Manual LENS: BOKEH & LENS FLARE

A few years ago I wrote a little about my new toy - manual lens Jupiter-9. Here I have the new one Helios 40-2. I use it with Nikon but it can fit to other systems too. So I'd like to share my new experience with it.

Helios 40-2 is mostly known for it's unique bokeh. The price for this lens has grown quite high as for manual lens in the past few years. For some it's a kind of trendy lens to have. Though I decided to discover it's capability with my full frame camera.

Firstly about the manual working. I found it really exciting and catching up to put more efforts while focusing. Well it's quite complicated for moving objects but there are many shoots I do for mostly stable situations: backgrounds, portrais, landscapes. I usually work with open aperture as it's F1.5 of this lens. The DOF is really tight so it's more evident to watch it, though you need to be accurate to get the right place in focus.

As you know the bokeh itself is quite a creative expression. And it occurs only in the right circumstances if we talk about that glowing bokeh but not just about out of focus area. So the Helios 40-2 gives you possibility to feel the real pleasure of interesting bokeh. Sometimes it happens to see the "dancing" objects in the photo as it's called swirl bokeh. This swirl bokeh gives an expected moment to me. I can only feel how to make it but never know for sure wich objects and where can give the wanted result.

Lens flare. Sometimes it can be called like disadvantage that makes low quality lens. But on the other hand this disadvantage can be used as a creative moment. This lens also gives a special impresive lens flare.

The effects are natural in these photos. It's only the lens bokeh, flare and post production with contrast and colors.

Thanks for reading,

I hope some of you will find this article useful :) And I really wish you to try this lens :)