…e look with wonderful flares and beautiful bokeh. If you are familiar with Russian M42 lenses, you’ll know what I mean. While they are not as small as the tiny Kiev lenses, this trio is still very compact; pretty much perfect size from a small camera like BMPCC. They have cine style step-less aperture rings; focusing rings have long throw and you can even buy the custom made follow focus gears, turning them into proper mini cine primes. Now, let’s… Continue Reading
…ticoated optics. While this lens is branded as Helios, it’s not actually a Russian lens. It’s made in Japan, which is not a bad thing, but those of you expecting the dreamy character found in Helios 44-2 and other Russian lenses will not find the same magic here. Again, this doesn’t mean this is a bad lens, in fact it’s more suitable for many projects because it matches modern lenses much better and its character is more suitable for general shoot… Continue Reading
…vintage glass to a professional cinema grade usability. They’ve taken old Russian lenses and given them a housing makeover that allows you to attach them to a PL mount camera and even adapt them back to a canon mount camera with a consistent size, weight and shape. The part that I think is revolutionary is the fact that these lenses allow you to deconstruct the lens so you can create a number of looks rather than stick to just one. The results ar… Continue Reading
https://youtu.be/Z458QMXqWmA Disclaimer: VLFV uses eBay’s affiliate program and as an eBay Partner, we may be compensated if you make a purchase. Our mission is to keep all content free and accessible, so if you’d like to support what we do, feel free to purchase your lenses via the links in this article, at no additional cost to you. Helios 44-2 58mm F2 is a legendary lens, but it just got even better! Welcome the new Helios 44-2 VLFV Cine Editi… Continue Reading
https://youtu.be/mtciTROIte4 Disclaimer: VLFV uses eBay’s affiliate program and as an eBay Partner, we may be compensated if you make a purchase. Our mission is to keep all content free and accessible, so if you’d like to support what we do, feel free to purchase your lenses via the links in this article, at no additional cost to you. If you’ve watched the review above, you should now be pretty familiar with what IronGlass Amber PL Set is all abo… Continue Reading
…low contrast look, unusual bokeh, etc. and as you go along there are other Russian lenses you can add to this set to make it even better. Such set will set you back around $200-250 and while it doesn’t sound like the biggest bargain, it’s totally worth it! You can learn more about them in this post. The “Allrounder” set: Canon FD 28mm F2.8 Canon FD 50mm F1.8 Canon FD 135mm F3.5 This set covers wider focal range, very cheap to buy (around $100) has… Continue Reading
…lens no wider than around 80mm on Super35 sensor. If I couple that with a Russian Jupiter-9 85mm F2, I get blooming at closest focusing distance, because Jupiter itself is designed to focus down to 80cm only. When used with FM, Jupiter is of course set to infinity and its closest focusing ability should be irrelevant, but from my research and chats with other FM users, it appears that it’s best to use a taking lenses that themselves are able to f… Continue Reading
…which I shot with a Helios 44-2 58mm f/2 lens. In my opinion this vintage Russian lens is very special. It has a very nice look to it and when shooting into the sun it creates very interesting flares that add a lot of character to the footage. It’s not suitable for every scenario, but I think it definitely adds a very cool old-school film look the footage shot with it. I personally really like the result I was able to achieve with this lens and i… Continue Reading
…kina certainly goes better with “character” lenses like the 44-2 and other Russian primes, while Tamron will mix much better with higher contrast lenses like Pentax SMC, Zeiss Contax, Canon FD and even some modern lenses, so it’s impossible to pick a winner in this category. Which one to choose will depend on what other lenses you are planning to use it with. Built Quality & Usability: Both lenses are super solid because they are made fully out of… Continue Reading
…eel that a lot of people like and it will match certain prime lenses (like Russian M42 primes) better than other zooms, so it’s all depend on what your other lenses are and what look you are trying to achieve though the use of lenses. Usability: If there is something that these lenses share apart for their name is their pull/push focus & zoom ring, which you either love or hate. I love using such setup for video as I can zoom while focusing at the… Continue Reading
