If you’re interested in starting a collection of vintage lenses but aren’t ready to spend big on the high-end models, the Helios 44 series is an excellent place to ignite your passion for vintage photography. These lenses are celebrated for their striking, swirling “bubble” bokeh and rich color rendition. In terms of quality and performance, they’re reliable for non-radioactive vintage lenses, though many benefit from a thorough cleaning and proper lubrication to perform optimally, especially in colder conditions.

There are several variations of this lens all with different character. They are all similar and yet very different, built with the same goal – to copy the Zeiss Biotar. In this blog I’ll be discussing the 44-2 and in that way build on top of my in my former post where I did a short test of some of my 50mm lenses. The Helios 44 is also very much appreciated among artistic photographers who adores it for its qualities and abilities.

First Impressions

The Helios 44-2 is probably the lens I both love and hate the most. It can be a real challenge to use, yet it delivers the kind of expressive, vintage character that makes me adore it. The biggest frustration is its preset aperture system, which makes selecting the right aperture a royal pain. The lens has two rings: one to set the aperture limit, and the other to adjust the aperture within that limit. Together, this setup makes changing the aperture unnecessarily complicated, but the results can still be worth the effort.

Corner to Corner

Center sharpness on the Helios 44-2 is decent, but the edges and corners suffer noticeably. This is especially true on a full-frame camera, while an APS-C crop mitigates some of the worst effects. Overall, if sharpness is your priority, this is not the lens to reach for. That said, stopping down to around f/4 to f/8 can reveal some surprisingly nice details, especially when you consider the subject distance. Even though I rarely stop it down myself, it is interesting to see what this lens can achieve when pushed toward its sweet spot.

Identifying the lens

I am always getting confused about the series of Helios, and judging from the many posts there is to be found on the net, am I not the only one to be confused.

KMZ – Krasnogorskiy Mechanicheskiy Zavod, or the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant if you like was the biggest producer of these lenses, and my version also originate from their factories.  Their numbering series adds to the confusion but the best description i have found is this :

• Since 1971 they used the standard system, where first two digits means year of production: e.g. 7103215 = 1971
• Earlier lenses don’t use it: silver models and some black+white models
• Silver models are typically 000, 00, 0: oldest models (“red-P / 5,8cm”) are 000 or 00, while later ones (58mm) are mostly 0
• 13 blades vs 8 blades: 000 and 00 lenses have 13 blades; lenses with serial number lower than 022… have 13 blades and higher than 029… have 8 blades; no data for 022-029; I’m not sure, if this is true for every lens, but for many of them it seems to be OK
• Black+white models are 00 or 0… later use standard system

so… my guess (only for KMZ Helios 44/44-2 lenses!):

N 000xxxx – N 0017xxx -> silver, 5,8cm red-P, 13-blades
N 0018xxx – N 0072xxx -> silver, no data, likely 13-blades
N 0073xxx – N 0225xxx -> silver, 2/58, 13-blades
N 0226xxx – N 0244xxx -> silver, no data
N 024447x – all later SNs -> silver, 2/58, 8 blades

N 0075xxx – N 0521xxx -> black+white (pre 1970)

00854xx – 011xxxx -> black+white (1970 or early 1971)

71xxxxx – xxxxxxx -> standard numbering system (1971 and later)

as for the system:
000 – prototypes
00 – politics
0 – factory leader

 Swirly bokeh with the Helios 44-2 lens

You might have seen images taken with this lens where the background appears to swirl in a circular pattern. This phenomenon is known as “swirly bokeh.” Certain vintage lenses, such as the Biotar and Petzval, produced this effect due to a quirk in their optical design. You can also see this characteristic in this Christmas photo, where the swirling is clearly visible without being overly distracting. The signature look of this lens is truly distinctive, and it has earned a dedicated cult following, particularly for the Helios 58mm f/2.