50mm f2 Arsat-H in Nikon Bayonet

[Neil Purling]

I got one of these off a dead Kiev 19.
I have stuck it on my Nikon FM. Are these lenses a variant of the Helios 44/Biotar, but in 50mm focus?
I will have to see what it is like at f2, f4 and f8.
I am not expecting it to have the performance of the 50mm f1_8 Nikkor 'pancake' lens. The Arsat is probably only single-coated as well.
Anyone else tried one on a Nikon, not a Kiev 19?

[Gurdie]

Hello,

This Arsat lens was born as Helios-81, 50mm/2, 52mm/2 or 53mm/2 variants, manufactured by GOI, Arsenal and KMZ. Arsenal continued producing them as Arsat N 50/2 lenses.

There´s something about the Helios-81 at
http://www.photohistory.ru/1207248188492734.html

Babelfish translation (with some corrections) from Russian:

Normal lens for Kiev-15 and Kiev-17 cameras. Frame dimension of 24x36 mm. the field-of-view angle of 45°, resolution (center/edge) - 40/20 line(s)/mm. According to D. Volosov: resolution figures: center/10 mm/20 mm - are 52/37/27. Near limit of focusing - 0,5 m., Aperture stops 2-22. It is evident from the given illustrations that the Arsenal factory produced the lens in the following versions: Helios-81- Automat, Helios -81M (M42) and Helios-81N (Kiev/Nikon mount). KMZ released the test batch (see photo). It is interesting to note that the focal length varies up to 3 mm - both according to the information on the objective itself and according to the data from the different sources (in reality - this is simple a question of designation). Many Soviet lenses suffered this kind of sample variation.

Multicoated Helios versions had MC before the name. I have a 50/1.4 Arsat N, the lens booklet says that this is multicoated. At least the reflections from the front element are green/violet, the same as in my MC Kaleinar 100/2.8 lens.

I´m not sure about the lens design, but there has been some discussion at http://forum.mflenses.com/viewtopic.php?t=33777&view=next

Some Helios-81N pics
http://forum.mflenses.com/helios81n-50mm-f2-samples-t5097.html