85mm Jupiter-9 on a Leica

doubs43

doubs43

Well-known
Local time
7:06 AM
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
1,552
Among the FSU lenses I own is a LTM Jupiter-9, an 85mm f/2 Sonnar formula lens. At 6 feet and infinity, checked with a ground glass and 10x loupe, the lens seemed sharp wide open. I'd been shooting a roll of Walgreens 200 color film in my Leica IIIc using only uncoated Leitz lenses and had a few frames remaining so I stuck the J-9 on and the results can be seen in the pictures here. They were taken at f/4 close-up. A hood was used.

Walker
 
Haven't ever used it on LTM, but I always loved it on Kievs. Excellent lens with real character.

William
 
back alley said:
i say it was pretty sharp, eh? joe
Click to expand...

While I need to do more shooting with it, these pictures are definitely encouraging. IMO, the colors are pleasing and the bokeh is smooth.... very nice to my eyes.

Walker
 
It's my favorite lens on the Kievs.

Just try to shoot it in lower contrast situations, and always use a hood. Flare seems to be its only trouble, if it's otherwise a good lens (in terms of 2uality Control)

JD
 
jdos2 said:
and always use a hood. Flare seems to be its only trouble
Click to expand...

True. This was one of the few lenses I was religous about a hood for. I have a hard time flaring alot of supposedly ill-behaved lenses, but this one all you have to do is look at it crosseyed... :eek: The plus side is that it's a 49mm ring so all those pentax goodies fit just fine :D

William
 
It's pretty good on a Canon P. The shot attached here was taken with the Canon P and the LTM 85/2 wide open. Kinda soft, but I still like it. And yes, that's the horrible lab scan. :p Also note that I guessed at exposure *and* framing...I don't have an external finder.
 
langdon auger said:
I use the j9/iiif combo too...a very small yet versatile pair...i've been using it without an ext. finder, mostly.
Click to expand...

Very nice shots. It seems you have a nice example too. The advice to always use a hood is easy to follow as it takes 49mm screw-in accessories. While I still need to use mine more to learn it's peculiarities, I can see that it could become one of my favorite lenses, especially for portraits.

Walker
 
Since the P has a 100 line, IIRC, just use it for your primary framing and be willing to crop afterwards. Just imagine you're shooting a big ol' Speed Graphic with a wide angle lens and try to get the action in the middle of the frame for flexability when printing time comes.

William
 
It's one of those "holy cow is that sharp!" lenses- even wide open, at least in the center. I've heard folks lament that they wish they had a 'less than great one,' but that seems to happen too often with the LTM version.

Again, caution with high contrast scenes- even bright spots <i>in-frame</i> can cause a lovely purple blob in-frame (with color film, obviously!).

I'd love to see it in a calibrated M mount... :)
 
Stephanie Brim said:
That's pretty much what I did. I really like the lens and I can tell that I'm going to get a lot of use out of it.
Click to expand...

I can believe it. I was origionally planning on getting one as my LTM in that range since I did already know it from Contax mount. Then I had that Elmar 90/4 fall into my lap and I'm an even bigger sucker for uncoated lenses... :bang:

I may well get one someday, though I actually expect to save up for a Serenar 85/1.5 or 100/3.5 instead. After I finish getting a full set of uncoated Elmars that is...(sans the 105/6.3. I'm not willing to spend the silly money for that one <LOL> ) :bang: :bang: :bang: goes the wallet :) either way...

William
 
The Serenar is *huge*. Ask Joe. Unless you really *want* something that fast there's really no reason not to get the 85/2 instead.

As for the Elmar...if you ever want to trade for a week or so, let me know. :D
 
Re: the Serenars, Yep, big ol' chrome plated brass monsters... But then, I run around with a brass barrel mount Tessar on my Speed and handhold that f 6.3 monster using the focal plane shutter (!) ... :eek:

Re: Elmar. I may well take you up on that someday. It could be fun for both of us.

William
 
I went through several of these lenses before I found one which would focus properly on a IIIf. I tested the lenses with the camera on a tripod using a newspaper want ad page three feet awat as the target. The lens which did work properly was an 1950's vintage model with the silver barrel, neither of the later black barreled lenses was close to correct focus. I was dealing with a reputable Russian vendor (Alex) who provided a refund with no questions asked for the defective lenses.

The lens which I kept is slightly soft wide open and quite sharp down two stops. I find this a useful combination for portraiture, particulalry at this focal length. This lens performance is somewhat similar to an uncoated 85mm Serenar I once owned.

I wonder if there are three different variants extant for this lens. There are the ones which are grossly out of calibration, probably because a previous owner did some meddling. DAG has been quoted as saying that the focus cam motion of the Jupiter-9 is incorrect for a Leica rangefinder (won't focus properly at all distances) yet there are a number of people, such as those contributing to this thread, who find that their lens does work properly. It may be that the incorrect cam motion on some of the lenses is a manufacturing defect from the factory.

Cambridge Camera at one point recently was offering new Jupiter-9's on Ebay. When I contacted them regarding potential focus problems, they refused to guarantee that the lens would ork properly on a Leica.
 
I'm still blown away by the fact that it's pretty sharp wide open. Even with all the posts on how good this lens is, I really didn't expect this.

EDIT: Heheh...the PS2 one is most likely a J12 shot...forgot I had that on the camera at the very end of that roll.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom