Haiou-64 on Micro 4/3

[EdH]

Just picked this up on eBay for £7.95. Apparently it's a Chinese Biotar variant with a Minolta SR mount. I enjoy my Helios 44-2 so thought this would be interesting to try out.

It's a solid, heavily built lens.
Seagull Haiou-64 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

and a few quick test shots from round the garden and on the way back to work after lunch.

@5.6
P6110706 H64 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

@f5.6
P6110700 H64 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

@f2 or possibly 2.8. Look at those corners! ...and that's with the camera's 2x crop
P6110696 H64 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

@f5.6
P6110685 f5.6 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

@f2, I think
P6110684 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

@f4
P6110679 f4 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

@f4
P6110649 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

@f2
P6090624 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

@f2
P6090623 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

@f5.6
Gates H64 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

I think the bokeh could get swirly given the right situation. I might be wrong, but this might be harder on a crop sensor, as it gets cropped out?

It might be that my Helios 44-2 is a poor example, but the Haiou-64 seems sharper in the centre wide open.

[calvin83]

The Haiou-64 is one of the best Chinese made 50s in the old days. I heard that the early copies even contains lanthanum glass.

[Lloydy]

The Chinese Minolta clones are something we don't see a lot of, not here or on any of the photography forums. I'd certainly like to see more posts about them.
Ed's pictures are good, but are the Minolta's better?

[iangreenhalgh1]

These are surprisingly good, nice work Ed. I read it is a copy of the Helios-44.

Later Chinese stuff like the Centon lenses are, quite frankly, garbage. The Centon 1.7/50 is a copy of the Minolta MD lens but the one I had was a long way from equaling that performance, it was very poorly built though, everything wobbled and felt loose and the silkscreening on the barrel looked like it was done by a blind person. I have a Centon 2.8/24 too, that was terrible. The worst of the lot is probably the common 18-28 zoom, mine was branded Sirius and it was the worst lens I have ever tried, field curvature even well stopped down made it impossible to get a sharp result across the entire frame.

[EdH]

I have been pleasantly surprised how well this lens performs, although I wasn't expecting much!

There doesn't seem to be much information on the web about it and I can't seem to find any other SLR lenses by Haiou. Surely you must have been able to get other lenses for your Seagull SLR?

[calvin83]

There was a 35mm F2.8 with similar barrel as the 58mm but they are very hard to find even in China.

[EdH]

A few more from the garden, all wide open:

P6150839 H64 f2 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

P6150857 H64 f2 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

Nettle H64 f2 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

P6150841 H64 f2 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

[kds315*]

Quite nice results!!

[TrueLoveOne]

Not bad at all! I knew about the Minolta clones, but i've never seen one of these, nice!

[Oldhand]

I have just noticed this thread.
These results show exceptional quality from this lens - especially wide open.
I am extremely impressed.
Good find
OH

[EdH]

Took a few more with this lens on my E-P5 today on my journey back to work after lunch, and some in the garden:

f4 or 5.6
Sheep_Haiou64 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

f5.6
P9213924_Haiou64 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

f2
Berries_Haiou64 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

f2.8
Bark Dog_Haiou64 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr

f4
P9213985_H64 by Ed Herridge, on Flickr