Helios-81 50mm f/2

Arsenal · Kiev Automat + Nikon F + M42 · 1967

our own finding

Also known as: Helios-81 · Helios 81 · Helios-81 50mm · Helios 81 50mm · Helios-81 2/50 · Helios 81 2/50 · Helios-81 2/53 · Helios 81 53mm · Helios 53mm f2 · Гелиос-81 · Гелиос 81 · Helios-81 Automat · Helios 81 Automat · Helios-81 Avtomat · Helios 81 Avtomat · Helios-81A · Helios-81M · Helios 81M · Helios 81 M · Helios 81-M · Helios-81N · Helios 81N · Helios 81 N · Helios 81-N · Helios-81H · Helios 81H · Helios 81 H · Helios 81-H · MC Helios-81N · MC Helios 81N · MC Helios-81H · MC Helios 81H · MS Helios-81 · Helios lens 81N · Helios lens 81M · Helios-81H 81N · Helios-81N 81H · Arsat H 50mm · Arsat-H 50mm · Arsat H 50 mm · Arsat-H 50 mm · Arsat H 2/50 · Arsat-H 2/50 · Arsat H 2/50mm · Arsat-H f2/50 · Arsat H f2/50 · Arsat-N f2/50 · Arsat N 50mm · Arsat-N 50mm · Arsat-N 50mm f/2 · ARSAT H (HELIOS-81H) · Arsat H (MC Helios-81H) · Arsat-H (Arsat-N) f2/50 · Arsat-H (Arsat-N) · GK-81 · Гелиос-81Н · Гелиос 81Н · Гелиос-81М · Гелиос 81М · МС Гелиос-81Н · Гелиос-81 Автомат · Гелиос-81-автомат · Гелиос 81 Автомат · ГК-81 · Арсат Н 2/50 · Арсат-Н 2/50

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Helios-81 Automat (Гелиос-81-автомат), Arsenal, Kiev Automat bayonet Kiev Automat (Arsenal bayonet of the Kiev-10 and Kiev-15) — #792935 — engraved ГЕЛИОС-81 2/53 АВТОМАТ, on the Kiev-15 TEE photographed on Wikimedia Commons by Andshel; a 1979 lens if the year-first rule holds
#784348 — engraved ГЕЛИОС-81 2/53 АВТОМАТ, in Abramov's photograph on his Helios-81 page
No figure published
Helios-81M (Гелиос-81М) 2/53, Arsenal, Nikon F Nikon F — 81xxxx — two examples on Wikimedia Commons (on a Nikon D40, said to come from a Kiev-17, and #817895 on a Kiev-19) carry numbers beginning 81
#790615 — on the Kiev-20 photographed on Wikimedia Commons by Andshel
No figure published
MC Helios-81N (МС Гелиос-81Н) 2/50, Arsenal, Nikon F Nikon F 1982 — No figure published
Arsat H 1:2 50mm (Arsat-H, Arsat-N), Arsenal, Nikon F Nikon F — — No figure published
GK-81 (ГК-81), KMZ trial batch, M42 M42 × 1 screw thread (KMZ trial batch) — — A trial batch (опытная партия), by zenitcamera and Abramov; no figure published
  1. Dates: no source gives a start year for the lens itself. Abramov puts it on later Kiev-10s (made to 1974) and names it as a standard lens of the Kiev-15 of 1973. sovietcams records the Helios-81 Automat on the last front-plate Kiev-10s of 1967 (#6703562, #6703709, #6706638), and ru.wikipedia's Kiev-10 article has it replacing the Helios-65 from 1967; this page uses 1967, the first year a camera is documented with it. No end year is given: the lens continued as the Arsat H into the 1990s.
  2. Aperture range: Abramov gives f/2–22; zenitcamera, for the KMZ trial lens, f/2–16; Eckman's 81N clicks from f/2 to f/16. Closest focus: 0.5 m by Abramov, 0.4 m (1.3 ft) on zenitcamera's trial lens. Neither range is structured here beyond Abramov's 0.5 m.
  3. Focal length: zenitcamera gives 52 mm (52.5 mm), Abramov heads his page 2/52, and the lenses are engraved 2/50 (81N; the Automat on Abramov's Kiev-10 and Kiev-15 pages), 2/53 (81M; the Automats photographed by Abramov and on Commons) or 2/52 (the KMZ lens Abramov pictures). Abramov says the 'floating' 3 mm is only a question of how the lens was marked.
  4. An English translation of Abramov's lens page quoted on the MFLenses forum calls the 81M an M42 lens and the 81N a 'Kiev/Nikon' lens. The Russian page gives no mounts, Abramov's Kiev-17 page has the 81M as that camera's Nikon F kit lens, and every 81M photographed here is on a Nikon F bayonet, so the M42 reading is not followed.
  5. 81M against 81N: Mike Eckman says they are the same lens except for the AI cutout, which the 81M lacks. This page follows him; no source consulted gives a different optical or mechanical difference.
  6. Helios-81 against Helios-65: zenitcamera and Abramov list them as separate GOI designs, both 6/4; Christopher Osborne thinks the difference is mainly styling. They keep separate pages.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Read the rear first: no aperture ring and the Automat bayonet is the Kiev-10/15 lens; a Nikon F bayonet with an aperture ring is the 81M, 81N or Arsat H; an M42 thread and KMZ's logo is the KMZ trial lens
  • Then the name: 81М (Cyrillic, 2/53) has no AI cutout; MC HELIOS-81H or 81Н (2/50) has one; ARSAT H is the 1990s name
  • Not the Helios-65, the earlier Kiev-10 lens, not the Helios-44 58mm, and not the Arsat H 50mm f/1.4, which is a different lens

Helios-81 Automat (Гелиос-81-автомат), Arsenal, Kiev Automat bayonet:

  • No aperture ring: the barrel carries only the ribbed black focusing ring, a distance scale in metres and a depth-of-field scale, with a knurled bright-metal ring at the rear (Commons photographs by R. A. Lutsenko). The body sets the stop
  • Arsenal's Automat bayonet at the rear, which only the Kiev-10 and Kiev-15 take; nothing else mounts it without rebuilding or a home-made adapter
  • Black barrel with a bright knurled rear ring, the front ring engraved ГЕЛИОС-81 2/53 АВТОМАТ with Arsenal's logo and the serial (the Commons Kiev-15 TEE and Abramov's photograph); the Helios-65 Automat it replaced has a grip broken by bright metal blocks and is engraved ГЕЛИОС 65 АВТОМАТ
  • Sellers list it as both 50mm f/2 and 53mm f/2; the focal length in a listing does not separate versions

Helios-81M (Гелиос-81М) 2/53, Arsenal, Nikon F:

  • Front ring engraved in Cyrillic ГЕЛИОС-81М 2/53 with Arsenal's logo and the serial
  • No AI cutout at the rear of the aperture ring, by Mike Eckman's account: to a Nikon it is a non-AI lens
  • Nikon F bayonet, with an aperture ring; the Automat version has none

MC Helios-81N (МС Гелиос-81Н) 2/50, Arsenal, Nikon F:

  • Engraved MC HELIOS-81H 2/50 in Latin letters, MC in red, on the Kiev-19 photographed on Wikimedia Commons; sellers also write МС HELIOS-81H and Helios-81N. The H is the Cyrillic Н, the N of Nikon: Eckman points out that many English-language posts misread it as Helios-81H
  • AI cutout at the rear of the aperture ring (Eckman), which he says matters on a Kiev-20 or an AI Nikon and not on a Kiev-19
  • Nikon F bayonet; metal barrel with deeply ribbed aperture and focusing rings, click stops from f/2 to f/16 on Eckman's example

Arsat H 1:2 50mm (Arsat-H, Arsat-N), Arsenal, Nikon F:

  • Named ARSAT H rather than Helios: Arsenal's 1990s brand, H again the Cyrillic Н for the Nikon mount, which sellers also write Arsat-N
  • Nikon F bayonet and 50mm f/2; sellers often add the old name in brackets, 'MC Helios-81H' or 'Helios-81N'

GK-81 (ГК-81), KMZ trial batch, M42:

  • Made at Krasnogorsk, with KMZ's prism logo rather than Arsenal's; the KMZ example Abramov pictures is engraved HELIOS-81 2/52 in Latin letters. GK-81 (ГК-81) is the designation zenitcamera gives the batch
  • M42 × 1 thread and a spring-loaded aperture preset ring (zenitcamera), where the Arsenal lenses have the Automat or Nikon bayonet
  • Distance scale in feet on the trial lens zenitcamera describes, which it calls the export version; 12 aperture blades by its data

Specifications

Formula
Six elements in four groups, a State Optical Institute (GOI) design (zenitcamera; Abramov) calculated by D. S. Volosov (zenitcamera). True focal length 52.5 mm by zenitcamera's data; the lenses are engraved 2/50 or 2/53
Designed by
Volosov D. S. — optical calculation at GOI (zenitcamera)
Construction
6 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/2
Min. focus
0.5 m
Filter
49 mm (Helios-81 Automat (Гелиос-81-автомат), Arsenal, Kiev Automat bayonet)
Country
Ukraine (Arsenal, Kyiv); Russia (the GK-81 trial batch, KMZ, Krasnogorsk)

What reviewers say

Optical formula — Six elements in four groups, a State Optical Institute (GOI) design (zenitcamera; Abramov) calculated by D. S. Volosov (zenitcamera). True focal length 52.5 mm by zenitcamera's data; the lenses are engraved 2/50 or 2/53

History

The Helios-81 is a 50mm f/2 of six elements in four groups, calculated by D. S. Volosov at the State Optical Institute in Leningrad. It was the standard lens of Arsenal’s 35mm SLRs for about twenty years. KMZ at Krasnogorsk made only a trial batch in M42 thread, which zenitcamera calls the GK-81. Series production was at Arsenal in Kyiv, in three mounts and under two names. The lenses are engraved 2/50 or 2/53, and zenitcamera gives the true focal length as 52.5 mm. Abramov says this “floating” 3 mm was only a question of how the lens was marked, as on many Soviet lenses.

The first series version was the Helios-81 Automat. It replaced the Helios-65 on Kiev-10s from 1967, by sovietcams’ dated bodies, and became the standard lens of the Kiev-15, alongside the faster Era-6. Like every lens for Arsenal’s Automat bayonet, it has no aperture ring, because the camera sets the stop. When Arsenal moved to the Nikon F bayonet with the Kiev-17, the lens became the Helios-81M, engraved 2/53 in Cyrillic, with an aperture ring and no AI cutout. The MC Helios-81N of the Kiev-20 and Kiev-19 added the cutout, which Eckman says matters on a Kiev-20 or an AI Nikon; the Kiev-19 has no lens coupling, so there the two are the same. The example on a Kiev-19 on Wikimedia Commons is engraved MC HELIOS-81H in Latin letters. The H is the Cyrillic Н, for Nikon, and Mike Eckman notes that many English-language posts read it as a Latin H. In the 1990s Arsenal sold the lens as the Arsat H 1:2 50mm, the standard lens of the Kiev-19M. Sellers write the name as Arsat-H or Arsat-N and often add the old name in brackets.

On the Nikon-mount versions, the Nikon F bayonet is the reason to buy one now. The lens fits a Nikon body directly. An 81N with its AI cutout couples to an AI Nikon, while an 81M is a non-AI lens to a Nikon and needs the same care as any pre-AI lens on an AI body. Eckman found the 81N built as well as a period Nikkor and its pictures sharp and clean. Kosmo Foto, pointing to a lensbeam review, calls the Arsat-H prone to flare in bright side light but pleasing out of focus. The Automat is a different matter. It fits only a Kiev-10 or Kiev-15, and on anything else it needs a home-made adapter and has no way to set the aperture.

When buying, read the rear and the front ring together. No aperture ring means the Automat lens, and it is worth having only for a working Kiev-10 or Kiev-15. On a Nikon-mount lens, look for the AI cutout at the back of the aperture ring if the body needs it, and check that the blades are dry and snap shut when the lever is released. Kiev kits are often mixed, and a Kiev-19 or Kiev-20 may come with an older 81M. Listings for an “Arsat H 50mm” can also mean the different f/1.4 lens, so check the aperture. Soviet lenses usually carry the year in the first two digits of the serial, and the body is numbered separately.

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This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the Helios-81 50mm f/2
Helios-81 Automat: focusing ring, distance and depth-of-field scales, and no aperture ring — Rostislav Aleksandrovich Lutsenko, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sample photo taken with the Helios-81 50mm f/2
Helios-81M 2/53, engraved in Cyrillic, on a Nikon D40; the photographer says it came from a Kiev-17 — David Wright, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Helios-81 50mm f/2
MC Helios-81N on a Kiev-19, engraved MC HELIOS-81H 2/50 in Latin letters — Runner1616, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Sample photo taken with the Helios-81 50mm f/2
Helios-81M 2/53 on a Kiev-19 — Yaskin Nikita, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Helios-81 50mm f/2? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

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