What is the cheapest used Zenit Helios-44 58mm f/2 in the UK?

The cheapest used Zenit Helios-44 58mm f/2 currently listed is £41.75 at eBay, based on 4 listings compared across 1 UK retailers.

How many used Zenit Helios-44 58mm f/2 are for sale in the UK?

There are currently 4 used Zenit Helios-44 58mm f/2 listings available across 1 UK retailers on UsedLens, updated daily.

Used Zenit Helios-44 58mm f/2 for Sale — From £42

£41.75 Low price

£61.28 High price

4 Listings

1 Retailers

2 Reduced

Great for: portrait street general low light

Zenit Helios-44 — classic Soviet 58mm f/2 M42 kit lens, prized for swirly bokeh

The Zenit 58mm f/2, widely known as the Helios-44, was the standard kit lens fitted to Soviet Zenit SLR cameras from the late 1950s onward. Produced by KMZ in Krasnogorsk, its design traces back to the pre-war Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f/2.

It is a six-element, four-group double-Gauss design with an 8-blade diaphragm stopping to f/16. Most copies carry a 52mm filter thread and focus to roughly 0.5m. Early preset-aperture versions gave way to automatic-diaphragm M42 versions built into the 1990s across several minor revisions.

Wide open, the Helios-44 renders a distinctive swirling background blur around the frame edges, a trait that has made it popular for character-driven portraiture. Center sharpness is usable from f/2 and improves by f/2.8-f/4, with softer contrast than modern coated optics.

With tens of millions produced, secondhand copies are cheap and plentiful, mostly in M42 mount with inexpensive adapters for mirrorless bodies. Buyers should check for haze or fungus in the rear elements, smooth aperture action, and oil on the diaphragm blades, a common fault on aging units.