[BigMackCam]

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This makes me a little sad I've found a seller on eBay supplying modified Helios lenses with a square aperture to produce square bokeh highlights...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HELIOS-44-2-2-58-M42-Modified-Square-Bokeh-Zenitar...UAAOSwMgdX07GD

The applications for this must be so very limited, and it seems such a shame to be modifying perfectly decent lenses in this way.

I guess it means we should all be a little more careful in future when buying, in case we get one of these passed on to us by an unknowledgable seller...

[vonBaloney]

Especially when you can make bokeh highlights of any shape you want with any lens with only a simple temporary mask on the front element.

[pepperberry farm]

ouch.... that is a sad thing...

[boriscleto]

WTF? Creating bokeh costs no more than a package of black paperboard and some tape...

DIY - Create Your Own Bokeh - DIY Photography

[Odinz]

He also modifies them to produce oval bokeh as well......

[Na Horuk]

I think we had a couple threads about this in the past years, and even some user who bought one or modified his own posting some sample photos.
Its kind of interesting but becomes a gimmick quickly. I prefer to have a normal lens and I can still use cardboard to make my own "filter" for bokeh

[BigMackCam]

some user who bought one or modified his own posting some sample photos.

Strangely, that doesn't bother me quite so much I guess once somebody owns something, what they do with it is up to them. I still think it's a shame, but it's up to the individual.

It feels somehow different that a seller should take (what I assume are) numerous good, working lenses and modify them in this way. Old lenses are what they are - and in my opinion, they have enough character of their own without butchering them to do something they weren't designed to do.

Filters, masks etc. are great - they can be fitted and removed at will, and I do understand that the novelty of different bokeh shapes could be good fun, albeit short-lived...

[severalsnakes]

I think it's kind of interesting, and not something that I'd want, but I bet there are people out there who think square bokeh is the coolest. I wonder what has inspired him to modify the aperture? Maybe He had some used lenses with crap apertures that needed repair, so he just took the opportunity to try some experiments? Looks like they're selling for chump change, so I'm sure he knows he hasn't reinvented the wheel here and that his potential market is not huge and/or competitive. I'm OK with it.

[vonBaloney]

According to the listing, it is to get the effect of another (uncommon) Russian lens the ME1 which actually was produced with a square aperture. "Get the ME1 effect without the cost of the ME1!"

[stevebrot]

This makes me a little sad I've found a seller on eBay supplying modified Helios lenses with a square aperture to produce square bokeh highlights...

HELIOS 44-2 2/58 M42 Modified Square Bokeh Zenitar ME1 Effect Lens #82257604 | eBay

The applications for this must be so very limited, and it seems such a shame to be modifying perfectly decent lenses in this way.

I guess it means we should all be a little more careful in future when buying, in case we get one of these passed on to us by an unknowledgable seller...

That is a shame. There are certain Helios 44 variants that have a square aperture, natively and for some reason those have attained cult status. Likewise, there appears to be a cottage industry where Helios 44M variants are given new faceplates to mimic higher number versions.


Steve

[Na Horuk]

Yeah, the Helios 44 series of lenses have probably been the most.. um.. abused? lenses in history. There are so many Frankenstein Helios, put together out of various lenses, plates changed, polished to look like "zebra" version, and so on and so on.
Its too bad that so many lenses get ruined in such shady sales practices

[goatsNdonkey]

I thought the most important aspect of bokeh was the color and pattern of the OOF material behind the plane of focus and how OOF that material is, Surely aperture shape has some affect, but that there is something to affect is the primary concern. Doesn't aperture shape have a greater affect on the super bright highlights and flare? I think that is a somewhat different quality than bokeh, or at most only a part of bokeh.

I just got a very nice Helios 44-2 f2/58mm, and the effect of its very sharp center wide open and soft outer image regions, seem quite dramatic in how how they direct the image viewer's attention. Why louse that up?

On the other hand, if these aperture modifications are mainly being done with lenses with bad aperture mechanisms that are barely worth repair (I have no idea if that is the case), that might be a productive way to revive them, rather than trashing them.