Helios 85/1.5 first shots... and butterflies in the future:)

[Marek]

Won for €244 (+ postage and small PP fees) from Germany in a weak auction, probably 1966



I don't value much countriside 'round my house and don't usually travel anywhere in winter time, but we are literally surrounded with horses, so I decided to grab the opportunity.



I had to decolorate photo a bit, yet probably not enough. I realized ain't used to hold such f1.5 lens in my hands

I like it so far, with bokeh easier than I imagined and just the same as Google says.


Marek

[Lloydy]

if you've knocked some colour out that picture, it must have been super saturated. But, it's a great picture. The lens is good, I like it.

[mo]

Horses are always a lovely subject,I am glad you posted the image. It's a great looking lens, and it seems you will have a very nice collection of these silver lenses.

[woodrim]

Marek: Another great lens. Congratulations. Why would you reduce the colors? I see it has a golden tone as do most of your images.

[frenched]

Nice lens and nice portrait of the horse. Horses make great subjects.

I don't know if you intended that color cast or it was intense early/late light, but it reminds me of my Jupiter-9 which often renders a yellow cast that I have to tone down in post.

[Marek]

Thanks.

The golden tone is already set in the body with Shadow Mode. I switched it for different settings to reach colder atmo in Winter but couldn't resist again, as the background bokeh looked more Autumnal.

But I'd like to explore colder tones any time soon, presumably with Tessar 250/6.3

Neither early nor late sun, just ordinary midday shine. I was working in the morning and doing some lumberjacking during sunset

[Lightshow]

I still want that lens, some day....
Beautiful shot, thanks for sharing.

[kds315*]

Lovely indeed!! Makes me want to take out my (later black version) "sleeper" and put it to use!!

[Marek]

Update after nearly a two months after purchase. I realized I've become a curiousity hunter instead of image and bokeh quality. I also realized how spoiled I've become, getting one of those must-have-loved-by-everyone lens for a good money just to put it off and hunt another piece.

Despite fantastic close-up bokeh, I find handling this lens surprisingly difficult (in harsh winter conditions). Just imagine how much might it cost if having really Biotar 75 level of optics and better ergonomics/weight and so on.

So I'm still fighting with rather than proper shooting, not much satisfied with the results but the hidden potential is definitely present. Fighting with counterlight, softness, bad focal ring and even oversaturation, bright spots and colors.

P.S. it's the very same horse I tested my Tele-Tessars on. Poor animal

[Lloydy]

The lovers of that kind of bokeh will be loving that picture, it's not my favourite - I prefer dreamy. But hey, it does bokeh! That's an image that stands out from the rest, for that - I like it.

[Attila]

Beautiful work, great lens!

[spiralcity]

[Attila]

+1 first horse shoot is great, last one not really what is nice on flower not works to me also on horse.

[Marek]

Since this lens is such a fun, I continued yesterday. Very funny to use, maybe still not optimal performance, but funny indeed.

Either couldn't get any emotion from the horse or I wasn't just too quick with the focal ring, ergonomy of this otherwise very fine lens just sucks. Next time I'll bring them something sweater than 4 days old rolls.

[kds315*]

Animals and especially horses react to emotions.
Read your footer - and you wonder???

[my_photography]

Nice photos and the unique characteristic of this lens work out great in this case. Your photos are spot on. I find it difficult to focus with this lens especially at f1.5 but when it is spot on, it is very sharp.

[Marek]

Yea, ergonomy much worst than wide open sharpness as is. True that. So I could only blame myself and I am OK with that.