - I’ll definitely be trying it out again next time!

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Again more melty/dreamy bokeh and a hint of the swirly stuff in the background - there’s some motion blur and a bit of glow around Danni framed in the centre which is another nice effect of this lens, some people might say that these features of the lens are weaknesses but to me this is all part of the point. The Helios 40-2 is like an art lens - sure when you photograph test charts wide open it’s not the best performer but where’s the fun in that? I love how the lens resolves light!

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Now let’s take a look at some of my faves from the 2nd roll, this was Kodak Gold 200 - technically expired but it’s been on ice since fresh - I shot these at 100 too as I find Kodak Gold really does respond well to a bit of over exposure.

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Dreamy dreamy dreamy dreamy…. love it!! I would have loved to have nailed critical focus on Danni’s eyes for the shot above but that’s the joy of film over digital innit! No instant replay - you just gotta do your best to nail it right there and then! I still really like this shot - you can get pretty close up with the Helios!

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These two shots are among my faves too - I love the tones and the grain, that melty/dreamy background is doing it’s thing again and on these two occasions I even managed good focus on Danni’s eyes - whatever next?!

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I like the overall look and feel of the shot below although I’d have liked (and was aiming for) good focus but it wasn’t to be….I’m including it here to demonstrate a couple of things, first: look at those bokeh balls of light in the background! Yum! Secondly: This was shooting pretty much directly into the light - the lens handled it with aplomb! Another reason in my view to go for the more modern lens as it has modern coating

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Is this lens technically perfect? No. Is it the sharper than a really sharp thing? No. Do I love it anyway? YES! One of the many things I love about shooting film is that so many of your creative decisions are made up front - choice of film, lens and then of course exposure, composition and use of light, you have to commit to that moment and work with what you have at hand. Digital invites you to spend more time after the fact bringing your creative vision to life - and sitting at a the computer moving sliders around in lightroom just isn’t my idea of fun! I’ve said this before many times in these blog posts but it bares repeating as this lens really does illustrate the point - the Helios 40-2 is a creative tool, it can add a dash of dreamy, swirly, melty goodness to your shoot and that my friends is worth the price of entry!

life through a lens....

It's no secret that I'm a fan of vintage film cameras (in fact some might say i never shut up about it....) so imagine my delight upon discovering that some boffin in a shed somewhere has invented an ingenius device that allows me to use some of these ancient lenses on my Canon 6D DSLR!

(just in case you are struggling to imagine the extent of my delight, let me tell you that i was pretty blooming delighted)!

Carl Zeiss Tessar 50mm 2.8 on the 6D

Carl Zeiss Tessar 50mm 2.8 on the 6D

the ultra high tec device that makes all of this tomfoolery possible....

the ultra high tec device that makes all of this tomfoolery possible....

The adapter itself is basically a metal ring which attaches to the lens on one side and then has a Canon EOS mount on the other to attach to your camera - there are some ridiculously cheap ones (£2) and some ridiculously expensive ones (£30) - i opted for somewhere in the middle - the 'X C Source' branded version which was £8. I'd recommend getting one with the focus confirm chip attached as pictured, as it allows you to programe in the focal length and max. aperture of your lens so that not only can your camera record EXIF data (aperture, ISO, shutter speed) but most importantly it allows you to program inthe correct focal length and max aperture of the lens which helps the Camera to ensure you get accurate focussing - it's a bit of a faff to be honest but once it's done you're good to go.

another with the Auto reflex on the Canon 6D

another with the Auto reflex on the Canon 6D

As for the lenses the ones featured here are M42 mount lenses - M42 being a very popular mount used by loads of different manufacturers back in the 60's and 70's - which means that there are hundreds of different options to try out (and they're relatively cheap too) here's my small collection:

Helios 44M/4 - a Soviet classic with legendary swirly Bokeh abilities! although this one only works on my Canon 5D

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm 2.8 - another Soviet classic, this East German lens was nicknamed the 'eagle eye' becuase of it's sharpness!

Zebra stylee!

Zebra stylee!

Auto Reflex 55mm 1.8 - an 'unbranded' lens that cost next to nothing with a Chinon Camera, the image at the top of this blog was taken with this - not bad eh?!

oi! gimme my lens back!!!

oi! gimme my lens back!!!

Auto Chinon 35mm 2.8 - my obsession with 70's era mid range Camera manufacturer 'Chinon' continues!

There is something to be said for the additional challenge that shooting with old lenses brings above and beyond the physical and visual characteristics of the vintage glass itself (which can render some lovely dream like images) and of course most of them are dirt cheap! the most expensive M42 lens in my small collection was £20!

Carl Zeiss Tessar on the 6D

Carl Zeiss Tessar on the 6D

In time I'll do a bit of a review of each lens using both Digital and film (as nature intended) but for now I'll finish with a few general pointers on what you can expect when shooting with classic lenses on modern cameras:

Aperture Priority shooting -  you'll have to manually adjust aperture and then set the aperture on the camera to corresponding number as it won't always do this automatically, no biggy!

Viewfinder - because of the way the lens adapter works the narrower you make your aperture the darker your viewfinder will get as it lets less lightthrough - not much of an issue in daylight but in low light situations, focussing and composing can be tricky (which is why focus confirmation is a good thing)

Focussing - you may find it hard to find focus as modern DSLR's do not have focusing screens so the confirmation chip really helps

Manual means Manual.....I realise this is obvious but just in case you hadn't figured it out that these are of course all manual focus lenses - you're fancy auto focus system won't work here!

Helios 44m4 taken with a Chinon CM3 camera.. i think this is on Rollei Retro 80S film...

Helios 44m4 taken with a Chinon CM3 camera.. i think this is on Rollei Retro 80S film...

Helios 44M/4 on a Chinon CM3 body using Rollei Retro 80S film - developed at home in Rodinal

Helios 44M/4 on a Chinon CM3 body using Rollei Retro 80S film - developed at home in Rodinal