The Helios 44-2 is the lens most people buy first when they start adapting old glass. It's a 58mm f/2 from the Soviet Union, it was made in huge numbers, and it has a look people chase on purpose. Because so many were made, by three factories over a couple of decades, the copies for sale vary a lot. This guide covers where the lens came from, how to tell a 44-2 from its siblings, and what to look for in a listing.
A Soviet Biotar
The Helios-44 family is a Soviet copy of the Carl Zeiss Biotar 58mm f/2. The Biotar was a six-element double Gauss design that Zeiss sold on the Kine Exakta from 1939. According to the Russian Wikipedia history, the very first Soviet version was an exact copy marked BTK, short for Biotar Krasnogorsk, and it was assembled from optical glass taken from Germany as war reparations. The lens was then recalculated for Soviet glass types at the State Optical Institute, and from that point it carried the Helios-44 name. Versions of it were made from 1958 to 1999.
The earliest Helios-44 lenses used the Zenit's M39 thread. Early ones had a 13-blade aperture, and after 1962 the count dropped to 8. You'll see those silver and zebra M39 lenses for sale too. They aren't 44-2s, and they won't simply swap in. The M39 Helios sits at a 45.2mm flange distance, so a basic M39-to-M42 ring on an M42 camera can't reach infinity focus. If a listing just says Helios-44, check the thread and the name ring before you buy.
What makes a 44-2 a 44-2
The 44-2 moved the lens to the M42 thread, with the 45.5mm flange distance that M42 cameras use. It started in 1966 as one of the kit lenses for the M42 version of the Zenit-E, and it later shipped with other Zenits. The barrel is black with green numbers, and the aperture has 8 blades.
The 44-2 keeps the older preset aperture. There are two rings. One has click stops and sets the stop you want. The other turns freely and closes the blades down until it reaches that preset stop. You focus with the lens wide open, then twist the free ring until it stops, without taking your eye off the finder. On a mirrorless body you'll focus wide open with magnification, then close down. The free ring has no clicks, so the aperture changes smoothly.
Since the 44-2 has no auto pin, any plain M42 adapter works. Common choices are the M42 to Sony E and M42 to Fuji X adapters.
Three factories
The 44-2 was built in very large numbers at three plants. KMZ in Krasnogorsk made it, MMZ in Minsk made it in two barrel styles including a zebra one, and in the late 1980s production moved from Krasnogorsk to the Valdai plant called Jupiter.
You'll read online that one factory's 44-2s are better than another's. We couldn't find a source that backs that up for the 44-2, so we don't rank them. What the Russian Wikipedia history does say is that quality slipped near the end of production. Buyers of late lenses noticed grease spots on the inner glass surfaces and more bubbles in the glass than the specification allowed. That's a reason to look closely at the glass on any copy, whichever logo it wears.
The quality-grade idea people half remember belongs to a different lens. At the Valdai plant, mass-produced Helios-44M lenses were sorted after inspection into 44M-5, 44M-6 and 44M-7 by measured resolution, and the higher number means a sharper lens. That applies to the 44M family only.
The 44-2 against the 44M lenses
The Helios-44M came in 1972. The M stands for its automatic aperture, driven by a pin at the back of the lens like other auto M42 lenses. Early 44Ms had 8 blades, and the later 44M-4 through 44M-7 had 6. Multi-coating arrived in 1987 with the MC Helios-44M-4.
On an adapter, that pin matters. An auto M42 lens only closes its aperture when the pin is pushed in. A plain adapter doesn't push it, so the lens stays wide open unless the adapter has a plate that holds the pin down. The 44-2 has no such problem, which is one reason it's the easy choice for adapting.
One more sibling turns up. The MC Helios-44-3 was made at MMZ from 1991 to 1993 with the preset aperture and multi-coating. Its wider focus ring can hit some adapters, so not every copy fits every setup.
The swirl, and which body shows it
Camera-wiki describes the Helios-44's bokeh as swirly. Out-of-focus points of light are stretched away from the center of the frame, and when there are many of them they seem to circle around the subject. The Russian history credits the same effect to most Planar-type designs, the Biotar and its copies included.
Because the stretching grows away from the center, a full-frame body shows the most of it. On APS-C or Micro Four Thirds the sensor only sees the middle of the image, where the effect is weakest. If you shoot a smaller sensor and want the full look, read our guide to focal reducers. A background full of small highlights, like leaves against the sky, shows it best at f/2.
What to check in the listing
- The name ring. It should read Helios-44-2, in Latin or Cyrillic letters. A 44M or 44M-4 is a different lens with an auto pin.
- The glass. Ask for a photo taken with a flashlight shining through the lens. Look for haze, fungus threads and grease spots on the inner surfaces.
- Both aperture rings. Ask the seller to set f/8 on the click ring, then turn the free ring. It should stop firmly at f/8, and the blades should look dry.
- The focus ring. Old grease can make it stiff. That's something you'll feel on arrival, so buy where returns are accepted.
Our guide on how to check a used vintage lens covers each of these faults in more detail.
What we'd buy
For a first adapted lens we'd buy a clean 44-2 from any of the three factories, picked on the glass and the feel of the rings rather than the logo. If you want multi-coating and don't mind an adapter that handles the pin, the MC 44M-4 is the next step. You can see the 44-2s for sale now on the Helios 44-2 page, or browse everything in the catalog.
