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 Helios 44M1, is it real?		  New Topic
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Le Minh Bui
Langstrum
Vietnam
2 Posts
My Collection
Posted - Sep 15 2014 :  01:09:06 AM  Show Profile  Visit Langstrum's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Hello everyone,
This is my first post here, I'm glad to join our great forum because I'm an addict with Russian lenses.
The first manual focus lens I ever had was the Helios 44-2, about a year ago, and then I tried to collect as many lenses as I can, and most of them are vintage Russian lenses.
My ambition is to have the whole Helios 44 series, and up to now I have Helios 44 early chrome version (#000xxxx), early 44-2 version (#000xxxx), 44-3, 44M-4, 44M-7, so the 44M, 44-3M, 44M-5, 44M-6 are left, but it's just the matter of time and budget.
What I'm really into finishing this collection is to find out the Helios 44M1.
I'm a quite active member in mflenses.com forum recently. I saw this lens appeared in the forum once and I can't find any other information.
This lens has only 2 blades and it forms the cateye bokeh. The mechanism may be similar to Zenitar ME1 50/1.7. The owner described it as a cheap Helios lens, but somehow he is the only one to show this lens to the world.

Here is the photo of the lens:



I came to many places to find this lens but there is no clue about it. I started to suspect that this lens is actually just a custom made one, but still, I need something to verify that. It looks exactly like the 44M version, with the number 1 and new diaphragm.

If somebody here ever heard of this lens or actually own it, please tell me, I really appreciate that.

Vladislav Kern
Vlad
USA
4247 Posts
My Collection
Posted - Sep 15 2014 :  09:25:02 AM  Show Profile  Visit Vlad's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Hello,

I don't know if it's of any help but KMZ official site does not mention this lens:

http://www.zenitcamera.com/archive/lenses/helios-44.html

Сheers,
Vlad.
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Guido Studer
Guido
Switzerland
362 Posts
My Collection
Posted - Sep 15 2014 :  12:16:32 PM  Show Profile  Visit Guido's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Hello

According to J.L. Princelle [1] the Helios 44-1 was used on some Zenit 7 prototyps/preseries. The one pictured there has the number 001424 and used roman letters, the color is black and grey. Later in 1968 the Helios 44-1 was replaced by the Helios 44-7.

Best wishes - Guido


[1] http://ussrphoto.com/Wiki/default.asp?WikiCatID=39&ParentID=4&ContentID=205&Item=Authentic+Guide+to+Russian+and+Soviet+Cameras+by+J.+L.+Princelle (page 154)
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Le Minh Bui
Langstrum
Vietnam
2 Posts
My Collection
Posted - Sep 15 2014 :  11:20:52 PM  Show Profile  Visit Langstrum's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Thank you very much Vlad and Guido, these information is very useful to me
I searched the KMZ list before, that's one of the reasons I suspected that this lens may be just a custom made one.
So at least I can confirm that this lens is an authentic one. Based on the serial number, it was produced up to thousand copies, which means I still have a chance to find it out. That's great!
Cheers,
Minh
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