"It wouldn't be easy to tell them apart in a blind test" you got that right my friend! 🤔

If you decide to pick one up, look for the Red "T" on the front, right next to the "Biotar 2/58", it means it has a Zeiss Coating that prevents it from losing that much contrast while shooting against a light source.

Thanks for your great comparision! And Happy Hollydays!

Such a great artist. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and experiences!

Your voice sounds great too, and no hot air, all spot on.... Thanks!

I really really like the rendering of your silver Helios, the warm tones it produces and its swirls are fantastic! Personally my favorite Helios is the very early Start bayonet mount version!

Wonderful video as always! Partly inspired by your videos, I now am a huge Biotar/Helios-44 fan. In the last 6 months I have picked up a Helios-44M, M42 Preset Biotar, and recently a Helios-44-2 (but it looks different to yours). My Biotar was fairly cheap, being included with a Edixa Reflex body for AUD $180. The focusing ring is a tad stiff for my taste but usable. I love using it, but the images seem to struggle with bright light. The Helios-44M is really good, but heavier, and I find the aperture ring feels very cheaply made, but image quality is wonderful. I’ve only had the Helios-44-2 a few weeks and love it, image quality seems wonderful. My only gripe is that unlike the preset Biotar, they have the numbers on the aperture ring backwards. So when using the click less ring it is wide open when on the stop you’ve preselected and stopped down when at f2. The Biotar works logically and is much easier to know what you are on. I saw a pristine preset 12 blade (or 13 blade unsure) Biotar with the red T in a shop recently, they were asking AUD $500 for it. If I had the money I would have bought it haha anyway, my long term goal is collect as many of the Biotar and Helios-44 models as I can, partly to see how they compare, and partly just for the fun of the chase.

How not to like this video... many thanks and happy Cristmas!!

I love this video, I’ve been thinking of adding the Zeiss Biotar to my kit after recently using the Helios 44-2 on a project

What a wonderful, balanced review of these lenses. I have an early Helios that I've been very happy with, I will have to inspect it and see how many blades the aperture has. I also have two of the same exact Biotars that I got in lots, but unfortunately have never used them. They are both in terrible shape, focus ring frozen, haze, scratches, you name it. I tried to have them cleaned but no one around here will touch them with a barge pole.

New video, a boxing day treat :-)

Wow what a great video! I hear the later Helios 44M-6 and M7's are sharper but not built as well. However, I was thinking of buying a Biotar, and after seeing this I think I will stick to my helios 44's & and 44M's (I have 12 of them....) they are such good lenses!

Your passion for photography is deliciously infectious. Thank you for the work you do!

You have to try out Biotar 58/2 with 17 blades, I've heard from the people that have tried a lot of different versions of biotars, that 17 blades is the best ones. I just ordered it, in black body, and I'm very excited to see how it performs.

LOVE the videos !!! ... I used to have several Russian cameras but sold them off but one ... my Kiev 4AM ... I have the Jupiter 12 and 8 but since I have seen this video I'm getting Helios 44-2 !!! .. I do a LOT of flower pics in the Summer here and it would be a good fit on my Olympus OM-D M5 ... THANKS !!!!!!

A wee bit of technical info I thought I should share. I recently bought a 13 blade Helios 44 and after a week of rain, today was the day. I went down to my local churchyard to capture the last of the cherry blossom. I had adapted the lens on my A7ii with a L39-NEX adapter but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t achieve focus at any distance. Back home I dug out a M39-M42 step up ring and screwed it onto the lens mount. Using a M42-NEX adapter, it then focused properly at all distances. Friday looks good weather-wise - fingers crossed! Thanks as ever for showcasing 3 lenses I now own. Your video made me even keener to start testing the Helios 44.

Love your videos

Nice lens. :)

Wow. Good review. I'm actually debating getting a m42 Biotar vs. my current Helios-44 13 blade. I'm primarily interested in more sharpness wide open and more contrast. But maybe your review will keep me from dropping more coin for a Biotar after all.

Thank you for the video. I use Helios-44M-4 with my Praltica PL Nova I and I like it, but recently I bought Exakta Varex VX (1954???) with original Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 2/58 and I'm just waiting for delivery, but I will gladly describe the impressions after testing with film.

Im waiting for my helios 13 blades, hope it will works on my xt20

Hi, it is a great video. I have a question, do you think we can change the optic of helios 44 with the optic of biotar?

thanks for your video, especially for the part about color rendition. is there any more recent version of the CZJ Biotar having lens multicoating? was this lens ever recalculated again (and produced again) in the later years?

Not sure if you have one but I'd love to see a video one lenses similar to the Canon 50mm dream lens. Haven't found a video like that yet

Beautiful video, thank you. Any tips regarding which adaptor is needed for a Canon 80D? In advance, thank you. 👍🏻

Once again mate, you've Delivered the *Swirly Stuff.* :-)

I’ve got a Helios 44 2/58 (the silver one, on a Zenit 3M). I’m about tho get adapters for it and a couple of 80s Nikon lenses to my M4/3 G9. So the Helios should be around 116mm FF equivalent. Really looking forward to it, more so after watching this! Cheers 🙂

Awesome rev. I got me mint first version 12 blades. Hope to find good EXAKTA to Leica M adapter somewhere?

Good morning from Brazil.

Would you kindly research and do a short/long video about the 16blades helios 44-2 zebra lens!!!

I have the Helios 44-13 blades ...best vintage lens ever!

Hello! I hope you're doing well during these crazy times. I've been inspired by the French impressionist movement of painters, including Monet, Renoir, etc. I'm looking for lenses that might be able to recreate the impressionist style in photography. In your experience, what might be a good fit? I have a Helios 44M-7 and have been looking into Petzval lenses, as well as the daguerreotype from lomography. Thanks

I don't know if you've read it online, but there's substantial differences between the versions of the biotar with the manual version with the 17 blades (not the preset) having the reputation of being the best. I bought this version and I'm excited to use it.

Have you tried the Helios 44-3? It is multicoated & in B&W it has excellent 3D pop. It is a close second to my 50mm f/1.8 Canon Serenar which is the yardstick by which I rate the micro-contrast of my other lenses. I have a Pancolor but it is seriously in need of a clean. However, it has an Exakta mount with a strange stop-down mechanism jutting out of the side... Scary Zeiss engineering! I also have a 13 blade Helios 44. Its serial-# starts with a zero. I love its colour rendition & bokeh but I feel a little precious about it. I use the 44-3 on a macro focussing adapter & it pretty well lives on my Sony a6000. Since I got it my Helios 44-2 really has its nose out of joint! The silver Helios 44 is used so much for portrait & other close up work that I did not notice that it cannot achieve an infinity focus on a standard M42 adapter. That bubble was burst recently when I tried to shoot a couple of brightly painted vintage cars in Fremantle. I simply could not get far enough back to include both vehicles in the frame & still pull a focus. Amazing the difference a mere 0.3mm can make! I strongly believe in modifying the adapter, NOT the lens!!! I found a temporary solution using a 17-31mm M42-NEX focussing adapter, a short M39 macro tube (with M39-M42 ring attached) & a bit of nail varnish to mark the infinity setting. All this falderal only to find that those cunning Russians had already thought of a solution: The second largest ring on an M39 set of four macro tubes is the correct length to use these early Zenit lenses on FED or Zorki rangefinder cameras. So, attaching this 16.Xmm tube to an LTM adapter gives the correct flange distance, no M39-M42 ring needed. It works with all of my M39 Zenit lenses; the Mir-1, the Jupiters & the Helios. With the added bonus that rangefinder lenses can be used for macro work, or, the tube can be removed to use these LTM lenses normally. A very versatile contrivance! Best wishes for lots of happy lensing in 2020 & greetings from Down-Under, fm. ;-)

I have a 44M-4. What are the differences between this version and 13 blades or 44-2 versions? Thanks for your videos!!!

Bought this lens recently as well

Got the Biotar 17 blades

How would you compare the Helios 44 with 13 blades to the pancolar 50mm 1.8, you have mentioned?

Helios 44-2 colors are a bit more muted and the coating indeed is different. However, for people shots the skin tones the Helios 44-2 can produce are spot on. No weird color issues with skin and post processing hell. It's a huge asset if you shoot people.

Hey Zen, does Helios (silver, 13 blades) have radioactive thorium in its elements?

I had the carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58/2 17 blades with M40 mount. It only had a nice bokeh. The Optics were not good so I sold it on eBay. I got the Biotar 75 F1.5 and this thing is in every aspect a good vintage lens. Thanks for the review! Please keep up the good work!

it is possible for you to point me to the 13 version on ebay to be able to buy it. I would not be wrong. is there an adapter for Fuji from m39? thanks and I hope you can help me. your video is perfect. but since I'm Italian I'm afraid of making the wrong model. I like the 44 13 blades because it seems to me the most contrasted. thanks if you want to help me

I got myself the black zebra, it's easy to find, and black color doesn't look very exotic as silver one and matching my black camera body

excelent review ,,,, the problem with a Russian lens is to find a good copy .,,,one of my favorit russian lens is the Industar 50mm f/3,5 silver made in 1966 ,, some Helios 44-2 are not made in the same factory , KMZ , valdai, Lomo .etc

The prices are now at least 5x now.

When reviewing lens you should I end with WHAT MOUNT IS THE LENS!!! You can not assume p we only know what mount the lens is for This is essential information which you almost always OMIT

☕️👍

Please learn how to pronounce Jena, yen-na, not gen-na.

Is this ASMR? Your voice is so relaxing