Images shot on Kodak ColorPlus 200 in the Pentax MX with Helios 44-2 58mm f2
Ah yes, dear old GAS. Gear Acquisition Syndrome, I mean.
A few years ago – quite a good few years ago now – I bought a Helios 44-2 lens. I thought it would be an interesting addition to my line-up when my photography was all just shooting vintage lenses on the Sony NEX-5N.
But for some reason, I just never really got around to using it before I discovered film and that took over completely for a few years. Not even this special old Soviet lens was enough to get me to go out with the NEX-5N for a long time, until I did much more recently with a different lens.
Also, for my first few years of shooting film, I didn’t have a camera I could use this Helios 44-2 on, shooting mainly as I was with the Yashica Electro and various point ‘n’ shoots like the Canon Sure Shot AF-7.
But now I have one. And so it was time, finally, to take this renowned piece of glass out and see what I could get it to do.
Contents
About this Helios 44-2 and using it on a Pentax MX
The main unique selling point of the Helios 44-2 is the vaunted swirly bokeh you can achieve if you know how.
There’s a quick outline of how to go about it here, with the main gist being to have a decent distance between yourself and your subject, and then another decent distance between that subject and the background you’re trying to swirl.
Because I hadn’t read any such information before I went out on this day though, I didn’t really get too much of that trademark effect. These are more just normal close-up, shallow depth of field shots of some flowers.
The closest I probably got to some swirly bokeh was in the first two shots below, with the ground in the bottom left of the roses one and the purple flowers to the right-hand side of the other one.
I didn’t know it at the time but, with that advice to have good distance between your subject and your background, I might have got some more of it in the other two shots here if I hadn’t completely missed focus on them. 😐
As for using this lens on the Pentax MX, you may or may not be aware of a slight issue with doing that; their respective mounts.
The Helios 44-2 is an m42 screw mount, while the Pentax MX has a bayonet K mount.
We’re no strangers to using lens adapters around here though, and I’d already bought the one I needed for this because I wanted to play with the Super-Takumar 55mm f1.8 and the 28mm f3.5 on the MX too.
Some of the adapters I’d previously used for vintage lenses on the Sony NEX 5-N had been quite big, due to needing to elongate the distance between the lens and sensor in the camera, making the whole set-up a bit physically longer than I would have ideally liked.
No issues with that here though. The distance between the lens and film remains the same, so this adapter sits flush to the front of the camera and adds no extra size anywhere. Praise the Lord for that.
Alright let’s get back to some photos already
Although the Helios 44-2 is best-known for its swirly bokeh and people seem to like to use them for shallow depth of field shots in general, I didn’t want to go through this whole roll of Kodak ColorPlus 200 doing only that.
Seeing as I was completely failing to get any of that trademark effect due to not reading up beforehand on how best to do it anyway, I’d say this was a good decision.
The rest of what’s left to show then is what I got from walking around Mansfield, again, on a sunny Saturday morning and just shooting what I thought would look decent in that good light.
It’s mostly the deeper depth of field, wider scene – despite this lens having a 58mm focal length – kind of stuff that I more regularly do with my other cameras and lenses.
After this basketball hoop, that is.
That’s a bit annoying having sharp focus on the first of the roll shot and then it being a bit off and softer on the one that actually fully came out, but let’s move on.
Basketball hoop photographs are very overdone anyway.
Unfortunately, the composition on a lot of what follows wasn’t the greatest either. It was one of those mornings where nice light can be a bit of a curse for me, because I can end up relying on it too much to make a shot good.
And when I do that, I’ll occasionally fall into the trap of taking photographs that are little more than people just walking past something.
It looks like I did put some thought into this first shot below with the symmetry of the pillars and even the man’s clothes matching the colours of the shop, but yeah. Nothing much else apart from that is going on here in these next few.
Those wider kind of street scenes are definitely what I shoot the most when I’m out and about, with close-up images of objects featuring a lot less.
However, I think on this day with the Helios 44-2 it was the latter that I did a better job with. Those flowers from earlier and the one of the oranges especially below. I mostly like it for how the light is on the fruit but the people behind are silhouettes.
I shot those vape dogs before too, on some Ilford FP4 Plus 125 in the Lomo LC-A, and you can see how that turned out on this post here.
Flicking between them both now, I’m genuinely not sure which version I prefer.
Wrapping up this first roll with the Helios 44-2
You can take a piece of photography gear that is known for producing a particular style, like the Helios 44-2 is with its swirly bokeh, and go out just trying to replicate that yourself.
And yes, I did take some close-up shots of flowers when I took mine out to finally shoot something with it. Perhaps if I’d done some research beforehand, I might have done a better job of achieving that look in those images too.
But it’s worth remembering that these lenses weren’t made to only do that. They can be used for normal shooting too.
Those wider composition street shots I got here with my Helios 44-2 were only a bit crap because of my laziness in taking them. The lens did just as well as anything else I’ve shot film with.
Now that I’ve got this first roll of Kodak ColorPlus 200 done and seen how the Helios performed, I’m looking forward to using it more in the future. With the digital Sony NEX 5-N as well as with more film.
I’ll even try properly for some of that swirly bokeh next time too. 🙂
If you liked that first roll shot with the Helios 44-2 and want to read some more film photography blog posts, why not have a look at some of these:
And if you think others will find this post worth a read, help them find it by giving it a share 😀
