Ever since I read about Dog Schidt optiks (yes, he really called them that before changing the name to Richard Gale optics) I’ve been wanting to have a set.

But since I’ve never been near one or have the patience to wait for them to be built, I decided to get one of the Russian lenses it’s based on: The mythical and still laughably cheap Helios 44-2.

The only problem: I’m a Canon user. And Canon EF mount doesn’t go well with adapters because of the long flange focal length, Sony e-mount is much better for vintage adapters for that reason.

But I couldn’t let the thought go. So I finally found a Ukrainian company that sells them with canon mounts. Of course it felt a bit interesting to buy from a Ukrainian site that didn’t use https, so I had to be extra careful with any credit card or sensitive information. But I decided to use paypal thinking that I could at least make a chargeback if the lens didn’t arrive.

Well, it didn’t arrive.
At first at least. I wrote them after some months and they said the package had probably been lost somewhere (!) They offered to send a new one and I accepted without too much hope of anything.

But today it arrived out of blue. And it's actually able to make sharp pictures on the canon! And it does fit on a full frame sensor like they promised. Apparently it's a zebra version...

So suddenly it feels like an incredible bargain at less than 70usd.

Here’s my first shot, hope to post a lot more of them.