If you are a sharpness fanatic, you should probably choose a more modern 85mm. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a little something extra in terms of portraiture, this may be just the thing for you. Four different versions of magic.

back to Part 1 or fast forward to Part 3

I’m glad you found it interesting enough to check out the second installment of this series, in which I’ll delve more into the background of the Soviet Helios-40-2 85mm f/1.5 lens for M42 cameras.

What is it?
This lens, in the M42 mount, is called Helios (occasionally called Gelios by the Russians and Ukrainians). It was compatible with screw-mount cameras made by Pentax, Yashica, Praktica, Soviet Zenit, and other manufacturers whose cameras have the native M42 mount.

Four versions, with slight variations
The optical and mechanical designs are the same in all three variants. They also have a perfectly round iris, thanks to their more than ten aperture blades.

1) My version, the Helios-40, is immediately recognized by its bare aluminium/chrome body and non-rotating tripod mount that lines up with the bottom of your camera. Its single-coated lenses have a reddish-purple appearance. The filter measures an unusual 66 mm. With the thicker front ring, you can set a preset aperture by turning the wide, non-detent ring until it stops after setting the click-stopped aperture ring to the desired aperture. Focusing is done via the scalloped ring at the back (1 m to infinity).

2) The Helios-40 “B” is identical to the previous model except for a revolving tripod collar that fastens with a thumbscrew. This is a huge step forward. The tripod socket would wind up in an awkward position if you attempted to mount the original version on an M39-M42 ring.

3) The Helios-40-2 and the Helios-40 “B” are identical, except being black, having a 0.8-meter focus distance, accepting normal 67mm filters, and perhaps being multicoated.

4) The only difference between version #3 and the Helios-40-2 export is that the inscription is written in Romanic characters. I recently saw photos of a version from 1979, the footage was taken open and appeared to be razor-sharp.