Spring flowers with Helios 44-3 MC

Last week there was spring in the air. The earliest flowers to pop up was the Scilla Forbesii. So I grabbed the chance and captured some blue color with the Helios 44-3 MC.

Some images of the lens itself.

Helios 44-3 MC front

Helios 44-3 MC 8-bladed iris

Helios 44-3 with pre set rings

Most of the Helios lenses were made by KMZ (Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory) or JOV (Jupiter Optics Valdai) and had a slightly different naming syntax that can be confusing when shopping for them. The 44-3 from MMZ-BelOMO (Minsk Mechanical Factory-Belorussian Optical Mechanical Association) has a different look and more blades in the iris than the others from the same era. It also kept the pre set operation that is very neat with modern digital cameras.

Pre set lenses have two aperture control rings, one with click stops where you set the wanted aperture first, without stopping down the iris. Then you turn the other ring to smoothly close the iris down to the pre set value just before the exposure. It won't go past the pre set value and lets you keep concentration of the composition in stead of the camera. It also reduces camera shake and you are free to stop the closing down at a wider aperture than the stop value if that suits you better on the fly.

Just remember one thing if you start looking for the Helios 44-3 MC. There can be compatibility issues with your camera adapter. On some lenses, the bottom part of the focusing ring protrudes backwards further than the stop flange of the M42 mounting thread. So when it is screwed on to the M42 adapter, the focusing ring will be the first part to mate and thus be jammed tight. This is easily fixed if you have access to a lathe to machine away a millimeter of the ring. On the image above you can see one of the mounting screws for the focusing ring. Just unscrew these and take it away for modification, it is as simple as that. If you don't have these skills in the workshop, be sure to ask for images of the lens rear from the side to judge if the lens will work on you camera or not. Have a look at this forum thread regarding this issue for a nice illustration http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/77158-caution-helios-44-fans-potential-buyers.html.

Now some flowers. Scilla Forbesii, earlier categorized as a part of the Chiondoxa family.

Scilla Forbesii with Helios 44-3 MC. Swirly bokeh used wide open.

The swirly bokeh (swirly background blur that looks as if was watched through the bottom of a bottle) comes from the old lens design with low correction of spherical aberration. Some people love it and some are not that fond of it. Below is one more sample.

Scilla Forbesii with Helios 44-3 MC. Swirly bokeh used wide open.

Now, if you don't fancy the swirly bokeh, it is easy to get rid of with this lens, see below.

Scilla Forbesii with Helios 44-3 MC. Swirly bokeh gone by f/2.8.

As you can see, the swirliness is totally gone just by stopping down the aperture from f/2 to f/2.8.

Scilla Forbesii with Helios 44-3 MC.

The lens can render a nice amount of 3D-pop with high micro contrast and sharpness. So it is not only a bokeh marvel, rather a versatile walk around lens.

Now I tried some macro extension tubes to get the minimum focusing distance shorter and the result is really good. The pre set operation lets you select DOF and bokeh simply through the viewfinder. Just turn the smooth close down ring and see how the image transforms in front of your eyes. This is of course not possible with small apertures since the image will be very dark but it works great roughly  between f/2 and f/8.

Scilla Forbesii with Helios 44-3 MC on macro tubes.

With a few centimeters of extension tubes the lens has a life size macro capability i.e. 1:1 magnification ratio. 1:1 ratio is had when the image you are capturing is projected on the sensor at the same size as the object itself. So if the flower is 1 cm wide, it would occupy 1 cm of the sensor width. Think about this as the name macro often is misused by the lens manufacturers. A kit zoom or camera that has the name macro printed on it usually has a magnification ratio of only 1:5 to 1:3 somewhere. That is not macro, rather just close up capability. This cropped image is captured at roughly 1:2 magnification.