Helios-40...Different Colour Coatings

[TBaker]

I'm looking at getting a Helios-40 85 1.5. I've noticed that some of the silver bodied ones have different colour coatings.

What are the build quality like with the silver body Helios and would a lower Ser# be any different that a higher Ser#?

Here's an example.

Low Ser# with blue coating also with a extra red mark on the ring.



High Ser# with redish coating

[AhamB]

That top one really has a nice blue sapphire colour, but I'd go for the bottom one because it doesn't have the yellowed glass, so the colour balance will be better and transmission will be higher. You may be able to correct the yellow glass by adjusting the white balance, but you will not get the light that was absorbed in the glass.

[spleenone]

[AhamB]

@spleenone

I don't have personal experience with these lenses but I've heard about the Super Tak 50/1.4 and others as well that the light loss can be significant, so you can't rule it out.

[Sevo]

One stop is easily lost. Without a reference you might not even notice a one stop yellowing unless you compare lenses (or use a hand-held meter). I had a Takumar that gained almost two stops on UV bleaching, and I did not even notice it had yellowed until I directly compared it to a clear lens.

[dude163]

I live in Canada and have a Helios 40 available if you are interested?

its already converted to m42

[pirius]

The Red П version is a top quality; I've read that the low serial numbers were reserved for lenses that came out best during quality control. However, the color of the coating on the second lens is the same as that of multi-coated Helios 40-2 lenses, so I wonder if it is one of the early MC versions - a transition model or something. Then it may have better flare prevention, but lower contrast. Anyhow, the difference in quality tolerances even between different Helios lenses of the same vintage can be bigger than the difference between coatings. In this case I would probably go for the Red П (first) lens because of more guaranteed optical performance and cured yellowing with UV light.

[aoleg]

There were no MC versions made of Helios-40 (2). There were, however, several coating types used throughout the life of the lens. The blue coatings produced the warmest image. Purple/magenta coatings were used later; those produced more neutral results with sometimes warm/green color shift. The final version used amber coatings that produced the most neutral, slightly cool result.

Interestingly, Jupiter-9 used blue, magenta, colorless (? I don't know how that is, but reflections of late non-MC versions appear to be of no particular color), and MC coatings throughout its life. All produced different color shifts.

BTW, some manufacturers (e.g. Fuji, Nippon Kogaku) coated different lens elements differently. For example, Nikkor-P 105/2.5 (Sonnar type) has amber coatings on front and middle lens elements and purple/blue coatings on the rear glass to compensate for the differences in color transmission.

[fotkino]

[iangreenhalgh1]