Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/10/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I don't know much about the history of the lens - except a Helios 40 existed in 39mm Zenit SLR mount long ago - but I have a Helios 40-2 I bought new a long time ago and used quite a lot. Image quality wide open is rather poor, little definition (less than my summarit 1.5/50) and poor contrast. It doesn't like strong backlighting, either. Getting an appropriate shade (3 filters came with the lens but no shade) is quite essential. Colors are warm but nice, only slightly warmer than the canon FD lenses I believe. It weighs about 1.1 Kg, turning photography into a real sport. Still, it has its own charm and will give you an image at f:1.5. When stopped down, the definition becomes very good and uniform but it still lack a little contrast - good for B&W prints. The jupiter 9 f:2/85 is much better, I picked up a '93 vintage in M42 mount last year for about 30$ and this old design with a modern treatment is great. The inner baffling and black paint is good to, so it gives a good contrast, definition is good to, the "bokeh" is fine for me. But its manual diaph is unconvenient, of course (worse than the helios). I believe an even later multicoated version was made, but never saw one. I also have a '58 LTM: as good as the new one for definition but badly yellowish colors, a little coupling problem I corrected with adhesive tape. I once had a M42 version from the late seventies, inner baffling was not so good, the older and the newer versions are both better. Unfortunately I dropped it and it broke. By the way, I often wonder how they could focus these lenses correctly with soviet bodies and their bad ground glasses or ill calibrated rangefinders... All in all, the helios is definitely not up to a modern 1,4/85 lens, whereas the jupiter 2/85, or at least some of them and especially those post-soviet models, could optically challenge many modern and well made 85mm lenses. hop this can help. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html