Winter wonderland in London with the Helios and Sony A7

Last Christmas I went to the beautiful city of London to capture the magic of winter in Hyde Park. I decided to bring only the Helios 44/2 and the new Lensbaby Trio 28 with me. I will write a seperate blog post about the new Lensbaby Trio 28 since I was asked to review it. This post is only about the Helios 44/2. 


I'm a huge fan of manual focus lenses. Why? Because it makes me more creative. And I'm a strong believer that the less you have, the more creative you'll become. Especially when it comes to photography gear! I see a lot of photographers with even more gear than I ever had in my entire photography life! And I see also that they become less creative because of all the choices they have to make. To me it's just like eating a pizza in a restaurant. When I can choose between 20 different pizza's, I can't decide which one to choose. So I always end up with the same. On the other hand, when there are only five to choose off, I will pick each time a different one. And that goes the same with camera gear. One lens, one camera! That keeps my head clear from the noise of choosing what to use. And so I can focus on what photography is all about... Capturing life!

I still am a huge fan of the Fuji X series as you can read in my previous posts but I decided to try my vintage lenses on a Sony A7II since it's a Full Frame mirrorless. And I must say that I love the Helios even better on the Sony because of it's smoothness and I.Q of the RAW files on Full Frame. Never the less, I still think that the JPG's of the Fuji X camera's are more beautiful. And the Fuji X is certainly way more sexier that a Sony when we talk about the looks of the camera. But in the end it's all about the I.Q. So I personally don't care which camera I have to use aslong it gives me the images that i'm looking for. And for this reason I brought the Sony A7 II with me to London. 

Than the Helios... Well, I don't have a lot to say about it except that I LOVE this old lens! With the right adapter it will fit on every mirrorless camera. And thanks to the focus peaking, manual focussing is a piece of cake!

Anyway... I will let the images speak for themselves.. 

For the love of Helios and backlight! :)