Zenitar Lenses for Nikon F mount 50mm f1.2, 85mm f1.4, and 85mm f1.5 Helios

crycocyon

Senior Member
I have three Zenitar lenses now in my collection and they are each very interesting in their way of rendering bokeh (with strong circular components, especially the Zenit Helios #40-2 85mm f1.5). These hail from Russia (yes I know why buy from there...just for fun and well I am actually half Ukrainian by ethnicity lols). They are built like tanks (more like grenades as I read someone reviewing them describe them) really heavy for their size and I've used the #40-2 before for model shoots and it was really out there in terms of a dreamy effect (like the ancient Helios lenses, will post later). The newer 50mm f1.2 is for APS-C format and I just switch to that on my D850 to use it as it vignettes significantly but still usable. The 85mm f1.4 is directly usable for FX format. I'll be comparing them together and against other bokeh master normal and 85mm lenses in the future. These are by no means sharp lenses and that's not their intent. They are more for the effect they give when isolating subjects in this dreamy bokeh cloud. Of course all manual focus. The 85mm f1.5 is stopped-down metering. The other two have no electronic coupling. This is old school...

Today I'm showing the 85mm f1.4 I just got (on my old Nikon D800) along with the trio.

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Here's the trio...


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Another beauty shot :D

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