those little gold passed stickers on lenses

Excalibur · Expire: 2014-04-21

[quote="aoleg"][quote="iangreenhalgh1"]

parabellumfoto · Joined: 06 Apr 2013 Posts: 413 Location: Sydney, Australia

skida · Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2013 7:26 pm Post subject:

In the early 70s, when a Zenit was the entry point for the less well-off amateur photographer, the Helios lenses had a very good reputation. I was an avid reader of Amateur Photographer and one or two other magazines, but I never read anything about "sample variation" in connection with Russian glass, so I think this is a much more recent phenomenon.

My theory is that if there are a lot of poor quality Helios (and other Russian) lenses about now, it may be due to the rise in lenses being sold from what was the Soviet Bloc. The lenses intended for the home market may have had less stringent quality requirements than the lenses originally intended for export, as foreign currency was sorely needed back then, and Zenit and Zorki etc. were sold on reputation as well as price.

frenched · Expire: 2014-06-17

My early 60's J9 is typical of what's described around here, very soft wide open but sharpens up considerably when stopped down. My understanding is the earliest Russian models are best since they were still using the "stolen" equipment, materials and people from Jena but later cut some corners to increase production and lower cost. While doing modifications/repairs to mine I noticed a few little things like simplified construction, thin aluminum and cheap grub screws. Still a sturdy lens, just not as tight and substantial as, say, my Biometar (which is lying in pieces right now). I'm no expert, but just my observation.

Sorry to stray from the "sticker" discussion, Just going with the flow. It's interesting.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Seems to me, there is a bit of a pattern here, and the reason I haven't had any duds is I bought older lenses mostly and mostly RF ones, the lenses people are having duds with are mostly later SLR ones I haven't had much experience with.

Helios 44s, maybe I've just been lucky with mine.

dan_ · Expire: 2016-12-19

Here, in the east, back in the days, Russian lenses and cameras were the cheapest and considered generally unreliable due to the variations in quality. DDR cameras and lenses were considered much better and were more expensive. We were all dreaming at Japanese and western cameras but they were not available on the market regardless of price. You should know someone in the west to send you one or you should buy one used from the second-hand photo shops at high prices.
Only in the last years I (and my friends too) “rediscovered” the quality of the URSS lenses. And, oddly enough, they seem to be better in quality now than in the years they were manufactured. Parabellumfoto is probably right and only the good ones survived.

parabellumfoto · Joined: 06 Apr 2013 Posts: 413 Location: Sydney, Australia

philslizzy · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 4744 Location: Cheshire, England

In the UK Russian gear was imported by Technical and Optical Equipment. They tested every item imported and only put the ones that passed on the market with no passport and a TOE instruction manual. I suspect the bad 'uns got sent back. This could explain why Russian lenses in the UK were of a good quality.

back to the original subject: Some cheap cameras NOT made in Japan had a 'passed' sticker on them too, but I expect it was the manufacturer trying to kid us that our Mintaxes and Olympias were top quality but had no 'official' recognition.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Not just RF lenses, mostly RF lenses. I've had quite a few SLR lenses too, but I'd say half of my Russkies were rf lenses made before 1965.

Some of my Russkies were bought in the UK, some in Eastern Europe, two or three came from Russia.

Perhaps some lenses were of better QC than others, perhaps some factories had better QC than others, I don't know.

I do think it is quite likely all the duds got trashed long ago, I would always defer to someone who lived the former USSR, they are bound to know more than I, I can only speak about the lenses that have made it as far as my little corner of the world.

BurstMox · Expire: 2016-08-02

Lightshow · Joined: 04 Nov 2011 Posts: 3666 Location: Calgary

My Helios 103 is very good, one of the best I've seen from the 10 or so USSR lenses I have.