The Helios 442. You've probably heard of this lens from one of your hipster photography buddies or maybe you are. That hipster photography buddy. It is a 58 millimeter F2 Russian classic portrait lens that everyone has talked about. Everyone. Helios 44. The Helios 442. This is the Helios 44M4 in testing a Helios 442. I found this cool lens called the Helios 442. I don't know what's called. And for good reason. It is a cheap little lens with a beautifully unique swirling bokeh pattern. Boca is the blurry part of the imaging case you haven't heard of that term before. But where did this nifty little lens come from and how has it become so popular? Well to answer that we need to go back like way back. These are today's main events. Germany has invaded Poland and has bombed many towns. September 1939. Germany invades Poland from the West, sparking World War II. The German fall begins its ruthless march of conquest and sets the stage for World War II. Even that would affect the entire globe, but specifically reached the Soviet Union June 22, 1941 when Hitler invaded Russia. Ruked into the war, Russia was suddenly in need to develop their own optical instruments for their army, known as the Red Army. You see before the war, Russia's primary supplier of optical instruments came from companies like Zeiss, Lika, Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Fujifilm, all of which were developed by Axis power countries. The bad guys. On February 1st 1942 by the Order of the People's Commissarate of Armament of the USSR, a state optical plant known as... Mechanical works or KMZ is going to refer to it, was born in Sferdlock, Russia. Fast forward a couple of years and the Red Army, the Russians now occupied East Germany or more specifically to our story, Jenna Germany, where Karl's Zeiss glass was manufactured. While occupying East Germany, the Russians helped themselves to, among other things, the Zeiss Bayotard lens formula. And they proceeded to use this stolen Zeiss equipment to make their own optical devices for the war. So why is this such a big deal? Why have I talked a lot about World War II and haven't really mentioned the Helios 44 II at all? Well stick with me, this is where it gets interesting. You see, Karl's Zeiss glass had a worldwide reputation for fine optical instruments, originally with microscopes, but eventually they came to develop other optical devices, including KMZs. And one of their best and most popular KMZs was the Zeiss Bayotard 58mm F2 designed by Dr. Willie Walter Merthe in 1936. The reason why this lens was so influential was that it used a completely new design from older, more traditional lenses at the time. This lens utilized a six element design with three wide outer elements, which significantly improved over the old planar designs, which came out in 1896. And this new biotard formula was wildly popular and highly regarded for its vast aperture and gorgeous image. Just a fun fact that I found while researching these Karl's Zeiss lenses, the Zeiss planar 50mm F0.7 was a lens specifically fabricated by the Apollo lunar program to capture the far side of the moon in 1966. You know, this side of the moon without light. The dark side. We're a small protein, a little sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, they prove a spotlight, have a message that we would like to send you. Anyways, you can see why the stolen Zeiss biotard formula was a nice little war prize for the Soviet Union. They suddenly found themselves in possession of the latest German optical advancements, which they later, in 1958, used to make the original Helios 442, a 58mm F2 6 element lens. Sound familiar? That's right, this little guy is just a cheap knockoff of a better built, sharper Karl's Zeiss biotard 58mm lens. So if that's the case, why have I not heard of this biotard lens and tell it researching this video and I have definitely heard of the Helios 442 and I imagine you have as well. Simple. The KMZ mass produced the Helios 442 and sold it at a significantly cheaper price than its competitor. In fact, the Helios 442 is one of the most mass produced lenses in history, but even though it's cheap, it still creates a highly pleasing image. It's almost dreamlike. The way the Boka would swirl around its slightly softened subject was a truly unique look. A look that is probably one of the main reasons you've heard of this lens before. And the way it would capture light is really gorgeous. In fact, the name Helios is also the name of the personification of the sun in Greek mythology, which I find really interesting. And there you go, the history of one of the most popular lenses in history, the Helios 442 produced from 1958 through the early 90s. And there are several iterative versions of this lens made throughout the year, but they're all essentially the same and everyone has their opinion on which one is the best. And just for a quick review of this historically intriguing lens, I find it to be well worth the money. You can find it for like 50-ish bucks all over the place and it really provides a standout look for your photos and be-roll. Although I will say these are old lenses and can have a plethora of different issues. For instance, mine, when I go down to F2, it's actually at F16 and then when I go to F16, it's actually at F2. So my aperture ring is backwards on my lens. Kind of weird. So I still highly recommend the Helios 442. I think it's well worth the money and you should really pick one up and try it out for yourself. I really hope that you guys enjoyed this video. I really enjoyed making it. It definitely took a lot more time to do this sort of video essay style video, but if you did enjoy it and you're still here, please make sure to subscribe and like this video. It would really mean a lot to me. And also leave me a comment on whether or not you liked this video and what other kind of historical lens or historical camera maybe you want me to kind of reveal or talk about next. Anyways, thanks for having me.