[Nass]

This lens fully deserves the love.

AFAIK - the design is based on CZ lens, though, so as much as I wanted I couldnt think of this lens as entirely Russian

Was CSJ East or West German... could this be... a... COMMIE lens?!!

I picked one up for next to nothing a little while ago and I'm astounded at its sharpness. Makes the kit lenses look like bubblewrap.

Also, what I'm really likeing about it it how close you can focus with it, just a few inches. That's nice - and I bet it makes a great macro lens.

[rupi]

Hi,
sorry for the (probably) dumb question.
I just got an Helios 58mm 44M, it is in very good condition. Of course now I'm searching the web for a good m42 adapter. I know that it is better to get an original Pentax adapter.
My question is if I have to remove or glue the pin in the lens to use with the K20D. My lens have the A/M switch, I just dont' want to make any mistakes and I don't know if theres any danger of the pin touching something inside the camera.
Thank you for any advice on how to use this lens

[Lloydy]

Most people will tell you to buy a genuine Pentax adaptor, and there's not a lot wrong with a Pentax adaptor, except the price.
I use these from SRB Griturn and I can't tell the difference from the genuine Pentax adaptor that I also have. These have never given me any problems at all.

M42 lenses on Pentax K

( I keep pimping these, but I have NO connection to SRB at all, they just work fine and are far cheaper )

If you have the 44M you can leave the pin in place and stop down with the A - M switch on the side of the lens, or disable the pin by taking the back off and either removing it, or holding it down with a short bit of insulatiion stripped off some electrical cable.

There's a load of topics here about the Helios 44 and the different ways of using them, I'm sure someone will post the links before long.

Enjoy the Helios, it's a lovely lens.

[Lloydy]

Here you go, this is a decent description of the modification to a 44M.

Modification H44M-4

It's in French, but the pictures are universal.

[RioRico]

I have the Helios-44M also, an incredible deal at around US$20 and the last time I looked on eBay that was still a standard price. Mine also is M42 with the A/M switch. I have nad no reason to alter the aperture pin.

My only modification was to put a bit of thin metal tape on the lens bottom, to (safely) short contacts on the lens mount. This allows use of Catch-In-Focus, the poor person's autofocus, on my K20D. I use a cheap Bower M42-PK adapter, have had no problems with any Bower adapters since the first one, when I learned that it's necessary to remove the screw and spring. I set a standard rubber lens hood on the Helios and it's ready for action.

The look of images shot with the Helios are noticeably different than those shot with shorter, faster lenses I use, such as a 50/1.4 and 55/1.7. You'll have fun with it!

[jct us101]

I have the Helios-44M also, an incredible deal at around US$20 and the last time I looked on eBay that was still a standard price. Mine also is M42 with the A/M switch. I have nad no reason to alter the aperture pin.

My only modification was to put a bit of thin metal tape on the lens bottom, to (safely) short contacts on the lens mount. This allows use of Catch-In-Focus, the poor person's autofocus, on my K20D. I use a cheap Bower M42-PK adapter, have had no problems with any Bower adapters since the first one, when I learned that it's necessary to remove the screw and spring. I set a standard rubber lens hood on the Helios and it's ready for action.

The look of images shot with the Helios are noticeably different than those shot with shorter, faster lenses I use, such as a 50/1.4 and 55/1.7. You'll have fun with it!

What is catch in focus exactly?

I've seen this lens everywhere, from Micro Four Thirds cameras to Canon cameras, it seems as though everyone has one and has it adapted to their cameras. What mount was it originally made for though?

[RioRico]

What is catch in focus exactly?

Catch-In-Focus aka Trap-Focus: It's the poor-person's AF. Or the manual-user's AF.

You enable it on your modern Pentax dSLR (it's a Custom Menu setting). You put a manual lens on the camera, or an AF lens with a bit of tinfoil to (safely) short-out some contacts (especially the 6-o'clock pin). If the manual lens doesn't have a shiny or wide base, you use a bit of tinfoil, or stick some thin metal tape on the base, or (if shooting closeups with an M42 lens) you use a flanged M42-PK adapter. Anything to short the pins. You set the AF mode to AF-S. Now you're ready.

You approach a subject. You hold the shutter down. Nothing happens. You keep holding the shutter down. You move in relation to the subject, or slowly twist the lens. At the moment the subject comes into (central) focus, the green-hex confirmation icon appears and the shutter trips. SNAP! Voila! A perfect shot!

Another application: You aim the camera and focus at a point where you expect the subject to appear, like a racer at the finish line or whatever. They come into focus. SNAP! Or you put the camera on a tripod, plug in a wired remote with a latch, set the drive mode to Continuous, aim the camera where you expect a subject to appear (like at a bird feeder or under a bath shower) and latch the remote. Whenever the subject comes into focus, SNAP!

The limitation: Since CIF only works with manual-focus lenses, or lenses with AF-MF switches set to MF, or AF lenses whose AF has been disabled with the tinfoil trick, you can't select AF points. No focus-and-recompose, no focus-off-center, no rule-of-thirds, none of that. Straight ahead, dead on, that's it.

I've seen this lens everywhere, from Micro Four Thirds cameras to Canon cameras, it seems as though everyone has one and has it adapted to their cameras. What mount was it originally made for though?

I've only seen the M42 version, which can be adapted to almost anything, but I've read that a native PK (manual aperture) version is also made. Check with your local Moskva Mafiya contact, I mean Russian optics supplier. It really is a splendid item.

NOTE: We've had discussions about 'normal' lenses. For 35/FF, 43mm is the frame diagonal and is thus 'normal', but most lensmakers produced 50-55mm glass as their standard lens. Pentax made a 58; Zeiss did, and the Helios is a Zeiss clone; but neither made large numbers of 58's. Most 58's by far are the Helios-44, which along with the Industar-50 was the standard lens on vast quantities of Russian (now FSU, Former Soviet Union) cameras. In the APS-C world, the equivalent is a 40mm.

And WHY was the Helios-44 so ubiquitous? A couple theories: They were easy and cheap to make. OR, they made for more intimate personal close-ups than a 50mm. OR, it allowed (or forced) the Commie masses to keep a greater distance from their subjects. Take your pick: economics, esthetics, or paranoia. You be the judge.

[Lloydy]

You put a manual lens on the camera, or an AF lens with a bit of tinfoil to (safely) short-out some contacts (especially the 6-o'clock pin).

From the six o'clock position going clockwise there are 7 contacts, the first four ( clockwise direction ) are proud of the mount face, then there's a sunken one and two more proud. When you 'short them out' what exactly do you do? are you shorting the whole lot together or just particular ones together? or are you shorting them to the camera mount flange?

I can see what you're trying to achieve and how to do it with something like aluminium tape on the lens face, but I don't want to short out the wrong thing.

[rupi]

Most people will tell you to buy a genuine Pentax adaptor, and there's not a lot wrong with a Pentax adaptor, except the price.
I use these from SRB Griturn and I can't tell the difference from the genuine Pentax adaptor that I also have. These have never given me any problems at all.

M42 lenses on Pentax K

( I keep pimping these, but I have NO connection to SRB at all, they just work fine and are far cheaper )

If you have the 44M you can leave the pin in place and stop down with the A - M switch on the side of the lens, or disable the pin by taking the back off and either removing it, or holding it down with a short bit of insulatiion stripped off some electrical cable.

There's a load of topics here about the Helios 44 and the different ways of using them, I'm sure someone will post the links before long.

Enjoy the Helios, it's a lovely lens.

Thank's for the info.
If it doesn't make any harm I think I'll leave the pin. I can use the AM switch.
I'm considering buying a cheaper adapter because it is the only m42 lens I have and it only costed about 15 euro and it came with a Zenit EM attached
The original Pentax adapter would be two or three times the price I payed for the lens. Maybe I'll try and make the adaptation notch on the lens to lock it and keep the adapter in it all times. I seems that if I take the spring of the apadter it wont get stuck on the camera right.

[Lloydy]

I've removed the spring and just tightened the adaptor onto the lens very tightly with an old glove on my hand to prevent the sharp adaptor digging in, and that's been tight enough for me. The adaptor stays on the lens and it acts like a proper bayonet fit.

I've got two 44M's, one with the pin still in place, and I'm actually preferring to use that lens and use the M - A switch. If the conditions you are taking pictures in is fairly constant then the aperture can be set and the switch used to flick the lens wide open to focus and flick back to the already set aperture.
For me at least that seems easier.

[RioRico]

You put a manual lens on the camera, or an AF lens with a bit of tinfoil to (safely) short-out some contacts (especially the 6-o'clock pin).

From the six o'clock position going clockwise there are 7 contacts, the first four ( clockwise direction ) are proud of the mount face, then there's a sunken one and two more proud. When you 'short them out' what exactly do you do? are you shorting the whole lot together or just particular ones together? or are you shorting them to the camera mount flange?

I can see what you're trying to achieve and how to do it with something like aluminium tape on the lens face, but I don't want to short out the wrong thing.

The bottom-most, the closest to the screw at 6 o'clock even, is the significant one as far as autofocus goes. The other pins relay min-max f-stop data and other info, as described in this Wikipedia article (which was probably abstracted from this K-mount page). This is really only significant if 1) you're using an AF lens for trap-focus, and 2) you're anal, er I mean concerned about having the right EXIF data.

I've used a 18-55 kit lens with foil shorting several pins. It worked just fine, just didn't store all the data. Holding foil over just one or two pins is rather tricky since you're rotating the lens to mount it. When mounting a manual lens, it doesn't really matter what other pins are shorted. As I mentioned, a flanged adapter or shiny lens base that covers and shorts all the pins will work just fine with trap-focus. And you're shorting signal, not power, so it's always quite safe.

No sparks flew while posting this response.

I've removed the spring and just tightened the adaptor onto the lens very tightly with an old glove on my hand to prevent the sharp adaptor digging in, and that's been tight enough for me. The adaptor stays on the lens and it acts like a proper bayonet fit.

Just a tip: I don't always have gloves handy, but I do usually have a rear lens cap nearby, to protect the lens base and rear elements and all that. The rear lens cap makes a splendid adapter wrench. My fingers thank me for using it.

[stevebrot]

Hi,
sorry for the (probably) dumb question.
I just got an Helios 58mm 44M, it is in very good condition. Of course now I'm searching the web for a good m42 adapter. I know that it is better to get an original Pentax adapter.
My question is if I have to remove or glue the pin in the lens to use with the K20D. My lens have the A/M switch, I just dont' want to make any mistakes and I don't know if theres any danger of the pin touching something inside the camera.
Thank you for any advice on how to use this lens

I also own the Helios 44M 58/2. You don't need to do anything to the pin. As with all M42 lenses the pin will not interfere with anything inside your dSLR. The A/M switch is your friend and the best way to use the lens in manual aperture mode.


Steve