Helios-53 f2.5 200, adaptation (pic heavy).

[Orion700]

My take on Helios-53 f2.5 200mm.
A bit heavy lens and not for weaker people but in a short time it's possible to use it handheld if the adapter to camera is strong enough (just don't hold on to camera body only).
Hood is recommended for sure, just like most older lenses.

This is how I received it (from Ukraine).




Some of the first experiment adapter.




On A7S


Few test pics

[Orion700]

A little bit more perfected.
Now it has dual focusing helicoids and can focus very close (about 2 feet or so).
It's perfectly usable on a monopod.




This one is handheld.


And the rest are on monopod, photos have been slightly edited (I just can't help it).

[cooltouch]

Wow, nice! My experience with non-ED or LD or SD or whatever glass is that with a 200mm optic at f/2.8, there's usually quite a bit of color fringing. Your photos seem to indicate an almost total lack of CAs. I can see just the smallest amount of green fringing with some of the bright bokeh, but it is negligibly small. Sharpness seems good. A most interesting optic, although ti does appear that this will be best used with a tripod or monopod, I'm thinking.

[Orion700]

Thanks, yes optically I think it's a very high quality glass and it does very good job in controlling CF.
For sure it's a tripod or monopod lens, you can activate beast mode and use it handheld but it's not the method for most.
It out-resolves my A7S 12mp sensor by a lot, I would love to try it on a A7R II or III camera one day and see the real limitation or potential from it. For a studio portrait work I think it's a gem.

[poilu]

[BurstMox]

My exemplar was a great lens, especialy on Kiev-60 (6x6). I used an adapter to M65 (made on lathe) and then M65-M65 helicoides.

Btw, great photos, especialy portraits! Congratz.