I own a Jupiter-8 lens and the J8 is less of a performer than the Heliar when it comes to sharpness and contrast, but it's hard to compare something NEW to something OLD when there is so much variation in old stuff. I can talk about my excellent Yashica 50mm lens and my horrible Pentax SMC 50mm lens and another guy will have an opposite story.
The night I bought my R2A on ebay from a guy, he had the 50 Heliar Classic ending a minute later. I pulled the trigger on it because I wanted one, despite people bashing it.
Why? Because it's DIFFERENT than most 50mm lenses. Noticibly different.
I have all sorts of 50mm lenses from yashica, canon, nikon, pentax, russia, wherever and they all work just dandy. My 50mm f1.4 Yashica lens is probably my best performer and came on a 20 dollar camera.
The Heliar Classic is just cool. The softness wide open and bokeh characteristics make it a great people portrait lens. It sometimes frustrates me when using it to try to make sharp photos of things, but works well for other things.
This was shot at f5.6 yesterday on Fomapan 200 film:
This would have been wide open at f2:
Probably f2 or f2.8:
It's a soft, but contrasty lens with smooth bokeh. Sort of a combination not available to me with my other lenses. Some sharp lenses have harsh bokeh.
Pricewise? I paid around 200 dollars for the lens in new condition. And no, it's not for sale
😉
