Black/silver Jupiter lens

[mldarkroom]

Is there any diference between black and silver Jupiter 3/12 lens? Concerning optical quality or infaktory quality controll's?
Thank you for your opinion and hopefully neglekting my very rusty english.

Greetings Mark

 

[Sonnar Brian]

The best J-3's that I have used are from the 50s and early 60s. The worst were from the 80s.

On the J-12, the one black J-12 that I used had less flare than my current chrome model.

 

[zhang xk]

My silver 1963 J-12 is less sharp than my 1988 black ones. My least sharp J-3 is a LTM KMZ 50/1.5 52xxxx that may still has Zeiss elements.🙂 All my J-9s silver or black, or later MC coated are about the same. They are sharp from about F4.

 

[oscroft]

I can only comment on the two 80s black J-12s I've had. One had coating defects (and I didn't keep it), but the other (which I kept) is excellent.

 

[mldarkroom]

Ok, so one should go for a silver J3 and a black J12🙄 🙄 🙂 ?

 

[januaryman]

I found it's all a crap shoot, and you're as likely to get a good lens in black as in silver. I have a black Jupiter 9 that is wonderful and a silver Jupiter 8 that is just as sharp. The sharpest lens in my bag is an Industar 26M in silver (are there any in black?) And the zebra I61 L/D of course is legend. I have that too and it is both silver AND black! I suggest you find one from a reputable seller and cross your fingers. Best places to try are Fedka and OK Photocameras on the net.
Fedka: http://www.fedka.com/catalog
OK: http://www.okvintagecamera.com/cameras.html

OR you could check the classified ads here; but I did get burned twice... so be careful.

 

[newspaperguy]

I'm with Jim. I've had both black and silver J-12s in LTM, and silver in the Kiev mount (sold it with a 4am to a RFFr), and all were fine. I now have a silver Kiev J-12 enroute from Kubinoid. Will let you know how it works out.

 

[soimless]

I have my black J-12 and it dose have a sepeck of uneven coating but it is a sharp lens. I also think that the silver J-8s look lot better than the black ones but the strange thing is I think the black J-12 look better than the silver ones.

 

[kl122002]

I am planning to get one too. I think the black Jupiter-12 that most of the prevoius member suggested should have a mark with a 'C' inside a triangle and a circle. That's what I observed from ebay.
However, I do believe the QC of Russian varies time by time. Like my pocket watch, one goes wrong quickly while the other one still working😛

 

[pfoto]

I've read that the sample variability is great but is less for lenses manufactured in the late 50's and early 60's. That was when their system of government was at its peak and things were going pretty well in the country. I was lucky enough to find a good silver J-8 from that period and it has a beautiful signature and even deals with flare pretty well. I have a black J-8 from the early 80's and that is terrible. The problem is that you could just as easily get a bad one as a good one, but there were more good ones in the 50's/60's. My good one cost $39 I think which was a bit on the expensive side but it had a red n symbol engraved on the top ring beside the s/n indicating coating. Lenses that you see engraved in latin characters (rather than cyrillic) are so called "export" lenses and are supposed to be made to a higher standard but I don't know if that's true or not.

 

[Nokton48]

I've been thinking about this lens myself. Just ordered a black J-12 from Fedka.

 

[moving_electron]

Has anyone had improvement in sharpness from a lens CLA? The lens CLAs at fedka.com are not particularly expensive and they make a point of checking and perhaps adusting shims in the lens. I wonder if the wide variation peiple see is less about the lens glass variation and more in the assembly, alignment etc from the original factory.

 

[Nokton48]

I'm just drying my first roll of Eastman XX negatives from the black 35mm f2.8 J-12 I just received from Fedka. I bought the lens from him, rated EX-, although it's close to mint, I'd say. I've always wanted a cheap Zeiss Biogon for 35mm speediness. 🙂 And I already have a CV 35mm Ultron and Apo-Skopar.

His repair guy recently overhauled my 8.5cm Jupiter-9, and it's already a favorite of mine on my M2. So his speedy repairs are definately worth it, IMHO.

 

[januaryman]

He also just finished a CLA on my balky Jupiter 8 that seizes up in coldweather. Or did. It now is free as a bird and much much better to use. Quick turnaround for me, as well.

 

[erik]

The OP was asking specifically about the Jupiter 3's and in my limited experience with these lenses (I have had 5-6 in LTM) I haven't seen any good rules of thumb. The one I still have is a black one from the 70's, it is pretty sharp, and most of the others were silver from the 50's and 60's, and they varied from pretty good to pretty bad, but they probably could be adjusted to work fine. These lenses were made in different factories and that adds another set of variables to the QC factor. Lore says the the contax/kiev mount lenses have better build quality than the LTM, which makes sense as the the Kiev was the higher end camera. I love my lens and I only wish that this design was available for an SLR. Great for portraits with a nice, smooth out of focus background.