Check out this beaut!

photobizzz

Speak of the Devil
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Sep 15, 2007
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Jupiter 8 I have been waiting on for 3 freakin' weeks from the Ukraine. Well worth it I have to say now that it arrived. I was looking for a nice copy with clean glass and a focusing tab, kind of hard to find since the ones with a focusing tab are the oldest. I picked this one up from eBay seller "kubanoid". It did not come this shiny though. I took the lens apart today after the mailman dropped it off and with the help of some super fine steel wool, a toothbrush, a polishing cloth, and mothers aluminum polish she came out gleaming!

This one has 99% perfect glass, with a 10X loupe I can see one super tiny cleaning mark in the front element and there is one bubble in the rear element. I have never been one to care about bubbles, as they never affected image quality in any of the older lenses that had them that I have owned. One happy camper here! :D

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looks beautiful. i have one of similar vintage, same barrel design but no tab. i haven't tried cleaning it yet.

do you know what thread size it is, hope its not some obscure imperial size...eek the one i bought came with a square hood which doesn't actually fit and i want to get a vented hood that screws into the filter thread.

ps. now i regret selling my m3 after seeing these pictures!
 
These are very nice lens.

I have the 58 tabbed J-8 so yours is a year younger than mine..

Enjoy
 
As far as I know all the J-8s are 40.5mm filter size. Do a search on eBay and you can get a 40.5mm vented hood like mine from seller "volksphoto: for $5! Much cheaper than heavystar and they are identical. They even throw in a 55mm pinch cap for the front of the hood.

Kim Coxon did a tear down of 4 different J8 lenses in a PDF. Just do a Google search for "dis-assemble Jupiter 8" and it will be the 2nd result I think. Very helpful and they are pretty easy to work on anyway. The optical section comes off by twisting the front section from the helical without even removing any screws.
 
You have to love this place ... at one end of the forum we have people brandishing M9 and Noctilx images and at the other end plenty of excitement over a new $44.00 FSU lens!

Very diverse ... and amazing to think that the Jupiter would probably be pretty cool on an M9! :D
 
Nice :)

I'm with you Keith :) That's probably why a bunch of us are here instead of a lot of other camera sites.
 
photobizz,can you tell me how did you clean your lens, does not the lens get scratched with the steel wool ? where do you get the mothers aluminum cleaner ? thank you for the info.


jorgef2002
 
As for the steel wool I used Grade #0000 from Wal-Mart, cost a few bucks. This is the finest steel wool you can buy, and will not scratch the aluminum. Mothers polish is available at almost any auto parts store with a car care section, I bought it at Wal-Mart as well for about $3 or so. I used the steel wool to buff the oxidation that occurs on any aluminum surface, and a toothbrush to apply it, also to get into the knurled areas on the lens. And then polish with a soft lint free cloth. Baby diaper would work well. All in all only took me a total of 30 min or so. Much easier if you take the lens apart first, and that way you can get all the areas that are covered when the lens is together.

Good Luck!
 
You have to love this place ... at one end of the forum we have people brandishing M9 and Noctilx images and at the other end plenty of excitement over a new $44.00 FSU lens!

Very diverse ... and amazing to think that the Jupiter would probably be pretty cool on an M9! :D

Keith...

There are a lot of us in here that just plain love cameras...not so much a need to just own as many as one can but that we truly love cameras...
I'm gazing at a, new to me, Pentax Spotmatic SP w/Super-Takumar 50mm 1.4 lens...It's beautiful, well made and feels sexy when shooting...
I love cameras...:D ;)
 
Very nice, photobizz.

Keith...
There are a lot of us in here that just plain love cameras...not so much a need to just own as many as one can but that we truly love cameras...

So true. Cann't wait to use all my treasures once my stupid two lens project is over in May. :bang:
 
hi. can i ask a somewhat related but off-topic question: is it a given that most of the J8 (or most FSU LTM lenses) have a back focus issue at near focusing ? thanks
 
Roland--- we warned you... it will feel good when you quit banging your head...

The lens came out really nice, I've been using Silver Polish and an inexpensive Ultrasound cleaner found on Ebay for $35.

On the Back-Focus: the Focal Length of the J-3 and J-8 is 52.4mm, which is a little longer than what the Leica standard RF is calibrated for. The difference in focus throw is 0.1mm from 3ft to infinity. Sometimes you get lucky, and the focal length is a little closer to the Leica. Other times, adding "about" 0.1mm shim corrects the focus for close-up and wide-open, and the Sonnar focus shift for F2.8~F4 takes care of infinity.
 
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Yea Brian your lens is what gave me the idea, I looked at silver polish but it was a liquid and mothers just seemed easier...

As for backfocus it is not a given, a lot of people seem to have an issue with the Jupiter 3, 50/1.5. I may have to collimate mine but I will know soon when I develop the roll in my camera. Some aluminum foil rings will easily fix it though.
 
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You have to love this place ... at one end of the forum we have people brandishing M9 and Noctilx images and at the other end plenty of excitement over a new $44.00 FSU lens!

Very diverse ... and amazing to think that the Jupiter would probably be pretty cool on an M9! :D


And some of us bought an M8 to shim Jupiters...

Jupiter-3, wide-open on the M8, after adding 0.08mm to it.
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I'll look at the Aluminum polish as well. The Silver polish I have is a paste- almost like Car Wax. Aluminum Foil works perfectly well for shims, is "about" 0.07mm thick.
 
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