them 58 be addictive

I bought a vintage Minolta 58mm f1.4 in mint condition. I paid way too much for it, but I couldn't resist the fact it was mint (it genuinely doesn't look like it has ever been used). I use it on my Fuji XT2. Stunning results. They are reputed to be a bit soft at f1.4 but I must have got a particularly good version because it is sharp as anything even at f1.4. It's great for portraits and generally produces lovely natural colours that I don't get on any of my other lenses. I also have a vintage Pentax 50mm f1.7 which I should sell now but can't bring myself too, because I love that one too. So I'm stuck with two lenses around the same range (even though the 8mm in APSC does make a huge difference for portraits). I also have a Pentax macro 50mm which is great too. These vintage lenses are addictive.

30 years ago I bought a working 1972 Zenit E camera with the KMZ Helios 44-2 lens for the princely sum of five dollars at a camera show.

The one lens in this category that all the channels I follow on vintage lenses do not mention nor test is the 58mm F1.4 RE Topcor. This, of course, is the predecessor to the fabled Voitlander Noctun 58mm. Please Nigel, get your hands on one and take it out for a spin. Also the RE Topcor 35mm F2.8 and the 100mm F2.8. Beautiful lenses and deserved of some critical reviews. Yes, I am a Topcor fanboy as I see the usual lenses from Pentax, Konica, Ziess, Jupiter and Helios on just about every channel. Getting monotonous. Find the Topcors, test the Topcors, give some love to the Topcors.

i think 55/57/58mm lenses are a fantastic alternative to a fast fifty-they take away the "wide angle" aspect of the medium length 50mm and instead acts as a full telephoto whether on full frame or aps-c. can really help with framing! and the difference in rendering between 50 and 58mm is pretty significant.

Nikkor S 58 1.4 was my 1st 58....love the smoosh and separation...very addictive indeed!

Rokkor 58 1.4 . My favourite lens Ever.

My first Helios 44-2 got a huge amount of oil on the blades, after I had owned it for two years or so. I paid $40 US. I liked it so much, I ordered another one, this time I bought it from a Lens Tech who had CLA'd it and regreased it with modern silicone-based grease. I paid $75 US. Well worth it, the lens is flawless.

I’ve got a top notch vintage 58” f1.8 that does double duty. It’s the nifty swifty Konica Hexanon 40mm f1.8. On my Fujifilm APS-C cameras it’s a “58” (60), while it serves at it’s intended 40mm post on my full frame Sony..... love the focal length and lens itself in both scenarios. Highly recommended if it fits your needs. 👌

I have several 50mm lenses. The Minolta 58mm 1.2 or 1.4 are very soft and dreamy wide open. But from 2.8 they are very sharp and have great colours. It's fun to shoot with the old lenses. I bought the 1.4 with totally oily aperture blades. It was easy to disassemble and clean. It works like the first day😊

I have a 44-2 KMZ Helios (1971 version), and I love it, such a gorgeous lens! Indeed, compared to the 50mm (Canon Nifty fifty and the Asahi Super Takumar F1.4) it has a much tighter framing, handling and shooting requires a very different mindset than the 50mm. I was very surprised at that, did not expect such small number difference to make such a big practical impact. Yet, it does! 👍

I have a Voigtlander nokton 58 1.4 and it is marvellous on my FM2n and on my X pro too ( of course longer on the fuji) If you can afford it get one...you will not regret it.

One of my faves is just shy of 58 at 55- the 1.8 SMC Takumar 55mm. But the Helios 44-2 is a very close second.

Happy Eastern to all and greetings from Germany. I own a nice smooth silver KMZ Helios and I love it.

I’ve got a vintage Minolta 58mm 1.2 that I LOVE! I adapt it to my full frame sigma FPL.

Love your videos so much!

My absolute favorite lens is the Meyer Optic Gorlitz Primoplan 58mm F1.9. It is a true unicorn lens.

same here, i started with the Helios 44-2 KMZ, actually i have 2 of them. Its my always to go-lens and the most reliable one can use - i am in love with russian lenses, also I am using the Zenit-E M42 camera. the Helios 44-2 makes the best photos, the blur is incredible and the fades between sharp and soft are are incredible.

Hortensen Tupperware the 9th is the absolute best alter ego! I myself will be known as Humperdink von Swirly Bokehnen when shooting out and about. I personally enjoy the Helios 44M. The extra 8mm is a lot more significant than one would be enclined to think. Even on full frame.

I have a few 55-58mm lenses, biotar, helios, pentax but by far my favorite is Tokyo Kogaku re.auto-topcor 58/1.4 even more than the newer voightlander 58/1.4 in nikon f mount.

That symbol on your b grade Helios is for the Valdai plant. I have one from Belomo and it's really nice. I just got it recently (with an EF adapter) and use it on a A6300 with the Viltrox speedbooster (saving up for a full frame camera currently) and I have a blast with it... it's got so much character like no lens I tried before, really fun to play with! :)

Not sure about how close the focus is with all 3 compared, but I forgot I had a helioadapter for a dying Konica project laying about, that works perfectly for my Minolta. It's a little odd being able to focus from two positions, but adding this macro to the Minolta has made it quite a powerhouse on my Fuji X-H1. Very pleased. Your humble servant, Admiral Thadwhipple D. Yehaldemiser.

I will take your advice and try one!

Wow, Sir., i really loved this video. I have the Konica Hexanon 58mm f1.4 and didnt expect you to say that you love its colors. Am gonna try shooting with it. I think youve typed it as 58 hexanon while it actually is a 57mm lens.

I really enjoy using my KMZ built Helios 44m-4 58mm f/2 on my Pentax SP500 and SP1000. I can use that extra focal length to stand back and melt into the background when I'm doing street photography. A 28mm or 35mm wide angle lens means I have to get close to the subject, but the 58mm brings the subject to me and it kind of helps me to be invisible. People out and about doing their shopping don't think I am photographing them and just crack on with their day.

Minolta 58mm 1.4 of is the first vintage lens I bought and will be the last I part with!

Voigtlander 58mm f1.4 arguably one of the best 58mm out there

I've had two KMZ and two Valdai (the symbol yours has in this movie) and the Valdai were both sharper at infinity, while the KMZ had more interesting blur and swirl wide open. The oft-cited social media online mantra that the KMZ is superior is open to user interpretation of the images they like to take, I think. Also, the factory years varied in all cases and quality checking varied through time so some Valdai are better for some things and some KMZ and some Belomo may be worse or finer.

Yes lots of Helios 44 lens are nice to great like 44-2 but I think the original Biotar 58 mm is very great too… I bought the Biotar 58 mm 17 blades from Ukraine last year… very satisfied except that I have too many m42 lenses now 😅

I have a couple of Helios 44s, one an M42, the other in PK mount. Both of them are crying out to be used. Oh yes, the KMZ logo is on both of them, so I look forward to some decent results when I finally get a round tuit. Many thanks to Boeuf Wellington-Fishfinger III for his efforts ite and a bite.

I have both the Rokkor-PF and KMZ Helios 44 with 13 blades. Both are terrific lenses but quite different in character. The Minolta gives beautiful colours and is wonderfully smooth in the out-of-focus areas. I have found a lens hood makes it perfectly sharp at 1.4. Without a hood it picks up a lot of stray light and this may be what's softening the image wide open. The Helios 44 has a different character entirely. It's a much older design which probably has something to do with it. The look is definitely vintage++ but also very beautiful. The infamous twist to the out-of-focus area really only shows up under very specific conditions. I have way too many Soviet lenses - I just love the properly vintage character they have. I agree with you that the Helios is the more interesting lens but the Minolta is an absolute diamond.

nyc loves your lens videos

I have a later version of the MC Rokkor 58mm f1.4 it is a beautiful lens and I love all of my Rokkor collection. But I do prefer my Mamiya Sekor 58mm f1.4 (radioactive) 10 bladed lens, the colours and blur from this lens is incredible. It does produce warmer images than the Rokkor so I have a choice to make when I go shooting. I wish I had a 57mm Hexanon among my collection, well not yet.

Thanks Royceton! Now I know why my Canon 28mm looks so damn good on a MFT camera (2x crop = 56mm). Everything looks more linear and squared up, and just a bit more compacted (like a tele).

I do have an M42 ZENIT - BIOTAR-Krasnogorsk T* 58mm f/2 lens, which brings me excellent results, even at f/2 !

Hello! That badge on Helios-44 is not Belomo it is Valdai.... I believe that the quality of any Helios is primarily related to the year of production of the lenses. The Soviets took out a huge amount of Zeiss sand from the occupied zone of Germany, so until the sand ran out the optics was at its best.... Thousands of factories with technologies and engineers were taken out of Germany, the same Krasnogorsk factory is essentially a trophy of the war. Probably other optical-mechanical plants of the USSR, in Minsk, Zagorsk, Valday, Kiev, were also trophy plants in terms of equipment....

Dear Nigel I am new to your channel. It’s great. Informative, fun and relaxing. I love your roving reporter Royston Hartford Harrington IV. Please accept my best wishes and thanks. John

I have 3 Helios - one I reversed, another anamorfaked. The preset ring is a plus.

Love the channel! Just going through your back catalogue …. did you ever do a review of the best FSU lenses for the smaller MFT bodies?

I think you’re onto something with the foreign correspondents. Just need to get a consistent name for each location. Preston Stubblefield the 3rd did a well rounded sysnopsis of the minolta lens.

⭐️

Zeno... Try to put deep lens hood on Minolta and try F1.4 than + maybe good multicoating ir filter It should be even better. Than with slight touch in editing it's became very usable F1.4 image.

the best one is the mamiya sekor 58 1.7 m42 and really hard to find and even rarer to find in serviceable condition

Minolta has always been somewhat under-rated. I own a run of the mill, 1970s, 50mm f/2 that shoots rather stunning images. Optically, I'd rate them as high as vintage Canon and Nikkor lenses.

Creepy story - I went with my girlfriend and my parents to Avebury circa 1978 (when I was 18) and my father noticed something that I didn't. At that time there were sheep (probably to keep the grass down) but, as my dad said, the grass was noticeably much longer around the stones. It seems the sheep didn't want to get too close to them. Weird. Great video by the way although I'm at a loss to understand why so many people are fans of this background blur (bokeh - hate that word). Understandable for portraits, still life (plants, flowers, food etc) where it isolates the subject, but when I see street, landscape, architecture, social pictures, I want to know what's going on in the whole frame rather that just the focus of it. [Respect - f**kin' love this channel].

Be good to compare image quality on apsc vs full frame when you shoot with Fuji and Sony

Interesting quote, "sharpness is a bourgeois concept". Dan Milnor?

Standing next to those stones, I'm reminded of Spinal Tap for some reason... 🙂

There is currently a range of Zenit branded lenses including a 58 1.9. I don't know anything about its ancestory but possibly descended from the Helios. I assume they are not currently obtainable in western countries (not that I want to buy one).

Nigel, will a 13 blade Helios 44 produce swirl with a crop sensor (X-T3)?

i just looked up the silver kmz 13 blade version on us ebay. 225.00 all the way up to 362.00 usd. ouch! you got a steal. :)

Got an auto Topcon 58. 1.4…but not any digital adapter

Very british love it ❤

Hi Nigel, greetings from Austria 🇦🇹 Happy Easter! Thanks for the upload! I always wondered why there have been many 50+ mm lenses such as 52 mm, 55 mm and 58 mm. Do you know the answer? Best wishes Ralf

I cannt affort a Zeiss Otus 58mmF1.4 used. When do you decide when you need a new lens or camera?

Hi Nigel, one more question: In the early 1970s the camera manufacturers often use weird focal length of 52 mm, 55 mm, and 58 mm instead of 50 mm. In the 1980s they used 50 mm for the most part. Do you know the story behind it? Best wishes, Ralf

Novice query please - what adapter mount will I need to get it on my Fujifilm XE1?

So which was your favourite

Yeah I have way to many 58mm lens myself lol

ok so yaknow how like, a 90mm will kind of flatten a subject, like facial features, and a 35mm will kinda accentuate them? BUT the 35mm on an aps-c and a 90mm on a large format camera can potentially have about the same effective focal length? do the flatting and accentuating effects then go away, by virtue of the sensor being larger? or do those remain, and the only effect is how much area around the center of the frame is captured? i suspect its the latter, but this is the bit thats always confused me. and i apologize if my question isnt super clear - like i said, im confused haha

don't get wait a 58

Does the Helios come in L39 mount ?

I think finding a 58mm or 55mm is difficult, because of prices, location to buy a used lens (you're in merry old England) and the lens's condition. If you buy one online (like eBay), you've no idea what that lens has gone through. I've often found it ironic that out of tens of thousands lenses made by canon, nikon, Pentax, Minolta and others. Certain lengths of lenses they are hard (if not impossible) to find some forty to thirty years later. If found, they are as expensive as their 21st century contemporaries. I'm not you shouldn't buy them, but if they're unaffordable, then why bother. What's with that couple who were behind you at 16:45? If they got that close to some people in the America, they would get a nasty surprise.

I could have got a 58!

Your helios simbol is Valdai Yours might be a good copy but that factory has the worst reputation:)

I've got a 58mm sausage

a wider lens with similar swirly characteristics? no mir 37 lol

Parked at the back