Built my first hybrid lens!

[like2fiddle]

With lots of email instruction and encouragement from Brian Sweeney (and probably an ample measure of luck thrown in) I've managed to put together a Carl Zeiss Jenna Sonnar/J-8 hybrid.

From the moment I first began looking at images taken with 50mm Sonnars I fell in love and wanted one. I also tend to gravitate towards "older look" lenses. I'm still tweaking the focus, but it's pretty close. I really like the softness, and the bokeh😛. Here are three examples taken with Tri-x @ 400 and developed in HC110 B. Only adjustments are minor to levels, and I smudged out a little dust.

All photos taken wide open at f2, the one of the dog and the one of my wife are hand-held at close focus distance.

 

[like2fiddle]

I am blown away by the color produced by this CZJ/J-8 hybrid.

Film is Fuji Reala shot at 100, drug store developed. No color adjustments whatsoever.

The fence and the daisies are taken wide open, hand-held at close focus distance.

 

[anirbax]

Contrast, colour and bokeh, all look excellent!

 

[erikhaugsby]

Once again a reaffirmation of why I love low-contrast, high-sharpness lenses.

 

[raid]

I also have a hybrid J8/Sonnar, and I was stunned by the images that I could get with this lens. The multicoated J-8 portion may have reduced internal flare, resulting in a perfect match of glass elements.

 

[like2fiddle]

Anirban, Erik, thanks. I, too, really like the inherent characteristics of this type of lens. It's almost as if it's the lens equivalent of Rodinal. Now to find a hood of some sort as the lens does not handle direct light, especially sunlight, well at all. I don't have high hopes that a hood will help that much, but I'd like to try anyway.

Raid, my particular CZJ/J-8 is 100% Zeiss glass encased in the J-8 housing, which is what makes it M-mountable. The Sonnar I used is from the late 30's, early 40's and uncoated.

 

[jmkelly]

Roger - good work on the lens hack! Your results look outstanding. How did you handle the final collimation/shimming?

 

[raid]

Anirban, Erik, thanks. I, too, really like the inherent characteristics of this type of lens. It's almost as if it's the lens equivalent of Rodinal. Now to find a hood of some sort as the lens does not handle direct light, especially sunlight, well at all. I don't have high hopes that a hood will help that much, but I'd like to try anyway.

Raid, my particular CZJ/J-8 is 100% Zeiss glass encased in the J-8 housing, which is what makes it M-mountable. The Sonnar I used is from the late 30's, early 40's and uncoated.

I am still waiting for such a project lens in LTM. I already have an original CZJ LTM lens, so I can wait for another hybrid lens one day.

 

[P. Lynn Miller]

Ignorant question, but what focal length and aperture is this lens? Trying to get my head around all the names and numbers of the Soviet lenses.

 

[MartinP]

The Jupiter-8 is a 50mm F2 "copy" of the wartime Carl-Zeiss Sonnar, gained by the Soviets after WW2, simply by virtue of the Jena factory being in their area of occupation.

And I would like to congratulate the OP, that looks like a job very well done. Lovely results. 🙂

 

[P. Lynn Miller]

Thanks for the details. And yes, the end result is very nice.

 

[charjohncarter]

I like these special purpose lenses; low contrast, softened colors, interesting out of focus details, maybe even some vignetting. Each one is different, when you combine that with all the wonderful varieties of B&W and Color films, you are approaching and infinite number of combinations. What could be better, we live at the best time for photography.

 

[like2fiddle]

Roger - good work on the lens hack! Your results look outstanding. How did you handle the final collimation/shimming?

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. The project was fun, and I certainly would not have been successful without Brian's help, encouragement, and above all patience. I had many, many questions. Regarding the collimation, in my case, more or less trial and error. I roll my own B&W film, so it was easy to roll, shoot, and develop a few frames at a time until it came in. I basically made a few images, emailed them to Brian who recommended adjustments. Then I'd go through the process again. It only took a couple of times to get it where it is. There is an easier, faster way that involves a camera, exposed film, and tracing paper, but I just couldn't get my mind to understand how it worked from the online instructions, consequently I took the longer path to the end result.