HELIOS 44-2 "nearly monocle soft mod"

[aeropic]

Hi,
Here are some preliminary results of experiments on an Helios 44-2 to make it soft focus-monocle lens.
My first try was to remove every lens but the front one. This works fine but gives quite a tele lens.
I then tried to keep the front lens and also the rear element which is acting as a focal reducer. (only the rear lens of the front element is then removed)
The drawback with this configuration is that there is no way to focus to infinity with the standard M42 adapter which is too long by around 5mm.
To fix this, I 3D printed a dedicated M39 to M42 adapter that I screw on my NEX-M39 adapter.

I must admit it becomes a very tricky lens. Somewhat difficult to find a correct focus when wide open. But, just close it between 2.8 and 4.0 and you get something quite fun: a mixture between radial unfocusing and swirly bokeh.

I use it on a SONY-a6000 mirrorless camera.
Take care when using this lens on a DSLR, the rear of the lens might come in contact with the mirror...








Regards
Alain

[Lloydy]

Interesting......and the images are certainly different. I like the close picture of the leaves ( 3 ), the way the bokeh seems to stagger backwards. kinda reflecting the image, is very good.
There have been a lot of Helios mod's and I like them. Why not try different things with a lens that's common and cheap?

[aeropic]

[aeropic]

Hi,

Last week I posted some pictures taken with my modded HELIOS 44-2 coupled to the a6000 with a 3D printed adapter to allow focusing to infinity.

Here is a very simple way to get rid of the 3D printer and make this mod available to anybody!

Just needed a cheap chineese FOTGA M42 adapter and a front ring salvaged from an old ZENIT (the one that comes attached to the lens and wieghts 500g

everything is explained here:
https://youtu.be/owMiqnGqN-s

Enjoy
Alain