Calibrate Jupiter 8 lens for Barnack Leica?

Pfreddee

Well-known
Local time
10:49 PM
Joined
Mar 15, 2010
Messages
528
I'm planning on picking up a Barnack Leica and I'm looking for a competent tech to calibrate a Jupiter 8 lens for it. Who can do such work for me?

Thank you in advance for all who reply.

With best regards,

Pfreddee(Stephen)
 
My Jupiter-8 works great on my IIc without any calibration. The Jupiter-3 is the one that needs calibration AFAIK.
 
The Jupiter-3 is the one that needs calibration AFAIK.
Nope.

I have J-3 shimmed for FSU, it works on M as well. The way I learned?
I shimmed it first for M, then re-shimmed for FSU and still using it on M once in a while. Wide open and on film, digital M. It works.

I had about four J-8. First one was just like yours, but on Bessa R. The rest needs to be shimmed, but for Leica M cameras.
Just ordered earlier this week №5 J-8. Will see how it goes on M comparing to Cron V4...
 
I had a like-new Jupiter 8 from 1957. It wouldn't screw in all the way on the Barnacks, but threaded perfectly on the Zorki 1 & 4.
Better to ask the seller if the one you buy will thread on.
 
I'm planning on picking up a Barnack Leica and I'm looking for a competent tech to calibrate a Jupiter 8 lens for it. Who can do such work for me?

Thank you in advance for all who reply.

With best regards,

Pfreddee(Stephen)


As has been noted, Jupiter 8's generally don't require shimming; it is the J3 and J9 that are often troublesome.

I've used a number of J8's on Barnack Leicas without focus problems.
 
My J8's (two of them) work wide open on my Barnacks (four of them).
Both lenses look crummy with all that speckled oxidization.

I love the renderings.

Hope that helps.
 
Hi Stephen,

back a few years ago when Brian Sweeney was still on the forum, he researched the subject and developed an m.o. to shim the Jup-3 to register correctly on a Leica body. I still know how he proceeded and have done a few myself. It's not very hard.

Like nukecoke says, about half of the Jup-8 lenses benefit from shimming, so your chances on getting a good one are about 50%. The procedure is the same for the Jup-3 and the Jup-8. The Jup-9 cannot be shimmed to register correctly on a Leica body throughout the complete focus range but it *might* be able to register correctly from the 1.8mtr to infinity focus range since that is what the optical design originally was meant for.

I'll drop you a PM on the procedure in the next few days and once I've written it up, I'll post it to my website as well. It's a nice DIY job that will likely take under an hour but if you want to avoid calculations you will hugely benefit from access to a digital body with an LTM adapter (think Sony Nex-3, they're cheap 2nd hand) with a cheap adapter and another lens that is known to register correctly on the camera you are shimming for.
 
Back
Top Bottom