I've been waiting a week or so to get a shot like this of my amaryllis, flowering for a second time (after a year of leafy recovery.)The compressed petals of three flowers can be seen here, and there's another behind the right side. This has had three flowers to a bud before, but four is an unexpected surprise.
I used a different M42 lens to the usual Cosinon 50 f1.8 here, the KMZ Helios-44-2 58mm f2. (The older version.) This curious piece of uncoated Russian glass was taken from a Zenit E camera, which it came with as the standard lens.
My copy is slightly scuffed, has what look like a few tiny bubbles in the rear element, amd the front glass is covered in very fine scratches. Oh, and the focus ring has a very slight wobble. But despite these imperfections, I can't help but love this lens. For one thing, it's surprisingly sharp (at least in the centre,) and it's a preset lens. This means that there are two aperture rings - one with detents to 'preset' the iris, and the iris control ring that glides continuously, all the way from f/2 to f/16.
This is something I don't usually find useful, except that recently I have recently been experimenting with DSLR-shot stop-motion animation, including a focus pull (using the Cosinon 50mm f2.) Later I remembered the Helios-44-2 with its smooth iris control and decided that preset lenses are the ultimate tools for the job! Using the Helios-44-2 I can also perform an iris pull, which can be used as a great-looking dreamy fade to white, or simulating a squinting first-person view. I'm pretty excited about the possibilities of this lens, and must animate using it soon. If it turns out well then I might consider buying a 28mm preset lens too.
I can only imagine what a combined focus, zoom and iris pull must look like... Possibly amazing, maybe nausea-inducing.
Settings: f/8, 1/180, ISO 100, 58mm Helios 44-2, 17mm extension, 1/4 flash, white reflectors & black card.
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