Wide open, it does have impressive sharpness. But the Helios sells for £20-£30 in near new condition, 30x cheaper then rigid! Its one of the best kept secrets at the moment, price for performance. The Leica Summicron rigid (being the successor to the collapsible version, ofcourse exceed the Helios). In theory, the Soviet Union actually improved the Summitsr/ Summicron design here with the Helios 103. Whats impressive is instead of it being a pure clone with minor changes (like the Jupiter lenses often were of older Carl Zeiss Jena designs), the Helios 103 is a recompiled and made faster v1 Summicron. Ive had one dismantled and noticed it has similarities to the original collapsible Summicron (pre-rigid). Indeed the Helios 103 has some Summicron pedigree. If by some magic you do, you still have yourself a rather handsome book stand or display-piece all for about the price of 2 rolls of Cinestill 800T.Įxcellent images you’ve made with the lens! This is all part of the challenge and charm, you’ll never get bored with this camera and all its quirks and rattles. You might have noticed I haven’t yet mentioned anything about the included light meter, that’s because they usually weren’t very accurate and mine falls in that category so it’s best to get your metering elsewhere. HELIOS LENS PATCHThe viewfinder is surprisingly big and bright compared to other cheap soviet cameras, but the focusing patch is rather difficult to see.Īlso of note is the ability to use 1/1250th of a second for your shutter speed, eat your heart out Leica. This is because you need to depress the cog wheel found on its top plate to unlock the lens from infinity focus. A little about its use.īeing a Contax copy, you must learn to wield it with the mighty tiger-claw-Contax-grip. I managed to strike the jackpot and haven’t had any significant issues with my copy. However, what you get when you sign up for eastern european camera roulette is a spin of the quality control wheel and this is no expectation for the Kiev. I can’t claim to be qualified enough to say for sure but rumour has it that rather than being of Sonnar design, the Helios 103 appears more similar to a Summitar/Summicron. Correct, it’s not a huge advantage but what this lens provides is lovely subject separation and sharpness which rivals its western equivalent (maybe). These frequently came with the now well known 50mm f2 Jupiter-8 lens, but my copy came with the arguably-superior 53mm f1.8 Helios-103! What’s the big deal I hear you say? It’s only 1/3 of a stop. The Kiev 4M is “rough” copy of the classic Contax rangefinders of the 1930s. Why? In search of hidden treasure of course, like the Kiev 4M that I managed to find one day for no more than $30. What this left behind is the most fun you’ll ever have scouring through bazaars and online shops. The soviets famously copied almost all the most popular western camera systems from brands such as Leica, Hasselblad, Contax, Zeiss, Pentax and others. Starting out on film photography in eastern Europe is interesting, here you can find an absolute abundance of cheap old soviet cameras for sale.
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