Helio 85

The Helio G85 is another addition to the gaming SoC ‘G’ series and now we have five gaming SoCs in total including the G70, G80, G90, G90T, and the newly released G85. If we see according to the numbering, the Helio G85 should be a mid-way, higher than the G80, and less powerful than the G90 and G90T. Helio G85 Helio G70 We compared two 8-core processors: MediaTek Helio G85 (with Mali-G52 MP2 graphics) and Helio G70 (Mali-G52 2EEMC2). Here you will find the pros and cons of each chip, technical specs, and comprehensive tests in benchmarks, like AnTuTu and Geekbench.

What's a Helios-40-2 you may well ask, and why should I be interested in it?

Well, to start with 'Helios' is the brand name of a line of lenses, often sold with Russian 'Zenit' cameras. They were/are made in the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Works (abbreviated as KMZ) near Moscow. The Helios model 40 lens is an 85mm f1.5 which is reported to be based on the Carl Zeiss Biotar design, which is basically a double Gauss lens. Double Gauss lenses have been used since the 1930s for fast semi-wide to short-telephoto lenses. The optical design of the Helios-40-2 (the -2 simply refers to the lens in a M42 mount rather than the original M39) is shown below:

The production dates of the Helios-40 and Helios-40-2 are a little tricky to nail down, but they were certainly made from the mid 1950s to the early 1990s. Things got a little turbulent in Russia as the Soviet Union dissolved in 1992... The lenses made during that period had a built in tripod mount. The M39 mount -40 version seems to have been made with a 'silver' finish while the -40-2 version was available in black.

Over the years the Helios-40(-2) has developed something of a cult following. It's not a sharp lens, especially when used wide open. The published MTF/resolution(?) curve shows an odd dip with the region about 10-12mm from the center of the frame being the softest The numbers aren't impressive either with a quoted center/edge resolution of 36/17 lp/mm. It's not a very convenient lens since it's fairly large and built like a tank (actually probably more like a hand grenade). It also uses a rather awkward pre-set stop down metering system with two aperture setting rings at the front of the lens and a rather narrow focusing ring near the back. It goes without saying that it's manual focus of course. In recent years it has also gotten quite expensive. 20 year ago you could probably pick up a used example for $50 or less, but more recently they have been selling for around $500 or more.

Why, you may ask, would someone pay $500 for a used lens that's big, heavy, inconvenient to use and not very sharp? Well, it has this 'Bokeh' thing. Shot wide open and with the right amount of defocus on the background, the background appears to 'swirl' around the subject. Why it does this I'll speculate on later, but it's for this effect that the lens has been sought after.

In 2012, the KMZ factory announced that they were going to put the lens back into production, and they have. By all appearances it seems to be the same lens design they used in the 1950s, the only difference being that the new lenses don't have a tripod mount. Everything else seems to be the same. The mount is still M42, so it's very easy to adapt to any EOS DSLR. It's a bit trickier for Nikon shooters since a purely mechanical adapter won't give you infinity focus and an adapter with glass which allows infinity focus alters the optics a bit, so +1 for Canon here! The question is does it still have the famous 'swirly Bokeh' effect. The short answer is yes, but read on for more details.

For those who have never used a pre-set stop down lens, the aperture control may be somewhat confusing. Basically there are two aperture rings. The first one has click stops at f1.5, f2, f2.8, f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16 and f22. Now you might think this controls the aperture, but you'd be wrong. The second aperture ring actually controls the aperture and it has no click stops. If you want to shoot at f4, you set the first ring to the click stop at f4. Then to focus (wide open) you rotate the second aperture ring all the way to the right. At this position the lens is at f1.5. Then, when you want to shoot, you rotate the second aperture ring all the way to the left and it will hit the stop with the aperture at the pre-set f4. It gets even more confusing though. with the first aperture ring set to f4, there's a red dot by the f4 and when the second ring is rotated fully to the right, the white dot on the second aperture ring lines up with the f4 marking and the white dot. However you are now at f1.5, not at f4! When you rotate the aperture ring all the way to the left, the white dot on the second aperture ring lines up with a red dot at f1.5. However you're not at f1.5, you're at f4. Confusing? I've seen people claim that their lens has the aperture marks backwards. They're not, they're just a bit confusing. When the white dot is lined up with the red dot all the way on the right means that the aperture is the same as the red dot next to the aperture scale. It's obvious isn't it?

Well, any normal lens costing $500 that gave sharpness numbers like the Helios-40-2 does wide open wouldn't get a very good review. Wide open it's a bit soft in the center and dissolves into dark astogmatic mush in the corners of a full frame image. It does sharpen up as you stop down and past around f5.6 the center is good and even the corners start to become acceptable, but that's faint praise. At f5.6 and smaller apertures just about any lens should have acceptable image quality - and if you're looking for good image quality at f5.6 there are cheaper and much more convenient options.

However you can't judge a cult lens on the basis of numbers. People don't seek out this lens because it's sharp. Rather the opposite in fact. They seek it out because it isn't sharp across the frame and it can give a unique look to portraits via the 'swirly' bokeh effect. Whether or not you like that look may be a matter of taste, but it certainly can yield images that probably couldn't be obtained with any other lens. If you like the look, this is the lens you want. You'll be shooting it wide open most of the time to get the look you want, so the awkward aperture control won't bother you much. New lenses are available through Amazon.com for around $400 (06/15). You might find a used one on eBay for less, but it will be at least 20 years old, maybe almost 60 years old. Then you have to worry about things like dust, scratches, fungus, wear and so on. With a new lens you pretty much know what you are getting.

Helios 85

There Helios-40-2 85mm f1.5 is available through Amazon.com

Alternatives

If you don't like the look you are lucky because you can save a little money! If you want a sharp, fast, 85mm portrait lens that will autofocus, has automatic aperture control, silent focus with full time manual override, look no further than the Canon EF 85/1.8 USM. It's a very good lens indeed and right now with the Canon rebate is available for only $359. A bargain if ever there was one.

Helio G85 Vs Snapdragon 662

If you want sharp, yet you still don't want to 'go mainstream', there's the Pro Optic 85mm f1.4 manual focus, manual aperture lens that I reviewed here recently. Not quite as sharp as the Canon, but faster and able to give slightly more background blur when shot wide open. If you don't need AF and auto aperture and you like the 'old school' feel of manual focus, it's an excellent buy and it's $100 or so cheaper than the Canon lens. It won't give you 'swirly bokeh' though!

Helio G85 Vs Snapdragon 720g

If you want even more extreme bokeh, which can be controlled both in magnitude and direction and you don't mind a slower lens, there's always the Lensbaby line. Though not fast optics, they can throw the background (or edges) out of focus just by their varying sharpness across the field rather than through any shallow depth of field mechanism. Again the 'Lensbaby Look' is not something that appeals to everyone, but those who like it often seem to really love it. They can't duplicate the 'swirly' bokeh of the Helios-40 though.