58/2 HELIOS 44-2

Helios 44-2 – Amazing Vintage Lens

Helios 44-2 58mm F2 has become a legendary vintage lens despite its old technology. Even nowadays, it is very popular among amateur and professional filmmakers and photographers. This lens has a special unintentional ability. Due to its somewhat simple design, there is a swirly bokeh effect that has become very popular. Another reason for such tremendous fame of Helios vintage lens is its price. As it was mass-manufactured, the price was not high. Even today, it is much cheaper than other similar by characteristic lenses.

Description & Photo

58/2 HELIOS 44-2

• Sensor Size: 24×36 mm Full Frame.
• Focal length: 58mm.
• Aperture: 1:2.
• Minimum Focusing Distance: 0.5 metters.
• Focus ring rotates 270 degrees.
• Viewing angle: 40 degrees.
• Diaphragm scale: from 2 to 16.
• Quantity of petals of a diaphragm: 8.
• Inside: 6 glasses in 4 groups.
• Modul Focus & Iris gears: 0.8.
• Weight: 400 gramm.

Design and Body

This lens does not consider to be very beautiful in design because the main task of Helios was not to look nice but to be very reliable. In general, most Helios 44-2 58mm F2 lenses have black color with a small silver ring surrounding the front edge. The body is almost made just of metal and glass. Only when you look at it from the rear you can notice an inner layer plastic casing. As a result, it is somewhat heavier than modern lenses with similar specs. Additionally, 44-2 has high durability, therefore it’s obvious why so many Helios 44-2 lenses have survived in very good condition.

Aperture & Focus

Helios 44-2 is a manual lens. In order to adjust correctly focus and aperture, you need to physically turn each appropriate metal ring. They have very comfortable grips due to sharp line-textured knurling. The aperture ring is easy to turn and it is accompanied by a mechanical sound of click that allows to know that you are making switches in an aperture. There is also a second click-less “preset” aperture ring.

The focus ring is a little more dampened, but rotates smoothly. It is located at the end of the lens and wider than the aperture ring. Both aperture and focus have their own markings for precise adjustments of exposure and focus distance.

What Is so Special in Helios 44-2 from IronGlass Team?

IronGlass Company is focused on improving this vintage lens to the higher quality and to make it more suitable for modern filmmaking tasks. Our special Helios 44-2 allows you to decide which modifications you would like to have and offer such improvements as:

• Possibility to have lens mounts like PL, Canon EF, Sony E and M4/3
• Black or silver body color style
• Metal follow iris and focus gears
• Modifications like: flare mods, internal purple or amber coloring, anamorphic bokeh and your specific modification
• Exclusive multicoating and 16 aperture blade upgrades