1957 Jupiter-3 advice

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gzuiko

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Hi Brian--

I'm hoping you can give me some ideas about what this lens might have inside the front element. It looks brown in color (almost like the color of Baltic Amber), at first I thought it was a chip (maybe it is?) but whatever it is, it seems to be inside the front element. It doesn't appear to be on the outside of the glass at all. It's in a really bad spot, of course, right in the center. And maybe it won't matter much in the photos I take with it. I've only done limited testing so far, since it arrived a day or two ago from Kiev. It was supposed to be free of scratches, fungus and any other glass defects. Well in these photos I'm attaching, trying to show what it looks like, there seems to be more dust than it looks like to the naked eye. The glass actually looks pretty good except for that brown patch in the center.

Have you ever run across anything similar to this before? This is my first and only J-3, and I really wanted to have a nice one. From the design of the Jupiter-3 (Sonnar) I imagine there could be something stuck on the inside of that front element, in the air space.

Thanks for any advice or comments.

Jim

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Could it be grease? It should be easy enough to remove the front element and clean it out, but if it was supposed to be a good example.....

Well, it could have moved in transit, I suppose, and you need to find out what it is to ensure it doesn't happen again 😉
 
Could easily be grease, I rarely see Balsam coming undone.

If you have a spanner, the front namering comes off easily and this is a 5 minute fix.
 
Lens

Lens

Thanks guys. I'm hoping it's just grease. I've never seen anything like this before and I have a whole lot of lenses. From the photos it looks like the front facing has been removed before. I didn't see that with the naked eye necessarily.

I HAD an old Kodak spanner that I found years ago that I've used to open a couple lenses, but I think I may have misplaced it. Since we moved to the new house a year ago I'm still digging all my camera stuff out of boxes and bags.

So you're saying if I were to remove that ring with the lettering on it, the front element would come right out?

I'm planning on taking the lens out tomorrow and shooting some with it with the dogs. Haven't really had it out in the light of day yet.

Jim
 
front ring comes right off.

The Wartime Sonnar lenses have a hidden set screw holding the ring in place- J-3's do not.
 
Someone decided to glue the front namering, and the rear module. I was curious about what was in this lens- first time I ever saw one glued.

all of the namerings on the Jupiters that I have seen (a lot) are just tightened in. The wartime CZJ Sonnars have a hidden set screw under the aperture ring- remove it OR ELSE!

I have seen a couple of CZJ Sonnars that had black paint carefully applied to seal the ring. Probably a moister barrier? The 1936 Coated lens was like that. I have the Mother of all Spanners, only used in such emergencies.

This lens: someone CLA'd it, and was probably worried about the ring coming loose. if that happens, the front element would decenter.

I also had an LTM Jupiter-3 with the Optics Module held into the focus mount with a little glue. Would not come out with the mousepad. If you twist TOO HARD (really hard), the guide pins that hold the helical together will snap. Ended up taking the focus ring off, took the helical with the optics module in it out of the mount, took out the guide pins to separate the helical. Squirt a little Ronsonol, let it soak in, then got the optics mdoule out with a Big twist and two mousepads.
 
Friction- I've never seen a namering come loose on one of these lenses. Set screws are necessary when the namering also doubles as a filter ring. I think the set screw in the wartime Sonnars was overkill. The Zk Sonnar and J-3 left the set screw out.
 
Well it works great now and looks great too. Can't thank you enough for cleaning it up for me. I want to shoot some comparison shots with this lens and my uncoated pre-war f1.5 Sonnar along with my NKT Nikkor 1.4, since they are basically the same lens. It will be interesting to see how they differ in action.
 
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