Jupiter ascending

My foray into Russian cameras, in particular the Kiev Rangefinder, alerted me to the delights of Russian lenses, in particular the Jupiter 8. Then there was the Jupiter 3, and then the Helios 103 which produced some very interesting images when stuck on the front of my GX1. This shot in particular had a soft, painted look to it which you just don’t get with modern glass.

Also on the list of desirable Russian lenses was the Jupiter 11; but I rather forgot about it until I watched this video where Blunty reviews a copy that someone sent him, and it reminded me that I wanted one (this happens a lot).

So onto eBay and sixty dollars acquired me a good looking copy from 1960, which eventually arrived at my door from Ukraine. First job was to stick it on the Kiev:

It’s a 135mm F4, and the chance of a 1960 lens focusing accurately on a 1950 rangefinder is remote; so I mounted it on the E-M1:

The focus and aperture rings are smooth; but 53 years of wear means that there is some slack between the inner and out barrel and the lens moves sideways a bit when you hold it; not exactly high precision.

But any fears were put to one side once I took it on a macro shoot and it gave me this:

Love the rendering, and the bokeh. Hooray for ancient Russian lenses!

A few more shots with it have convinced me it is a fine little lens and I will stick it in the bag with the modern, clinically sharp lenses whenever I can.

Comments 🔗

2014-01-17 | Andrew says

The Russians may not have amounted to much of anything technologically but they seem to have stumbled upon great boke in a vodka stupor…and for a working man’s price to boot…

2014-01-17 | Kevin says

Love the background rendering and it does give the image a unique feel.

2014-01-17 | Clive says

Spike,

Sorry that this is way off topic, but just spotted something that has your name all over it… [well, not literally!]

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2014/01/17/lux-camera-open-source-diy-project?utm_campaign=internal-link&utm_source=news-list&utm_medium=text&ref=title_0_1

You’ve already mastered DIY-developing, and your abilities to bolt together miscellaneous and unrelated bits of technology and still take awesome pics is undisputed. I think you need to go “all the way” (cue helpful suggestions) and build an entire camera from scratch…

Or not, as your mood takes you!

2014-01-18 | Spike says

Wonderful! Although the majority of the comments on DPReview moaned about what they saw to be a trivial item. My neighbour is into Arduino and has a friend about to acquire a 3D printer….