The only downside I experienced with this lens was due to the adaptors I was using. I find that the vintage look of lenses like this really adds to the charm of the final photos. The goal when taking pictures with vintage lenses is not necessarily achieving tack-sharp images. Especially compared to the Super Takumars I used in my last vintage lens video. This copy of the Helios 44-2 is not the sharpest lens. You can see it the most when there is a good amount of space between the background, my subject and the camera - the background swirls around Mathilda. However, it’s a flaw that is very welcome creatively. One of the characteristics of the Helios 44-2 is it's swirly bokeh, which is technically a design defect. Vintage lenses can produce results that are not possible to achieve with digital lenses. The following photos were taken with the Helios 44-2 on the Fujifilm X-T4.
The Helios 44-2 will now give us a field of view of 87mm which makes this a great portrait lens. I especially loved this lens on the Fujifilm X-T4 which has an APSC sensor. The Helios 44-2 really shined for closeup portraits. You can see this in my SOOC 100% crops of the images I took in my video.ĭan & I will tear down the Helios for a service and clean prior to using for a future photoshoot to see if any improvements in quality and sharpness can be achieved. When taking mid-length portraits, there was never a stand out point where the image was in focus. Thus, focus peaking is too distracting for me and I prefer not to use it.ĭespite all these focus assist features available, I found that my copy of the Helios 44-2 is soft in some areas which is honestly somewhat expected from a lens of this age, quality, lack of maintenance and price. However, I find that it appears over too much of the image and covers important features such as the eyes. I also enjoyed using the Digital Split Image in Colour.įocus peaking is a focus assist feature available on both Sony and Fujifilm. Where the checkers start to disappear is where the image is in focus. The Microprism brings up a checkered circle over the middle of your viewfinder.
While I was taking mid length portraits, I found the Digital Microprism was extremely helpful. The Fujifilm X-T4 has a lot more focus assist features that I found useful on the day of our portrait photoshoot. Continue reading to see why you should consider using vintage lenses on your digital camera.Īll photos edited with my Palm Valley Lightroom Preset Pack!
#Helios 44 2 bokeh video manual#
This opens up a lot of extra vintage manual focus lenses that can be used with the Fuji X mount system without the additional focal length crop.Ī setup like this can be a fun, stylistic, creative way to practice your manual focusing skills on the Fujifilm X system with film like results using film simulations and recipes.
#Helios 44 2 bokeh video full#
This would reduce the crop to nearly complete full frame coverage, about a 1.1x crop instead of 1.5x. Side note: With Fuji it’s also possible to mount via a M42 to EF adapter + EF to FX Metabones speed booster. Here’s a quick rundown of what mount + adaptors I use:įE mount // I use a M42 to EF adapter + EF to FE Metabones IV or Vįujifilm X mount // I use a M42 to EF adapter + EF to FX adapter which causes a 1.5x crop In this blog post I want to share with you why you should consider using vintage lenses on your digital camera. That’s why I’m using both Sony and Fujifilm for this photoshoot, and I can also adapt them to Canon EF or RF. All the vintage lenses I own I get in the M42 mount so I can adapt it to any system I use. The Helios is a lens made for film cameras, so it requires manual focus when used on a digital camera. I had a couple of questions during my last portrait photoshoot with a vintage lens. The Helios 44-2 is a 58mm f2 lens and during this photoshoot I am using it on the Sony A7III and Fujifilm X-T4.