Haiou 64... Chinese Biotar

[supersignet]

About 2 weeks ago I sold off the rest of my Nikon gear. The D90 and 18-200 VR I had bought for my wife were ditched because my wife wanted something a little smaller that she could throw in her bag and keep on her all the time.

I asked her what she wanted and she said the new SONY NEX-5 looked good, especially in red.:rolleyes:

Sony??? I asked her. She said, It was cute and what she wanted.

A trip to my favorite camera store later and I was the not so proud purchaser of a new Silver Sony NEX. I can't express how happy I was that they didn't have the red one and had no idea when it would be available.

When I got the camera home I started to play with it a little more and I have to say I was pretty blown away.

As a tool for a beginner or someone who isn't insanly addicted to cameras (like most of us here on POTN) it makes a lot of sense. The camera is small, almost unbelievably small, but it isn't uncomfortable to use. The camera feels good in my large hands and it is fast and easy to shoot with. The menus look like they were designed by anyone but a photographer and changing settings can be a pain in the ass. The little flash that comes with the camera is complete trash and there is no hot shoe accessory (yet) but for something this small I can understand the need to make some compromises in the design process.

I again (like most of the members on the site would have done) kept the camera with me for a few days. Wondering why I liked it so much. The High ISO is great, the auto ISO is great, the sweep panaramic is fun and I began starting to wonder what I could do to make the camera better....

The only thing I could come up with is the camera needed more manual control. I decided I'd go buy a cheap MF lens and adapter to see what it was like as a manual focus camera.

China (where I live) like a lot of countries has their own camera industry and being friends with the old soviet boys a lot of their early technology and designs came from or were heavily influenced by the Soviets which themselves were really nothing more than old Zeiss designs.

It seems China got their hands on the old Biotar, Helios 44 formula and started pumping out their own, the only major difference is the Chiense changed the lens mount from M42 to a Minolta MD mount and lowered the quality of the barrel, focus ring and aperture ring. It feels cheap, but then it is cheap. The copy I scored today cost me about 12 USD and it came with a fully working Seagul DF-1 body attached to it.

I also picked up an NEX-MD mount adapter and put it on the little silver Sony.



Hai Ou is Chinese for Seagull. This is an older lens and I don't think it is in production anymore. Not highly sought after here in China or anywhere I think. Took me a lot of time of rummaging through the junk bin of one of the used camera shops to find a one



And here is the NEX + adapter + Lens sitting beside my Sigma 50mm 1.4



Once mounted on the camera the lens feels nice. It is well balanced and focuses nicely. The rubber on the focus ring is loose and the focus ring itself has an extremely slow ratio to get from min focus distance to infinity, but again as a trial lens and and something that cost basically nothing, it is something I can live with.

Here are 3 really boring picture from the lens.

Nothing has been done to them except resizing for web use.







After seeing the photos on my computer I'm pleasantly surprised . Not bad for a $6.00 Chinese lens. Makes me want try some of the other Chinese-Helios-Jupiter things.

[Scheimpflug]

Welcome to the forums!

Your images aren't showing up due to spam prevention measures for new users... but here is your post with the images:

//edit: quote removed now that the first post has been fixed.

Enjoy your stay here, and thanks for the review!

[supersignet]

Thanks... I was trying to figure out why the photos weren't showing up... any advice?

[ZeiEizh]

[Attila]

Welcome!

Nice to see you here ! Many thanks for this great entry presentation ! I look forward more, more ... You are first one here with new Sony camera I think or in thirst three member. These Chinese lenses are unknown for me, great to see them in action.

[supersignet]

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. I've actually been lurking for quite a while. I just didn't have any MF glass of my own to talk about.

Thanks again... I'm thinking about going back to the market tomorrow to see what else I can dig up..

[xjjohnno]

I'm looking forward to seeing the results of the lenses you find, a very amusing story about your wife's camera buying decisions and welcome.
I'm imagining what that camera would look like with a Tair 300A attached to it.

[paperinik]

How much did you pay for the adapter?

[Nesster]

You tell the story in such an entertaining way, and the results are very nice indeed. Welcome aboard

[supersignet]

[fish4570]

Welcome, super, from Alabama ...

[dimitrygo]

Very interesting. 2 questions:
1. Does focus confirmation work with MF lenses?
2. Is it feasible to shoot with Mf lenses hand held or only on tripod?

[supersignet]

The camera will tell you where the faces are, but there is no real beep or confirmation of focus.

Shooting hand held is no problem. No need for just a tripod. The resolution on the screen is high enough that I haven't really needed to zoom in too much, but if I do need to zoom in I just push one button and I'm there.

[supersignet]

Here are some more pics from last night. I wanted to test the low light capabilities of the Haiou / Sony combo so I grabbed a guitar I've been designing. This is prototype 001 for Bastion Guitars. A 100% all solid wood, hand carved, voiced arch-top guitar with 5 piece maple, neck, ebony finger board, ebony head stock veneer, Ebony tail piece and custom spec'd out Wilkenson P90 pickups (we might change these in prototype 003, but the sound now is unreal) and electronics. This thing is amazing. Every time I put it in my hands I can't believe how good it sounds and how well it plays. Sadly like everything there are some problems and we need to get the finish up to standard before we can market the guitar.

All photos were taken hand held at F2 wide open. Aside from a mild contrast adjustment nothing has been done to the photos except resizing for web use.

Enjoy the photos..... I'm really starting to like this little combination.

[fourmix]

Cool pictures of this not known lens.

Guess the result on a bigger frame ?

[supersignet]

So far so good. I'm happy with the camera lens combo.

I'm going have a look for some more strange chinese lenses this weekend

[D. P.]

Sony A7 + Haiou-64

#1

[Lightshow]

Looks nice.
Too bad the old pictures are gone, I don't remember if I seen them back then.

[Lloydy]

It's a strange lens, but not a bad lens. It's certainly a copy of the Helios 44M, but is it any better? I don't know.

It's a lot heavier, I think it's all brass. Mine has poor paint coverage on one side and a rather nice brass finish.

[Tefolium]

It was said that Haiou-64 was based on CZJ Biotar 58/2, not the Helios 44M.
A handbook in Chinese provided a design which may be CZJ Biotar 58/2.
And I found some data which show that the glasses and the radius of curvature were changed in Haiou-64.
Besides, Pearl River 58/2 used the same design of Biotar but changed the glasses and shared the design with Panda/Peafowl 58/2.

[martinsmith99]

[Tefolium]