It was originally produced at the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant and MMZ, and in the late 1980s, production was moved from Krasnogorsk to the subsidiary Valdai Plant Jupiter. One of the most popular versions of the threaded "Helios-44", which differs from the basic version by the increased diameter of the seating thread up to M42 × 1. It began to be produced in 1967 as one of two standard lenses for the Zenita-E and Zenita-B modernized for this thread. Later it was supplied complete with Zenit-ET and Zenit-10. The frame was painted in solid black with green digitization, and the diaphragm was only 8-blade.
It has quite good optical properties for a mass lens. It is also a popular starting lens for monocle making. The cost of the lens in the 1980s was 30 rubles. It can be mounted on modern cameras with Canon EF mount, and is the most common Soviet lens used in photography today. Angle of view about 42 degrees. Relative aperture 1:2.0 (up to 1:16 with clicks). Additional ring for fast closing aperture from full opened to preinstalled meaning.Lens mount M42 (known also as Pentax Screw Mount), same with huge quantity of lenses for old Practica, Pentax, Yashica, Cosina and other cameras with optical registration 45.5mm. Mounting for modern SLR & dSLR cameras will not bring any trouble with well-spread M42 adapters. The lens is well-applicable for digital cameras with micro 4/3 system and other with working distance 45.5mm and less, with the use of adapters. All Sony NEX, Olympus, Panasonic: Lumix DMC-G1, DMC-GH1, DMC-GF1, DMC-G2, DMC-G10, Epson, Samsung and other.
Scale of distances in meters. Filter mount M 52.5x0.75mm.