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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Helios 44-2 58mm Matching Wide Lens?

Lee Kelly said:
Hey Nick,

What is wrong with a lens that focuses the 'wrong' way? Nikon does that. That little 20mm is rad!
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I'll just put an SLR Magic Rangefinder on it to get it to focus the "right" way. It'll probably vignette allot on FF but I do not shoot mutch FF (+ 240* focus throw is a nice addition to match the DSO set too ;)
 
Björn Benckert said:
Aha you did not know... thats possibly the bigest reason not to buy Nikon glas. :)


Regarding mounting anamorphic elements infront of lenses... I been down that road, tried quite hard to make it work but ended up buying a set of HAWK´s instead as using an element with one lens is difficult to get a decent alignment etc, then using it with more than one lens is for pure hobbyist only as its rather difficult to make such array of elements, it´s not without reason all the different focal lengths of anamorphic primes comes in different sizes or are all rather big and got issues with different looks between focal lengths etc. it´s all because they use different elements for the different focal lengths. So even though I hope that oliva thing kicks ass, I expect it will not and I think the manufacturing time might have a lot to do with all this.

Here is a picture of one of my attempts a K35 with a front / rod mounted anamorphic lens array. It did work but well only for that focal length and the smallest change of alignment and picture goes way soft. The Hawks I had for about two years and they went back to Vantage for service and collation / alignment 3 times... at a cost of 4k USD each time. Those are considered to be some of the best built anamorphic around, and stil the issues where plenty. So with that in mind I would not have too high hope on this.
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Wow! Seems like you went a long way on that project!
Crossing my fingers (and holding my thumbs) for The Olivia to be an as good a solution as it's teased to be...
 
What is wrong with a lens that focuses the 'wrong' way? Nikon does that. That little 20mm is rad!
Click to expand...

The whole reason I am reworking the russian glass is because I like the way it looks, but it's a pain in the ass to work with. If you are just shooting pet projects, sure, make do with whatever, but as a DP I am not going to ask my AC to monkey fuck around with some backwards lens in the middle of a professional shoot where lots and lots of dollars are being spent. If we swing a lens in the middle of a set up and it focuses the opposite of all the other lenses we have been using, then that makes his job harder, which makes him look like an asshole if it takes him an extra take or two, and that's not fair or efficient.

I sold my k-35s and bought modern lenses because of efficiency and speed. If you have some process, be it a lens change, that takes 3 minutes to do, and you do it 10 times a day, over the course of a 20 day shoot that adds up to almost a day of wasted time. So, making everything efficient and streamlined is important to me ;-) hence taking these funky old lenses and making them uniform, and functional.

Nick
 
You know it might take a minute or two to swing a lens but we save a hell of a lot of time now that most focus pullers arent running tape and sit off to one side glued to a monitor pulling reactive focus via a remote unit. The game has changed quite a bit over the last few years.
You could almost re-house a lens and not worry about focus marks these days as so much is eye focus now. One of my FF58s doesnt have f stop numbers or focus marks and it still works fine, by eye.

Still, if you are able to rework these lenses to be fairly uniform in an affordable way, I would love to send you my little posse.
In the meantime I am going to try and order some focus gears and give these suckers a whirl on an upcoming couple of music clips (no budget) which means I can experiment and not be putting thousands of dollars at risk!

On another note, do these kinds of older lenses with seemingly less coating, let in more IR light than their multicoated friends? They sure do love to flare!
 
I would beg to differ with the pulling off a monitor thing. That is not how it should be done. Pulling off of a monitor is reactive. Pulling focus for real is anticipatory. Which one do you think wins? On the stuff that I work on, I expect my AC to have shit in focus (with in reason, wide open handheld documentary it's catch as catch can). And pulling focus off a monitor doesn't save time, it costs time in droves. You now need a monitor which needs batteries, which die, and BNC cables that go bad, or wireless transmitter that loses the signal. A good AC just grabs the knob and nails it. they are a rare bread and highly valued.

Nick
 
I do not disagree with your points Nick. You are completely right. The thing is, on 90% of shoots I work on these days, the AC will be either on the knob but looking at a 6in monitor (often with peaking on) pulling reactive style. The other way is via wireless standing to one side, again looking at a monitor (often with peaking activated)
Now before you question the level of production I am talking about, I can assure you I am talking about some of the highest end productions shot here.
With digital being so unforgiving for sharps, most ACs and DPs for that matter would rather the image be in focus 99% of the time than the 0.5second delay with reactive pulling. Obviously, any experienced AC knows where 6ft would lie in relation to their camera (or whatever) and many will use cinetape but running old school tape measure rarely happens unless it is a very critical longer lens walk towards camera kind of shot. The poor guy just doesnt get the time in todays scheduling. I cant speak on behalf of every AC or every shoot of course. In any case, we have to admit, even with unforgiving detail in digital sensors, its pretty rare to see a soft shot these days, compared to 35mm days. Most average movies goers are going to notice an out of focus moment more than a slightly late pull.
Even better, remember that period (5d era) when sloppy focus racking would be considered 'cinematic'? ha ha thank goodness we moved on from that shit.
 
These russian lenses sure do breath alot.
My Mamiyas do too though but you only really notice that stuff when you do a big throw, kind of.
The Mamiya 45mm doesnt breath! Great lens.
Besides the breathing, I have been quite impressed with the Russian lenses. Nice flare, pretty well matched contrast and colour, to my eye anyway. It didnt feel like you would have to do much in the grade to make a cut feel pretty seemless between these. Its not like a crazy WHOA thing going on thats for sure. The double iris thingy is great for us (de-clicked) focus throw is long (im getting gears made now) except the 20mm is more like a typical stills lens with short barrel rotation and as mentioned it goes the other way. f2.5 though is pretty fast for a cheap wide angle like this. They all have pretty decent close focus too!

I have a couple of projects to shoot which have no money so I am taking the opportunity to put these bad boys to the test on set. Once my gear arrive and i can throw on follow focus get all my setup/down rings for my filters etc I will be able to comment more. Even post the clips as they arent going to be held up in festival world exclusive blah blah blah boring.
 
I just did a music video shoot with my Dragon and my old Russians.
Everything looks good and I am really happy. I mostly used my 35mm f2 but threw on my 85mm f2 for a couple of shots.
Had an interesting experience with the 85. It might be my Motion Mount or the lens itself because what I found was I was sharp focus, after doing a zoom/focus check and I was locked off on a tripod shooting a tv screen, so nothing was moving. The branding signage on the tv was blurred, even though it was in sharp focus. It must be the motion mount and being wide open on the lens? The rest of the image is fine but its like a very slight double image or something on the writing that is giving it a blurred look.
 
My set of Optikov's are finaly ready and I'll get them soon.
Looking forward to test them out and see if the 20mm f2.5 can match this set. Guess I'll be looking forward to the 28mm that is to be released before christmas :)
 

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