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Hello! After a while not posting anything at all I wanted to share my views on one alternative lens I got not long ago, and also share some shots using this glass. The lens is a Soviet Helios 44M-4 58mm f/2 lens.
Introducing the lens:
From what I've read about it before I got it, it's one of the most popular lenses from the former USSR (soviets were really good at photography equipment so I decided to give it a try). The lens was made by the brand Zenit, one of the most famous from the USSR. It's a small, simple-built lens.
From what I've read about it before I got it, it's one of the most popular lenses from the former USSR (soviets were really good at photography equipment so I decided to give it a try). The lens was made by the brand Zenit, one of the most famous from the USSR. It's a small, simple-built lens.
It's a fixed focal lens (58mm) and its maximum aperture is f/2, making it really bright.
Price: on eBay you can get them from 20€ (there are several versions, mine is the 4th version). I got it for 29€ (this one was almost brand new) + 6€ from the M42 adapter*
*You must have in count that you need a M42 adapter to fix it to modern DSLR cameras.
Personal views:
35€ for a f/2 lens...what can I say! It's an amazing, much cheaper alternative to any modern 50mm f/1.8 if you don't mind focusing manually. The sharpness won't be the same as modern 50mm lenses though, that's sure, science advances!
The bokeh on this one is really soft, I like it better than the bokeh on my Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 D. Being so soft you must be really accurate focusing at f/2. Also, at this f/2 aperture setting, the edges aren't sharp. Nevertheless, at higher apertures edges are okay and you still get a nice unfocused background.
One important problem of these lenses which need adapters, is that it's technically impossible to focus at infinite. So this one would only serve if you have a focused foreground closer than around 2 meters.
Four fast-made pictures shot at f/2 so that you can see the foreground bokeh and the focus softness (sorry I haven't had enough time yet to shot some more with this lens):
And now two comparisons between two shots shot at f/2 and f/5.6, and two shots shot at f/2 and f/8.
Hoping you like them and hoping somebody starts getting interested about these not-so-known lenses which are so attractive and exotic to me. I love exploring sites like eBay looking for the cheapest bargain.
In case you buy it and have some doubt or just feel like sharing your thoughts/works with it, I'll be really glad to hear from you. There's usually some Helios 44M on eBay for a low price so I'd say you'll always be able to get one.
Epic pics' - Volume II
The work is huge. By browsing a bit over this website I easily find amazing pictures without the deserved appreciation. I keep putting my hopes on these journals helping them get the deserved visibility and helping them get finally well-rated.
Here's another bunch of images to enjoy (and again, I strongly suggest you to show some support by faving or commenting or doing some sort of interaction with the artists).
Hope you enjoyed them. If you spot any great, underrated work don't doubt on sending me a note and I'll probably add it in further features.
Epic pics' - Volume I
Hello, after a long break I'm back on dA and during this time one idea has been constantly crossing my mind: there are lots of great pictures on this site which are totally undiscovered and underrated. This is the reason I'm featuring here some of these photos which are amazing but which I believe they haven't become too popular.
In case you like any of the pictures (or all of them, which I hope!) I strongly suggest you to interact by faving, commenting, etc. That's some extra fuel for we all photographers, and I'm sure they'll appreciate it, and it'll also encourage them to continue working.
Hope you enjoyed it, I'm looking forward to make
DIY: Dark filters for Monochrome long exposure
Hello! After a break I'm back with Journal entries and this time I think we'll go a bit further than just shooting with things we buy built: we'll build a filter ourselves.
Which filter will we build? For what it can be useful?
We'll be making a dark filter with a welding glass (those glasses you put in the welding mask not to get your eyes burnt with all the light coming from welding). These glasses have a green dominant, that's why we should turn them into monochrome (B/W, Sepia, etc) in postprocessing. The best thing is that I got the glass in a hardware shop for only 2 euro!
Personally I've glued a 77mm ring (for my Sigma 10-20, check
Before and after - Postprocessing.
Hello, I've decided to share some of my original images next to the final edited results, so that you can see the difference -sometimes huge, sometimes not that obvious- between them.
The software I use to edit them is Lightroom 3.4 (for colour and lightning) and Photoshop CS6 (for cloning, deleting and moving things). The way I edit the colour and lightning is quite intuitive, that's why I see kind of hard to make a tutorial to explain. Each picture is asking for different settings so I'd just reccomend to experiment until you find some result you are happy with. I've chosen 12 before/after examples:
-Sepia and B/W edition:
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Comments14
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Hellios 44-2 it's god for close-ups and macro stuff. I have increased the distance between lens elements but still not working to infinity.