I would say it’s not as resistant to lens flares as the 44M-4, has a little more of a tendency to take low contrast shots in certain kinds of light (harsh daylight for example) and maybe not quite as vivid and contrasty but it’s a lottttt easier to work with due to being able to select the f-stop range and being much smoother to focus than my 44M-4, therefore I’m able to take better framed shots that are more likely to be in focus. I love them, but the first time I got one I thought there was a manufacturer fault and the aperture numbers went the wrong way on the barrel. If you're wondering why such a design exists then it's to allow for focussing / framing with wide open aperture. Don’t know if this post will help at all, it features further images I’ve made with Helios (and their successor the Zenitar) lenses, perhaps something like you’re aiming for?

That means you set the lens to the aperture you want, say f4 and the front will open fully and close to that aperture, stopping at the set aperture. If you switch to M, the pin is permanently depressed so you control the aperture manually with the aperture ring. In terms of overall sharpness, I’ve yet to get an image that has blown me away as I get with the Fujinon 56mm f1. This opens up a lot of extra vintage manual focus lenses that can be used with the Fuji X mount system without the additional focal length crop. The problem with infinity focusing might be due to Zenit’s M39 mount having a flange distance of 45.

There is some sharpness in the very centre wide open, but the sharpness fall off at the corners and sides is so great you can see it clearly in an SLR viewfinder. If you like the creative impact of a “swirling bokeh” lens, but shoot with a micro 4/3 camera, then your comment that the helios 44 is “too long” gets a supporting vote from me. This proves the age of the lens as the USSR ( Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) ceased to exist in 1991. To close the aperture down to f8 you need to turn the ring to f2 marking at which point the aperture will be closed down. They don’t, far from it actually, and they can be a lot of fun on APS-C cameras where you’re cropping for only the best parts of the lens.

It sounds a little far-fetched, if they had difficulties to get the lenses in standard dimension how on earth could they make an exact match camera? Apparently you need a pretty good distance in the background so the little light spots and details can register into that swirl shape. The two you referenced were written by the same person, and it’s possible that his writing style doesn’t work for you. However, I find that it appears over too much of the image and covers important features such as the eyes. Here are a few more photo examples taken with a new entry into my top five favourite lenses, the Helios 44-2 58mm.assumed it was jammed and then after reading the article took the lens cap off and tooled around with it, et voila, stop down to f/22 as needed. Now I’m no genius by any stretch, but I get the feeling this isn’t the original case that comes with the Helios 44-2 58mm lens.