The HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 lens shown in this review was presented to Igor Burkov by Radozhive. I express my deep gratitude to Igor for such project assistance. The lens was sold and the funds credited here.
HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 review with Contax-Kiev RF mount
HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 is a standard lens for rangefinder cameras of the 'Kiev' brand. Nowadays it is very easy to find it at flea markets, but, due to its specific mount, it is not of great value.
HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 from this review has an internal mount Contax-Kiev RF and, unlike lenses with an external mount Contax-Kiev RF, does not have a focusing ring, depth of field scale and focusing distance scale. You can find a lot of useful information about the unusual Contax-Kiev RF bayonet in the review JUPITER-11 1: 4 F = 13,5cm P with external mount Contax-Kiev RF.
My HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 has a serial number of 8143748 and is manufactured at the Arsenal plant (Kiev, Ukraine, judging by the logo). The filter thread is slightly bent, but the optics are normal, without scuffs or any other damage. Like the rest of the rangefinder "fifty kopecks", HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 is small, weighing 150 grams. Like many Soviet lenses with Contax-Kiev mount, the diameter of the front thread for the filter is 40.5 mm.
HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 with a Contax-Kiev RF mount
Due to the fact that HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 with an internal mount Contax-Kiev RF does not have a focusing ring, it is difficult for it to make an adapter for modern digital cameras. In addition, HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 is a rangefinder lens, and therefore its use as a classic photographic lens is available only on rangefinder or modern mirrorless cameras. On SLR cameras HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 with Contax-Kiev RF mount can only be used as a macro lens. I tested HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 on a full frame mirrorless system camera Sony a7, using a homemade adapter from the Contax-Kiev RF mount to the Sony E mount. My homemade adapter is made from the mount part of the Kiev camera and the adapter M39 - Sony E.
Dimensions HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 with Contax-Kiev RF mount
HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 has one diaphragm control ring. The ring rotates with a click. You can set one of the values of F / 1.8, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22. The maximum aperture ratio of 1: 1.8 is only 1.23 times larger than the 1: 2 value used with a similar lens - JUPITER-8 1: 2 F = 5cm P. And 1.44 is less than the 1: 1.5 value used by JUPITER-3 1,5/50. Aperture has 9 petals, while you can get pretty even circles in the blur zone (closed f / 2.8 example) The diaphragm's petals are gray, when diaphragmed on the petals, developed bare metal areas appear that reflect light.
While working with the lens, I constantly happened to confuse the focus rings and aperture to the touch, which did not improve my mood :(.
HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 with a Contax-Kiev RF mount
As far as I know, HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 was not produced in a version for a threaded connection, but only for a Contax-Kiev RF bayonet. I met information that there is a version of the lens under a different name - Helios-103 2/50, but I could not even find pictures of the lens, whose name is written in Latin letters.
There are two versions of HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 with a slightly modified design of the case, the main difference of which is the different ribbed surface of the diaphragm control ring. And it's rather interesting that from 1993 to 1994 HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 was produced under the name Menopta 1.8 / 53, without the Arsenal plant logo.
HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 aperture lens petals with Contax-Kiev RF mount
In its optical scheme, HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 uses 6 lenses in 4 groups. Personally, I do not know from which lens the lens was copied or recounted. Please share reliable information on this in the comments.
JUPITER-8 1: 2 F = 5cm P with mount Contax-Kiev RF and HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 with a Contax-Kiev RF mount
HELIOS-103 circles of blur at the edges and corners of the frame turn into limonchiki.
Lens enlightenment JUPITER-8 1: 2 F = 5cm P and HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 with a Contax-Kiev RF mount
On the open diaphragm, HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 is noticeably sharper than JUPITER-8 1: 2 F = 5cm P. And Helios-103 is not so afraid of flare. That's just a pity, his bokeh visually looks worse than that of JUPITER-8.
HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 with a Contax-Kiev RF mount mounted on a makeshift adapter.
HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 has a simple chemical enlightenment cast on the front lens with a lilac hue. The lens does not really like side and backlight.
Source files can download from this link (29 photos in '.ARW' format, 550 MB). In the gallery, all photos without processing, the usual reduced on-camera JPEG from the camera Sony a7... Pictures of birds were captured in APS-C size shooting mode.
HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 with a Contax-Kiev RF mount on a Sony ILCE-7 camera (Alpha 7)
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HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 is a good rangefinder fifty dollars, it's a pity, such lenses are unsuitable for use on SLR cameras.
Familiarity with the Soviet Helios brand lenses I recommend starting with an inexpensive and common lens Helios-44-2 2/58 (aka HELIOS-44-2 2/58). The following links can look at modern lenses Zenitar и HELIOS.
Material prepared Arkady Shapoval. Training/Consultations | Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram
Arkady! I can’t wait for tests of more common optics with M39 threads which are easier to install on mirrorless cameras and which are more common.
Arkady once again thank you very much for your work. I liked this lens very much, but I took pictures on a film from a Kiev 4M camera, Jupiter-12 35 / 2,8 and HELIOS-103 1.8 / 53 lenses with a Contax-Kiev RF mount.
You can see the photo here if you do not mind
http://vk.com/album79739328_209369798
Cool shots! Scans, of course, with a rather low resolution, but they also perfectly convey the “character” of this lens on film - rich natural color, sharpness and softness in one bottle), airiness of the picture.
all the same, the size of the rangefinder optics is a fat plus! such crumbs)))
A Snigir pictured still no :))) Thank you for your work!
Thanks for the review! Interesting photos turned out with this lens
And why does it have to be copied or recalculated from something?
Because the general trend of Soviet optics is the theft of technology.
Yes, scoops have never invented anything of their own. All their great inventions were stolen after the Second World War from the Germans.
This is called “Kicking a dead tiger.” What did you, smart guys, invent?
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
Not about you, but about lenses.
these two only know how to fart viciously - no more head, no hands for anything.
Well, it’s just understandable, the economic benefit on the face is much easier and cheaper to copy, steal or buy someone else’s development than to invent and implement your own.
This is exactly what the Japanese did in their time.
Really? For your information, teenager maximalist, Arsenal just did a lot of his own without copying. And what have you achieved during this time? You’ve destroyed everything and don’t rush to do your own thing, even copying and imitating is bad for you. At least by today's standards, Soviet optics can withstand quality.
And I adore such rhetoric “Stole”, “cheated” and so on, I’ll tell you a secret, everywhere it is, both in art and science. Why reinvent the wheel? If you can take a working model and refine it, that's development. It is better to “steal” and carry it to the people than to sit on your ass and do nothing, but only eat imported goods and whine about how bad everyone was in the “scoop”.
And besides literature there is something to write about the case?
Excuse me, monsieur, but there are several schemes that the whole world has copied - Planar, Biogon, Tessar, Elmar, but for some reason you call only Soviet optics plagiarism.
Because this is exactly what plagiarism is. Up to the design of the case. For your own glass, only recalculation and your own enlightenment technologies where it is impossible to repeat. On the network, there are whole packs of posts about how in the USSR they copied almost everything (that they were able to copy) - from razors to microprocessors. Cars, optics, household appliances. Buran - Shuttle and so on. This is not a borrowing with the development that Japan went through and that would be excusable, but stupid copying. As a consequence of the flawed course towards the lack of cooperation and confrontation with the whole world.
A typical lying demagogue opened on the Buran \ Shuttle.
He crows about plagiarism, but he himself does not have enough brains to understand that Buran is not even close to a copy, a completely different apparatus. The first in the world to be controlled by a computer.
The exact range of the Shuttle’s military missions was unknown, therefore, as in the cases of the V-2 missile and the B-29 bomber, the analogue was ordered to be made as close as possible to the original. Specially for the creation of the Energy-Buran system, the Molniya research and production association was formed, and G.E. was appointed its general director. Lozino-Lozinsky, previously engaged in the development of the Spiral aerospace system. 70 ministries and departments, 1286 enterprises and about 1 million people were involved in the development, and up to 3,6 million people worked in one way or another indirectly on the project!
Lozino-Lozinsky wanted to propose his project “Hurricane”, modified from the “Spiral” for the overall and weight requirements of the payload, and created a series of “BOR-4” ships repeating the “Spiral” for testing heat-insulating tiles in the atmosphere when entering the atmosphere. they had exactly the same nasal curvature as the smaller Burana. But the leadership of the country remained adamant and in the next series of BOR-5 ships it was necessary to return to the constructive scheme of the Buran.
It was impossible to completely repeat the design of the Space Shuttle in the conditions of Baikonur leaning, and the Soviet industry did not have solid fuel accelerators, so it was decided to replace them with kerosene-oxygen first stage. The RD-0120 hydrogen engines also turned out to be larger than the Shuttle RS-25 engines, and therefore they had to be transferred from the spacecraft to the second stage. As a result, they turned out to be disposable, but in the conditions of the almost exclusive purpose of the Energy-Buran system, this was not so important. As a bonus in this scenario, the Soviet Union received an Energia launch vehicle capable of launching up to 100 tons into orbit.
That is, as usual - all the differences in the design are caused only by the fact that the original ones were unavailable due to inferiority. By the way, the Shuttle spent most of the flight and most of the landing in automatic mode, it could also land automatically - this was not a problem - NASA, for its subjective reasons, insisted on manually releasing the parachute and landing gear. And after the accident, Colombia did not change the design, although they were considered seriously.
I’m not saying that the scoop couldn’t do anything - it could well for itself, there were original developments and interesting solutions. But at almost all levels, the main approach was as follows - tyrim to the maximum. From optics and astronautics to processor technologies. The microcircuits were stupidly reshoot and made their own, identical, as long as the technological capabilities allowed. There was even some joke when American engineers coded some inscription in the diagram and ripped it off. Until recently, the Chinese did (and sometimes do) similarly. But those were clever enough to go completely their own, Japan was enough. The scoop was not enough, alas.
After the war, German patents, as everyone knows, ceased to be a priority, and not only from the field of optics, the whole world successfully copied German developments LITERALLY - and also not only optical. I will add, just in case, that the Germans themselves were not fools at any time to jerk any development that was bad, and at anyone. The stories with the Gobron-Briyeu and Koreyvo engines under the Junkers brand are enough for you? Now compare the base of the Soviet Sport camera and the German Kine-Ekzakta. And look at the release dates for both.
There was Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58 mm f2 - our Helios44 is better. There is Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 1: 2 f = 5cm - our Jupiter 8 is much better !!!
White Helios 44 with a start camera worse than a biotar.
from the last white g44 and subsequent g44-2 they already had a slightly different advanced scheme. (The rear lens is thicker in the first g44, and the glass is different). Yes, 44-2 is better than biotar. Just do not forget that when the scoop improved the junk as a biotar, the zeiss already had a planar of 50 by 1.4 and 85 by 1.4. and looked at his own biotar as archaism.
Sonnar calculated the German in the 38th year, and ours riveted until the 90s, yes, maybe ours is a little better, but this shows all the stupidity of the scoop and not the opportunity to think.
G-44 and G-44-2 are two absolutely identical lenses. Except that enlightenment has changed over time. Both of my starting Helios were better than both the later variations and the early Biotar. 44-2 could not be better than anything, because the huge mass and bulk structure, in principle, cannot provide the required quality as a result.
Measure with a barbell the thickness of the rear lens in the starting g44 and 44-2 in the center and circumference.
Look at the radius of the inner bend of the back gluing.
Well yes…. Only from space, our lenses are much better than even American ones. The resolution is better. And about the German space, I generally keep quiet…. The Germans did not think of how to fly into space. And here you write about the stupidity of the scoop. Have a conscience.
only the foundation of all the world's missiles is fau
And what ??? So we can say that the Japanese are idiots and modern Toyota has a prototype Benz car of 1885
And where is this "scoop" now? And the Germans and Americans are thriving to this day. :))
No wonder the proverb says that stolen for the future never goes.
Are you actually a photographer ??? Or troll. I modestly note that the most important discoveries of mankind were obtained in Russia, and only then crawled to the west. History is a great thing, if you do not try to rewrite it from wretchedness and dementia. Something so dear.
For example serfdom
One more. Learn the story. Greece. Rome.
O_O
And what about the achievements in the space industry, it is an improvement in the well-being of the people? Go and see how the Germans live. And without space they feel one hundred percent.
One izzz ... In the USSR, people were GIVEN houses and apartments. Just ! Out of the kindness of your heart and for your beautiful eyes! Since you were, just simply, a citizen of your beloved homeland! Can you name other countries where people are simply given apartments?
This is absolute nonsense. Do not watch Ren TV anymore. Soviet spy satellites merged in all respects, including the possibilities of optics. No, I'm lying. Won at a price. As, however, and Helios all sorts
Zonar with light works better, there is no drop in resolution. enlightenment was better)
Opera 27.0 does not display a column with social networks, eternal download
Scoops are still riveting WITHOUT CHANGE Lada 6-ku (more precisely FIAT) and are proud. ChSV at them rolls over. After all, they invented it, not stolen it :)
For especially Soviet quilted jackets I’ll write
look at the Lada 6-ku 1950 release, and the Lada 6-ku 2014 release,
then take a deep breath and
take a look at the 3 BMW 1950 and the 3 BMW 2014.
And then realize the "breakthrough" of your technology.
And the same with all Sovkovatny inventions, everything stolen and renamed. Motorcycle URAL and Dnepr - they are also BMW. Cameras and optics - they are Contax and Carl Zeis. Tractors YuMZ, ChTZ, MTZ - they are also Ford. The list goes on and on ...
Rozmova about assets. like
Do not pour this nonsense diarrhea here, please.
And besides:
1) VAZ-2106 in the Russian Federation has long been discontinued. Recently, the car was popular only because it was very cheap. Remind me how much the BMW 3 Series costs?
2) Your imaginary “Soviet quilted jackets” did not invent this car, and they know very well that the plant in Togliatti was built by Italians, and the first 3 cars were licensed and modified by the same Italians FIAT-124. Everything is fair for the currency.
3) VAZ-2106 is a restyling of the VAZ-2103. In 1950, neither this car nor its Italian prototype existed. But you can compare the Moskvich M-402 and the luxurious BMW Isetta - both cars for the people. Forward.
In the scoop there was an expression "what the Russian invented the Japanese women will not understand, but what the Russian did the Japanese women will not raise", in the scoop there were scientists and inventors, but there was no technology. Somehow the party asked the scientists if we really couldn't make the TV better than the Japanese, and the scientists made the TV set in all respects superior to the imported ones, BUT there was no technology for a tube (lamp, kinescope), one piece was assembled by a jewelry master and the TV set turned out to be gold in terms of price, and was not put into production.
Commentary does not apply to the article; it refers to disputes arising here and if my comment is deleted. so along with the rest of the garbage that is off topic.
Of course, it is very easy to find fault ... And if everyone DOES something instead, there would be a result. We are far from the stupidest nation, lazy, yes ... And with the "scoop" we had a lot of our own advanced technologies - in the same astronautics it was NOT WHO
I use the Russian car with pleasure and am incredibly happy about it, and the content is generally a freebie, and yes, I am a patriot of my country, mind you, not a drugged fanatic, but everything you say is from stupidity, difficult childhood, wooden toys and improper upbringing. I am sincerely sorry for you ...
No, everything is clear here, there’s no point in generally reacting to this person. He is not a photographer, and constructively unable to think. The antipode of the group that prays for the Soviet Union. That those that are absolutely divorced from life and can only perceive reality in black and white shades, without gradations. Draw constructive conclusions, learn from the mistakes of the past, apply successful experience from the same past? NOOOOF on figs? They have their own reality.
Well it is clear. The Ukrainian auto industry is where the coolest of all the auto industry put together ... One Tavria is worth something ..))) Gee-gee ...
It is better for the young generation to remain silent about the Union (enroll in the army of oligarchs and beta your own and rubbing their hands, what did your generation really do?) And my generation and old people who throw mud at their country JUDAS have forgotten how they swore allegiance to the Soviet people? After all, everyone swore since the October Revolution and all the men took the oath in the army, not counting those who did not serve. And now "well" the country has been torn apart along the republican borders, now it is being torn apart by regions, turn on your head, what's next according to the plan? As for the optics: I have a Pentax DSLR and two kit lenses (new, modern ones came with it) and so the little industrial 50-2 at short and medium distances bypasses both of them. And about the ratio of price and quality, I will not say anything. And about the auto industry, young people myself think after a while and financial losses will understand “what is good and what is bad” - pennies and the Volga with Muscovites who are 40-50 years old are rotten but still serve their owners and what is the resource of the engine with alusil coating in place of the liners and what is the resource of the variator box?
about holivar about sloppy Soviet technologies. I once had a conversation with a leading technologist of a large enterprise on this topic. he told a cautionary tale that explained a lot to me. in the USSR there was piece-rate wages for workers and time-based wages for engineering and technical personnel. with such a system of material incentives, it was profitable for the proletariat to give a shaft, and the engineering and technical staff did not care. therefore, any product was assessed according to the criterion "not worse", and the criterion itself was underestimated to the maximum.
The optical industry is no exception, alas.
and yet, cybernetics in the USSR has long been considered pseudoscience, and not only cybernetics. who is not in the subject, google the topic Academician Trofim Lysenko
Cybernetics was the "corrupt girl of imperialism." :))
Meat cells. fat cells!
St. Petersburg and the Russian Federation. 2013.07.21. Olympus E-PL1
Please tell me, where to get the film on it?
Here they write that Helios 103 was, if not a copy, then very close in scheme to the Leikov Sumicron (last and best) (Helios 103 is quite close to the actual Leica Summicron 2/50)
http://www.ragarecords.com/photo/helios103images.html
True - a diagram is a diagram, but it is no less important who, where and how the lens is made.
Helios103 is one of the sharpest Soviet lenses.
... Though: "Lyudin’s skin is GLYBOKON overhauled by that right!" ...,
it should be taken into account that:
... if the scoops (by the way, they forgot that these were our fathers ?!) knew how to make only slingshots, then despite any sacrifices, they would not be able to loot the smartest Germans! ...
... And in addition to beautiful photographs, they also had to plow fields, and build schools and roads, and much more ...
... And the fact that the following dives about ... rallied ...
In fact:
1. As always, thanks to Arkady for another great review, health and good luck!
2. Pay attention to a recent case: the G-103 looks exclusively at Sonya and I personally have 6!
3. Guess which scoop is taken?
It looks like "Tair".
So about the scoops, not about the lenses. And the word was invented. Well, there was no opportunity in the union to launch the latest technology into production for various well-known reasons, but how many patents and developments of Our Engineers are used over the hill. And how long. I will not even give examples, those who have open eyes already know. I will say from my experience of long-term work with various foreigners that what our Mechanical Engineer can do, invent, repair (and sometimes just out of nothing and without schemes and instructions), not a single foreigner will do. Checked. Repeatedly. So do not drive on ours. And today's American rockets fly into space on Our engines of the 60s. Yes, the main focus was on heavy industry, but it was created. Otherwise they would trample.
Who created the heavy industry? Starting from the 20s and ending with the 40s, factories were built and maintained by Europeans and Americans, all the equipment was imported, yes, there was a breakthrough of technology in the 60s, 70s, but this was not enough.
I'll add five cents to the srach. There is such a concept - the international division of labor. No state can do everything at once and, moreover, do everything perfectly. The division of labor was also in the communist camp. Why put engineering thought on the altar of consumer optics if the government's priorities lie in a different plane? It's just silly and irrational. For these things, it was the GDR with a rich tradition. Our state fought for world hegemony. It was not going to compete with Western watering cans and Zeiss. Consumer perfectionism in the Soviet Union is the essence of sin and philistinism. The technological chip of the USSR is the scale effect: simplicity of design + super cheapness. The USSR provided tens of millions of people with good photographic equipment, whose fathers still walked in bast shoes and rejoiced like a miracle at Ilyich's lamps. The difference between biotar and helios 44-2 is not as catastrophic for the amateur photographer as the difference in price. The pros will not shoot either one or the other. But if an amateur can't make a cool photo of G44-2, then his hands are out of his ass. And if you have your hands out of your ass, then there is nothing left but to blame it on the scoop.
Hello!
Tell me, please, how to use the adapter to attach Helios 103 to Sony NEX5?
buy an adapter m39-NEKS, sharpen the adapter ring - the outside is the same as the threaded insert in the adapter, the inner size is by the lens. The ring, in depth, should be 1,2mm more than the standard one (you need to clarify by the working section of a particular lens)
did not notice right away ... Arkady, at the beginning of this review - a snapshot of the G-103 with an adapter
and now compare the photo from the review of Jupiter 12, there the photos are all sharp and saturated, but that Arkady scolds, and this is a lot of troubled ones and Helios 103 praises. I do not understand this.
read Vladimir Semenovich = there is about baobabs
Gentlemen, you forgot to mention the T-34 tank. We also forgot about all our writers. Do not measure only with optics. And the fact that sometimes technology is stolen and used by them. Well, that the whole world is stealing each other, and neither is China in front of the entire planet. And the fact that something was not produced in the scoop was not the fault of the people
In the scoop “something was not produced”, now nothing is being produced (from consumer goods), space and military space remained, not to mention the extraction of hydrocarbons. Avtovaz is pushing through the efforts of the French leaders, can they together with the people? Politicians, businessmen, engineers are also people.
I will enter into srach. I could not resist. In the USSR (scoop), the car industry was not a priority, but the automobile (VAZ) and even more so. Because the capitalist was alone. And when the question was how to transport 1 million. tons of cargo per year to the Far East, the answer was one locomotive. And yes, in the 21st century. (after all perestroika and reforms) There is no better railway communication on this planet than in Russia. I can discuss Japanese, Korean, Chinese high-speed trains separately. They are inferior in all respects. Optics on spaceships and optical telescopes in Russia, that of the adversary is from Olympus. Thanks to Arkady for his reviews. I am very glad that he got a dormouse with a short working length. Waiting for reviews of all rangefinder lenses.
Tell me: on nikon d80 it should be without an ashtray? (I read that there is no way to install Helios 44 on such a camera, but I want a 50mm aperture for a penny, in order to determine if this is my type of shooting. Money is very limited). Thanks.
not get up at all in any way. and for pennies try industrial-50
My Helios 103 was launched in 85g. The diaphragm ring is indeed slightly wider and has a different shape of ribs. I also noticed that the inscriptions were applied more accurately. The rest did not notice the differences. I use the lens on the A7II, I liked it, an interesting glass.
Regarding the adapter for this rangefinder lens on Sony mirrorless cameras - we buy the lens together with the Kiev camera on which it is installed, we remove the focusing mechanism from the camera with the lens attached - we take the standard adapter from Sony to 39mm Soviet rangefinder optics, unscrew three from the adapter bolt on M3 and take out the inner ring of the adapter, and instead insert the entire focusing unit. The only thing is, instead of the native M3 bolts, we put longer bolts and slightly fasten the mechanism so as not to bend it with these three M3 bolts. We cut off the excess on the edges of the aiming mechanism on emery - due to the fact that now the lens is twisted further outward - the MDF becomes somewhat closer.
Py.Sy. - and regarding Soviet cameras and optics for it - in comparison with branded watering cans and Nikons of that era - a rare junk, although it has one indisputable advantage - a low price.
A couple of lenses from that era, bought for mere pennies, I still use on my HEX-5, which I have as a soap dish in my pocket - this is an Industar 61LD with lanthanum and this very Helios 103 - the main advantage is a sufficiently high aperture ratio at small sizes - both lenses are quite suitable as good portrait lenses, but they are not very good as universal fixes, because the focal length is 80mm equivalent with a crop and gives a narrow angle of view ...
The adapter on the basis of a helicoid of the recessed Industar 22 interests, who did?
If I mean the adapter to the G-103, then it will not fit into that helicoid, and the length course will be small. You can try to stick the Yu-8-Kontakt, but why, if there are worthless Yu-8s with M39 thread?