Monday, November 19, 2007

Godless Communism at Tanner Springs

Tanner Springs (Helios-44)

A few more photos from Tanner Springs Park, once again taken with that "antique" film camera I bought a while back. This time around I used an old Soviet Helios-44 lens, complete with "Made in USSR" stamped on the side. The lens actually came on a Zenit-EM camera, a special edition complete with MOSKVA 1980 Olympic rings. How cool is that? The Zenit needs a little TLC though, so I unscrewed the lens and used it on my main M42 camera instead. Whatever else you say about the Soviets, they did rather well in the optics department. Ok, ok, technically the Helios-44's a clone of an earlier Zeiss Biotar, but hey. It's a good cloning job, at least.

A newer version of the Helios-44 is still in production, it turns out, and the manufacturer will sell you a shiny new one for just $43 plus shipping from Russia. Or if you'd just like to see more of what this baby can do, Flickr's got a pile of pix here.

Tanner Springs (Helios-44)

Tanner Springs (Helios-44)

Tanner Springs (Helios-44)

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