Home

Please support mflenses.com if you need any graphic related work order it from us, click on above banner to order!
SearchSearch MemberlistMemberlist RegisterRegister ProfileProfile Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages Log inLog in

Things to do to a Helios, very good site with mods for Helio
Post new topic   Reply to topic
Home   Manual Focus Lenses
View previous topic :: View next topic  


PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:11 am    Post subject: Things to do to a Helios, very good site with mods for Helio Reply with quote
http://www.novacon.com.br/techhel.htm
Was looking at some info on my helios and came across this i had already performed one of the mods but this is very nicely documented


PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 10:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Nice find. I have a fair few of these I've accidentally collected. I have played with a few that weren't up-to-scratch with mods. I may try a few of these mods.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 12:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Probably the only one worth doing is removing the rear element group. I did that, works well, gives swirly bokeh and diffuse highlight glow.


PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:15 pm    Post subject: THAMBAR ??? Reply with quote
The author of that page mentions "the famous Thambar solution" which of course I've never heard of. So I gargle for THAMBAR and find that it's a 'legendary' Leitz soft-focus lens with a gimmick: a front filter with a black spot in the middle, to block light in the center (sharpest) portion of the lens. The result is softness plus detail. The author uses a filter with a mirrored metal disc for his modified Helios to enhance softness. This sounds like an interesting trick to try, and leads to questions:

* Have any here used a Thambar? (Very rare and expensive!)
* Has anyone here tried the disc-on-a-filter "Thambar trick"?
* Do you notice a difference between black and mirrored discs?
* What results when using stars, squares etc instead of discs?
* If center-blocking increases softness, would edge-blocking increase sharpness? Is that just the same as stopping-down the aperture?

I'll try some variations soon. Black tape for a dark spot; metal tape for a reflective spot. And I know that dark-center graduated ND filters are made; maybe I'll look for one, maybe I'll kludge one. It will also be interesting to see how these affect operation of AF lenses.

A note on edge-blocking: I tried a trick with an old fixed-lens P&S. I cut a square mask from cardboard and taped it around the P&S lens. Besides making a square frame, the roughness of the mask edges also boosted diffraction, increasing flare and giving a Holga-like effect. Groovy!

Last edited by RioRico on Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:32 pm; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:28 pm    Post subject: Helio-44 front section only Reply with quote
But back to the Helios-44: I have one one 44M and I will not dismantle it. But I have a Schneider Retina-C 35/4 with no Retina body (which houses the rear element). Naked, the lens becomes about 105/12, which is 3x as long and slow. If the Helios-44-2 rear element is removed, the author of that page says the Helios-44 becomes about 115mm, but doesn't mention if it is slower also. Has anyone here removed the Helios rear element and noticed a significant change in speed?


PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Excellent find and thanks!

Learned a lot!


PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 5:59 am    Post subject: Re: Helio-44 front section only Reply with quote
RioRico wrote:
But back to the Helios-44: I have one one 44M and I will not dismantle it. But I have a Schneider Retina-C 35/4 with no Retina body (which houses the rear element). Naked, the lens becomes about 105/12, which is 3x as long and slow. If the Helios-44-2 rear element is removed, the author of that page says the Helios-44 becomes about 115mm, but doesn't mention if it is slower also. Has anyone here removed the Helios rear element and noticed a significant change in speed?


Well, yes, it becomes a 116mm f4, but the vf isn't noticeably darker from memory and it was still very pleasant to shoot.

The 44M is not the best one to modify, the 44-2 is far easier, as I have four 44-2s I modified one by unscrewing the rear element.

The bokeh becomes swirly but only when wide open and there is a diffuse highlight glow but again, only wide open. When stopped down it behaves like a well corrected 116mm triplet and doesn't have much in the way of special effects but still has character. Definitely a worthwhile mod, but be aware the rear focal distance needs to be doubled so you will have to mount it on some extension tubes or a set of bellows, preferably the latter.

A few samples from my modified 44-2, I'm sure you could do better, I'm not really happy with the results I got as I feel there is a lot more potential there.








PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
It's funny that most of us worry about lens sharpness but with the right amount of argumentation it is easy to convince one self of the "great thing" that is soft focus or blurred highlights or etc, well maybe for very specific artistic purposes it is I guess.

There is one I will try though and that is the reversing of the Helios on a J37 because I find it funny that I have both but I don't use them that much.
Post new topic   Reply to topic
Home   Manual Focus Lenses
Page 1 of 1