First shots with the Soviet мир 1в lens

I've been wanting this lens for a while. Slowly finding more interest in Soviet glass as the Helios 44-2 continued to impress me. But I knew that the 58mm focal length of the Helios was starting to feel a bit limiting. It's a portrait lens, a relatively tight one. So there are a few environments in which it just isn't ideal. The мир lineup of Soviet glass came from a different set of factories and is a different brand of lens, at a selection of focal lengths that go above and below the 44-2's 58mm. I was running around markets here in search for them but only found the higher focal lengths.

Recently here in Armenia and online store began to sell Soviet era camera gear, all coming from Russia. The region's version of Amazon and eBay, essentially. They had the мир 1в and the мир 10-а which is even wider at 28mm. The 1в being 37mm. All three lenses at a 2.8 aperture which is nice and wide! Where much of that characteristic in the bokeh comes from. Shot at certain distances, the bokeh becomes beautifully swirly which makes for some wonderfully unique nature and portrait photography. Thanks to my girlfriend, she ordered me the 1в for Christmas, and I've already fallen in love with it despite having shot so little with it. It has snowed here a lot lately, a bit too cold outdoors, and I've been finding moments between the snow to shoot things with the drone. But the few moments with this lens have been a dream. And I can see why the cinematographer of Dune decided to use these.

This lens will definitely become my main one. The every day carry which stays on the camera for most of the time. The build quality of it is incredible, perhaps I'll do some post on the lens itself at some point. Mine came with a slight defect but operates perfectly, and it's a vintage lens so it's expected to have some imperfections anyway. Nothing that can't be fixed down the road myself. But considering I'm shooting wide open most of the time anyway, this isn't a big deal at all. The lens is tiny, made of metal and feels really light and smooth to use. Especially the focus ring. But with an adapter I can see how trying to move the clicky aperture ring can result in potentially unscrewing that M42 mount from the camera body. Just takes a bit of caution sometimes, I think. But I won't be using the clicky aperture ring much at all anyway.

One thing I think I need to get used to is the focusing though. With a wider focal length it's a bit harder to see when you're sharp manually focusing. But there are in camera features that can help with that. The 44-2 is a bit easier given that closer punch you have to the subject, so through the viewfinder and monitor you get a good sight of your subject. With this 37mm there is a bit more guesswork. But again that just means taking a little extra time to perfect things. And that's something I actually enjoy about photography, the process. The interaction with the subject!