I'm not going to go in-depth about this lens. There are plenty of videos out there that can fill your curiosity about what this lens is, and to be quite frank, I would not give this lens any justice by writing it all down here.

I purchased the 58mm f/2 13-blade version of the Helios-44 a few months ago. It's a lens that I have had my eye on for some time now because of the style it can bring to photographs and the history behind the lens that intrigued me. It is a unique lens to use, and because of it, it somehow gets placed in my bag when I go out shooting.

Unfortunately, there is a downside to this lens. At f/2, The sharpness is pretty much nonexistent. If you are looking to do portraits with this lens at f/2 you will have a hard time, but at f/2.8 there aren't any issues. Well, maybe one issue. The dreamy-looking bokeh balls are less dreamy. I guess choose the lesser evil depending on what you are going to shoot.

I'm definitely happy with my purchase of this lens. Learning new techniques while using lenses like this makes me take a step back from auto this and auto that in the photography world and puts me in more of the "moment" if that makes any sense.

I will for sure be making more purchases of vintage lenses.

The Helios-44 is a fantastic lens. It has characteristics that make photographs have this lovely dreamy style, but it comes with a cost of sharpness. It's something that I will have to get used to, but in time I will perfect my approach when looking for that moment to capture with this lens.