Fujifilm XT3 x Helios F2.0 58mm
This is a lens that I bought just for the ‘fame’ it has. Especially since the nick name of this lens is ‘The Bokeh Monster’. I wanted to see how that the sworly bokeh will look on my images.
Unfortunately, with this lens I couldn’t find many examples at the time I bought it. When I was searching for it online I found one and decided to buy it straight away. I wasn’t in Bucharest at the time so a friend of mine went to pick it up. With this lens i didn’t receive any protection case, just both caps. Besides this one little ‘surprise’ was hidden inside it that my friend didn’t notice. The aperture blades had oil stains on them and a lot of them. Because of I didn’t want to test it until it was fixed, but since I had a lot of fun with the other vintage lenses I forgot about this one. In the men time, the focus ring begun to rotate more slowly. I think that the oil reached the ring but I am not sure.
At the moment I am looking for a shop that can fix my lens but until then I started the review in order to include photos of before and after the repairs so you guys can notice the effect of those stains.
This is how the oil stains affected the flare:
I decided to send the lens to be cleaned to Kamerawerk by mail.T he courier picked the lens up in the morning of 05.10.2020 and had returned it on………………………….
The oil stains have been cleaned and the focus ring moves smoothly now. Somewhere below I will attach some images before and after the lens has been cleaned. Either way the biggest issues of the stains were made obvious in the flare.
The Price
After some time searching I found mine for 200 Lei or 41 Euros as of 27.09.2020.
The Repair Price
After a 2 weeks wait the lens has been fixed for the cost of 360 Lei or 74 Euros as of 23.11.2020. Yes I paid more for the repair than for the lens it self. However, it was all worth it.
The Package
As I already sent the lens to be fixed, I do not have any photos where the blades were dirty but this is how the lens looks:
The website visible on screenshot is no longer available however The WayBackMachine has some information captured about the website from 2001.
If you want to read a small history of the company, what was produced there and other stuff you can access this link here. If the link doesn’t work just search for the WayBackMachine on google and enter this link in the search bar:
http://www.jupiteroptics.com/
Image Samples - Before Cleaning
Image Samples - After Cleaning
Sharpness
All images added here are unedited, shot using a tripod, a 2 sec timer and with the Electronic Shutter in order to reduce the shake as much as possible:
As you stop down the image becomes sharper edge to edge. Below I compared the sharpness of the F2.0 image with the F8.0 image as this seems to be the sharpest image:
This is how it looks in a real life scenario, where the lens is wide open and the background is around 6m away:
The Video Quality
The video presented below is shot using a tripod and the Classic Chrome color profiles from the XT3 not being edited. Uploaded to youtube straight from the camera (more info about the settings in the video description)
This displays only one scenario but the video suffers from the same defects as the images. Same principle: Stop down and get better quality.
PROS
✔️ Cheap
✔️ Light
✔️ Amazing Bokeh
✔️ Great for portraits
CONS
❌ The focus and aperture rings rotation is reversed. The minimum focus distance is reached when you spin the ring all the way clockwise. If I do this with my other lenses I will get the maximum focus distance.
❌ The focus and aperture rings are pretty heavy and need a bit of force to spin. This happened even after I got the lens fully cleaned.
Final Thoughts
The lens is great but I don’t find myself using it all that often. This might be because I love the Super Takumar 50mm F1.4 more and I find that lens more satisfying to use, but at the end of the day this is a great lens.
There is a reason for it being ‘famous’ for its bokeh quality.
This lens will probably never be expensive and only for it’s bokeh it is worth getting, but before you do buy one, please check it in person because cleaning it will cost you more than the lens itself.
If I missed anything or got something wrong, please let me know as I try to improve the reviews.