Short review of most interesting soviet manual focus lenses such a Helios-44-2, Helios-81H, Tair-11A, Jupiter-37A, Industar-50-2

 

Buying old soviet lenses, you find rather intresting picture by low price.

Let us begin with Helios-44-2. It is a copy of german lens Biotar. It has focal length 58 mm, 8 of diaphragm blades (and sometimes 13!), maximum aperture of f/2.8 and no multi coating.

As a planar Helios-44-2 has whirl bokeh. It is used for accentuate hero of the picture

You have no warranty about sharpness Helios-44-2 because soviet optical plants sometimes work for the large quantities, not quality. And now there are more then 8 millions Helios-44-2 in a world!

Another situation with Tair-11A. It is rare lens. It has 20 (!) of diaphragm blades, focal lenth 135 mm and very solid structure. Some photografes says that Tair-11A is the "bokeh-monster". Yes, it is a very pleasant lens and I can recomended it to purhase

So, the same I can say about Helios-81H. Friendly speaken, it is my loves lens. In Russia it has beat all soviet lenses witn focal lenth of 50 mm! It has multi-coating and glases witn lanthanum. That why we can see a very good resolution. In addition I can say that Helios-81H has corrected spherical aberrations, and low hromatic aberrations. The picture of this lens is very nice, gentle and... just magnificent!

Now about Jupiter-37A.Well, it has a good contrast (especially version with multi-coating). The picture of this lens has a deep atmosphere and light gold colouring. It is a usefool for portraiting because has focal length 135 mm

At last, Industar-50-2.It is very compact lens. Some people do not believe that it can do good work. And nevertheless Industar-50-2 do it! By optical scheme it is classical classic Tessar with focal length 58 mm. It has a good resolution. And in the same time it draws rather gently and delicate.

 

So, look for the my next review!