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Helios 44, But With A Twist!
A lens as an experimenter's delight.
It somewhat shames me to say that the Helios 44, or in my case specifically: the 44m-4, has never really excited me. Maybe it's because I shoot on Fuji APS-C cameras and the full swirly glory is getting cropped away, but even with a 0.71 focal reducer the lens never grabbed me as anything particularly special. Decently center-sharp for an old lens, muted colors, there was just no real magical spark for me. So when I was browsing around flickr hashtags and was reminded of the reverse front and rear element mods for this lens I decided to brush off the dust on my copy, break out the spanner wrench and give it a try.
The modification itself is incredibly simple. One retaining ring has to be removed and the rear element falls out. Flip that sucker back around and reinstall the retaining ring and you’ve got yourself a little fairy tail lens.
The bokeh is striking. The Helios 44 is renowned for its optical vignetting and swirling bokeh that frames the edge of otherwise very center-sharp images. The reversed rear element Helios 44 just ramps up the insanity. The colors are still muted, which makes sense given that the glass and coatings are the same, but the optical rendering goes absolutely nuts.
The bokeh, which is the main draw here, evokes thoughts of a poor man’s Trioplan. All the specular highlights in the bokeh are heavily ringed soap bubbles. Smooth bokeh is NOT the name of the game here. Transitions are harsh and heavy handed, and the word buttery will essentially be slapped out of your mouth.
Even with the lack of smoothness, the lens blends in-focus and out-of-focus elements in the frame with wild optical aberration. While the lens retains a decent level of resolution, sharpness and subject-background separation is achieved with weird spherical aberration. Elements in the photo that should stand apart in contrast will ghost and bleed together, melted in a strange kind of impressionistic render. It truly is a sight to see the world through this lens.
Now, while this lens can truly produce breathtaking results, it isn’t an easy bronco to break. Focusing isn’t so much a journeyman’s skill here as it is a squint and a hope as you pray you nailed the focus, as the focus peaking of modern cameras is pretty much useless here in many cases. The optical buggery and smooshed together edges preclude anything nearing enough edge contrast for the poor camera to detect focus. But stick with it and the photos can be a real breath of fresh air.
Check out the fully gallery of reverse element Helios 44m-4 test shots here
Final judgment. Will I use this lens every day? Will this be my new walkin’ around lens, or the lens I grab when I want to shoot a portrait, or for an automotive shoot, or anything resembling professional work? Absolutely not. This is a fun lens. This is an experimental lens. This won’t be to everyone’s taste, but to those who have the palette for the more experimental, then this will might be the ticket. Do I recommend it? Hell yes. The mod is easily and quickly reversible. You can flip the rear element for an afternoon walk shooting dreamy flower pics and then flip it right back around when you get back to your kitchen table at home and no one will be the wiser.
So if this piques your interest then grab your spanner wrench and turn some glass around backwards and have some fun!
Written on Tuesday, 23 August 2022, by Aaron Brown. Last edited on
