My eleven u.s. Dollar lens

[rpcrowe]

I seldom purchase a legacy lens because of its low price, I usually am looking for legacy lenses that have special renditions like the 55mm f/1.8 Helios with its swirly bokeh. However, for lack of anything constructive to do, while recovering from my cardiac problems, I was perusing the Goodwill Auction Site (Goodwill is a charity resale organization) and I found this lens for eleven U.S. dollars plus a few bucks shipping. Since I really like the IQ of my Sears Auto 55mm f/1.4 lens, I thought that I would take a chance on this lens for eleven bucks. The novelty of shooting with an eleven buck piece of glass was another reason for the purchase...

The manufacturer of this lens is pretty obscure. It might be Tomioka (who made the 55mm f/1.4) but, that is unlikely. More likely it was produced for Sears by either Ricoh or Tokina. It is an M-42 mount lens which I adapted to my Sony A7iii with a cheap, "dumb" adapter. The lens works equally well on my A6400 using either a "dumb" adapter or a Viltrox EF-E Mark-2 adapter which gives me an approximately a 135mm f/2.0 equivalent. Being an M-42 mount lens it is totally manual focus and supplies no information to the camera. However with the focus peaking capability of my Sony cameras, using a manual focus lens is actually easier now than it was on the cameras for which the lenses were designed.

It is a decently sharp lens on my A7iii camera but, it doesn't seem to have any specific characteristic rendition like many of my other legacy lenses. The optics are too good to have the flaws that make my other legacy lenses enjoyable to use.



However, it does have one feature that I wish every lens, especially telephoto lenses would incorporate: A RETRACTABLE LENS HOOD! I have had this type of hood on my Canon 400mm f/5.6L and 300mm f/4L lenses and it is a joy to work with. The lens is also fairly small and seems very well made. The solid build of the lens is reminiscent of many old Tokina lenses that I have owned. Of course, being made entirely of metal and glass it is fairly heavy for its size...

Will I keep this lens? Very likely, just for the novelty of occasionally using an eleven dollar piece of glass:wink Will it get a lot of use. I seriously doubt it! I have a Sony 70-200mm f/4 lens that is very sharp and supports great AF including Eye-AF on my A7iii and my A6400. However, I may try the 135mm on my A6400 for some outdoor portraits at f/2.0 equivalent

[xpatUSA]

An absolute bargain and a nice shot!

Hoping that it has survived the trip from Kiev, my Zeiss Jena M42 Flektogon f/2.0-35mm has arrived in Houston and will likely be at my local Post Office, Monday or Tuesday.

I have it in mind for the Panasonic GH1 but I also have a M42-SA adapter for the SD15 ...

[rpcrowe]

An absolute bargain and a nice shot!

Hoping that it has survived the trip from Kiev, my Zeiss Jena M42 Flektogon f/2.0-35mm has arrived in Houston and will likely be at my local Post Office, Monday or Tuesday.

I have it in mind for the Panasonic GH1 but I also have a M42-SA adapter for the SD15 ...

She's a very patient model and has never said, I don't want my picture takes because my hair isn't done

Let's see some shots with your new/old Jena. I love old Zeiss lenses and have several; of them. I also like the Meyer Optik lenses.

Having two mirrorless cameras is nice since I can shoot with a legacy lens on one camera and a modern lens on the other. That way I am sure of getting the shot using the modern lens with the added possibility of a really creative rendition with the Legacy lens...

[dem]

I wondered about "the special renditions like the 55mm f/1.8 Helios with its swirly bokeh."

I don't think such lens exists:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_(lens_brand)

I have got the 58/2.0 version (there are about a dozen of different designs of it) which seems to be the most common Helios on ebay.

Are some Helios more special than others?

[rpcrowe]

I have a Helios 44-4 58mm f/2.0 lens. This is a later model that may or may not produce as much swirl in the Bokeh as do the earlier 44-2 lenses. However, I have heard that the 44-4 model is sharper than the 44-2. I can't verify this because I have only the 44-4 with which to work...

The swirly bokeh of the Helios lenses is produced when the subject focused on and the background are the right distances from each other. Apparently, you don't want the BG to be completely blown OOF in order to get the swirl. Additionally, the type of background has a lot to do with the bokeh also. It seems that busy backgrounds result in more apparent swirl.

I have shot with the Helios and have attained some amount of swirly bokeh such as in this shot at an Oktoberfest celebration...


However, the lens did not produce its swirly bokeh to any great degree in this image...


It didn't produce the swirl very strongly in this image either. But, I still kind of like the rendition...


Apparently, the lens also produces more distinctive swirly bokeh when shot on a full frame camera than when shot on an APSC format camera. But the 58mm is a better portrait focal length (87mm equivalent) on a crop sensor camera than on a full frame camera.

I am glad that you brought this up, since I have recently acquired a full-frame Sony A7iii and will put the Helios to work and see what parameters will produce the most apparent swirly bokeh for me!

The Legacy lens whose bokeh that I just love is the Meyer Optik Gortliz Oreston 50mm f/1.8. Here is an example of that bokeh:

This seems like a love it or hate it type of lens...

Here is what appears to be a pretty comprehensive explanation regarding the use of these Russian Legacy lenses.
https://digital-photography-school.c...ios-44-2-lens/

It's a lot of fun using these old lenses on Sony mirrorless cameras. Focus peaking makes using manual focus lenses fast and rather easy; at least as easy as on the original SLR cameras for which these lenses were designed.

[jllaurado]

I just got an Helios 44-2 (with a Zenit camera attached to the rear end) and though i haven´t tested it properly yet (lack of time), i am very excited, mainly with its sharpness.
I just took one picture with my Olympus Pen E-PL6 MFT, to see how difficult it might be in focusing, and i was short of amazed of the result. The conditions were far from ideal, midday, harsh spanish sun, no EVF, but it went pretty nice, the sharpness was very good overall. I don´t know how this might compare with the 44-4 but i was surprised for such an old lens to behave this well.
f/4
P9040119 by jllaurado65

[tao2]

Hi Richard,

I have a lot of legacy lenses. 135s are amongst the most commonly bought and used. Sears mostly used rebranded Sun Optical, Tokina, Makina and Soligor. They also sourced Samyang, Sigma, Albinar,Chinon,Kino.Your lens is most likely Sun Optical or Tokina. It's really difficult to make a bad 135mm. (though it has been done, even in the, present).

Re the Helios lenses. Like all lenses the background has more effect on bokeh than any lens configuration. The lens is only an enabler. I have 9 Helios lenses (inc a 135mm.(Pentax-made) a 28mm (probably Pentacon) and 7 different Helioses. The Helios is numbered as the latest model arrived. they're numbered Helios 44, Helios 44.2 44.3 etc. The optics improved with each iteration, which is why successive models were sharper etc. They all have that characteristic of "swirly bokeh"

Haven't been here for about a year but tiny pix still doesn't work . Why can,t we install a picture loader that works from our PCs? See ManualFocuslenses for an example...

This piece below, from "digital photography school " must be the worst piece of photographic journalism that I've ever read!. Grammatically appalling and he gets spelling, comprehension and grammar wrong in the first sentence! Am I supposed to believe what he says after that...

" Here is what appears to be a pretty comprehensive explanation regarding the use of these Russian Legacy lenses.
https://digital-photography-school.c...ios-44-2-lens/"

[jllaurado]

I have also the same lens model but differently branded (Erno) and i´m very satisfied with its results. I read that this model was made for different brands (Sears, Erno, Vivitar,...) but i haven´t yet found out who was the original maker of the design.

[xpatUSA]

I have a Helios 44-4 58mm f/2.0 lens. This is a later model that may or may not produce as much swirl in the Bokeh as do the earlier 44-2 lenses. However, I have heard that the 44-4 model is sharper than the 44-2. I can't verify this because I have only the 44-4 with which to work...

The swirly bokeh of the Helios lenses is produced when the subject focused on and the background are the right distances from each other <>
Here is what appears to be a pretty comprehensive explanation regarding the use of these Russian Legacy lenses.
https://digital-photography-school.c...ios-44-2-lens/

It's a lot of fun using these old lenses on Sony mirrorless cameras. Focus peaking makes using manual focus lenses fast and rather easy; at least as easy as on the original SLR cameras for which these lenses were designed.

Thanks for the excellent link. I have a feeling that Merklinger's treatise on focusing will aid understanding of relative distances vs. bokeh:

http://www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/TIAOOFe.pdf

Not easy reading though ...

My Flektogon took a trip from Houston to the wrong Post Office, then back to Houston, but today it has actually arrived at my local PO!

[rpcrowe]

One nice thing about some Legacy lenses is that if you try one and don't like the results. you are not out a great deal of money because most of them are quite inexpensive although the proliferation of Sony mirrorless and M/43 cameras have made these lenses more expensive Since these cameras can easily use adapted lenses.

Case in point is the Yashinon 55mm f/1.4 lens which was produced by Tamioka under a few other brand names also such as the Auto Sears, Auto Chinon and the, I think, Mamiya Sekor 55mm f/1.4. The Yashinon branded lens has gathered a cult-following and is priced far more than it ever cost new, https://www.ebay.com/itm/Near-Mint-A...49d31a126b0e07 while the other branded lenses, also produced by Tomioka, are gaining in price but, not at the same rate as the Yashinon version. The Sears Auto 55mm f/1.4 is still a decent bargain since (IMO) the Sears brand always stood for decent but, usually not great gear.



The Sears company sold everything from cameras to sporting goods to appliances but, always re-branded items produced by other manufacturers. Whether a Sears item was good or mediocre depended on which manufacturer they sub-contracted to produce it under their brand names. I am looking forward to doing some portraits using the 55mm Sears Auto f/1.4 lens which is a great portrait focal length (87.5mm equivalent) on a Sony APSC mirrorless camera.

There are many, lenses produced under auspices of the Eastern Block in the late 20th Century, such as the Meyer Optik Gorlitz and Zeiss Jena lenses as well as the thousands of Russian Helios lenses that are more expensive now than they were previously but, are still bargain basement lenses when compared with modern glass. I would guess that if one was shopping the flea markets of the once Eastern Block countries, you might get some of these lenses at really rock bottom prices That would be a lot of fun.

I generally only use Legacy lenses to get their specific renditions. However, the Canon FD lenses (from film SLR days) and many versions of Pentax and Minolta lenses are close to the equal of many modern lenses. These lenses were once give-away items; since there was not (until the advent of mirrorless and M/43 cameras) any convenient way to use these lenses on digital cameras. They can produce some very good to excellent I.Q. but don't have the optical flaws which produce the distinctive renditions of many of the other Legacy Lenses. Since the Chinese produced dumb adapters for the various Legacy lenses are so inexpensive (usually in the area of ten U.S. Dollars or less), I just mount an adapter on a lens and keep it there. It makes switching between Legacy Lenses easier...

As I said, I use these lenses only for their distinctive renditions such as this 135mm Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar 135mm, another Post WW-II East German lens produced on Pre WW-II Zeiss designs under Russian Occupation...



I have six or eight Legacy Lenses which in aggregate, cost me less than one modern lens and are very enjoyable to play with. My main aim in photography is the enjoyment it brings me...

I thought, "What the heck!" and put my Helios on the A7iii and stepped out my door to shoot these two quickie tests of spiral bokeh...





They are both wide open at f/2 with one image having the principle blooms lit by the same light as the background and the other with the background blooms in the shade...

[GrahamS]

An absolute bargain and a nice shot!

Hoping that it has survived the trip from Kiev, my Zeiss Jena M42 Flektogon f/2.0-35mm has arrived in Houston and will likely be at my local Post Office, Monday or Tuesday.

..

You will really appreciate the Flektogon. It has a unique signature that is pure Zeiss. I treasure mine.

[xpatUSA]

You will really appreciate the Flektogon. It has a unique signature that is pure Zeiss. I treasure mine.

Thanks, Graham. Yes, on my Panasonic m4/3 it has already bettered the 14-45mm kit lens!