Ok so yesterday I played around just doing some basic test with the Iconic Helios 44-2.
If you read the article I posted above you will see this lens is not an exact copy of the Zeiss Biotar
but the elements inside of the lens are almost exactly the same and same distances ..
This is a common practice where companies copy another brands items but change up the outsides to
look different to avoid conflicts lol.
So yeah this lens is pretty close to an exact copy optically speaking of the Carl Zeiss Biotar 58mm F2.
Note: Latter ill be doing a test with the real deal to compare as I do own the real Zeiss Biotar version as well.
Ok so the first images where just test to see how shallow or thin the depth of field was when using this lens on this camera..
All of these shots are shot fully open to show the full effect of what everyone raves about these lenses lol.
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The above image is just a very close up shot (About as close as the lens would focus) to see the focus point of the lens..
As you can see the very center of the bulb is very sharp and in focus but suddenly near the edges of the bulb go blurry and everything
behind it becomes a distorted and interesting mess lol..
Some areas of the lens you can still see the tree has contained its shape and other areas of the lens the shape of the tree is distorted
and smeared ..
In future photos in this post you will start to see the pattern of this smearing effect..
Its in a kind of circular pattern around the center part of the lens..
This is the effect people like from this lens type.
I would say its interesting and more artistic then anything in my book lol.
Also Note the angle at that you hold the camera thus shifts the angle of the lens and this is what causes the interesting smearing in
only particular areas and directions ..
One can master tilting the lens just right and getting very creative effects from the lens.
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Ok the above image is with the lens closed up a touch to around 2.5 or 2.8 I cant remember but just one stop closed up..
You can see the flashlight is quite sharp and holds its focus well and everything goes into a nicer more smoother blur that I personally
like better ...
But when you start to back up away from the target or have a further back background the effect is still quite noticeable ...
To increase the effect take a photo of something that has a really busy background like the tree branches above..
If you want a more smoother look try to avoid busy backgrounds and something smoother like the wood behind the flashlight and close up
the lens some..
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The two images above are of our silly Natalie that agreed to stand still for the photos..
This test once again shows an example of how using a lens like this fully open can be a good thing or a bad thing..
As you can see in one photo I focused on the furthest eye and the closer eye is way out of focus and most of her face between.
The other photo I focused on the closer eye from the other side and the same kind of result is expected..
This means that shooting portraits with this lens fully open is probably not the best idea up close anyway..
And I was able to back up some and get decent photos but still again the depth of field was just way too thin..
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Above is a photo of one of the tiny girls ...
This photo was taken as close as the lens would focus and wide open once again..
If you look close you can see that I focused more in the center of her head..
I managed to get both eyes in decent focus but the left of the photos eye is starting to blur out already and I am shooting strait on so
imagine if I turned to the side some..
Also if you look at the wooden wall behind her that is only about an inch or two behind her and already its blurred quite a bit and if you
look close you can see the swirling effect around her head..
Also the bottom right of the lamp she is holding is starting to smear outwards towards the edge of the photo..
So you are saying come on John what good is this lens?
If all you are gonna do is get strange blurry images lol..
Well all is not lost if you understand how lenses work..
Below are some images with the lens closed up a touch..
The first one I think is about a stop closed up of Brandy and this is a pleasant photo with plenty of blur but yet retains a decent photo..
The last photo is a photo of Kira and this was shot around F4 and you can see the lens starts to clean up quite a bit and could pass as my main
camera almost ...
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- (Lens Test 8).jpg (5.79 MiB) Viewed 173 times
Ok so as you can see even if this lens is something that people like the strange effects it gives these test prove that closing up even the most wild
lenses can often clean up there images quite a bit
.
I hope you liked the photos and the fun testing ..
More to come some other day...
