Choosing a J-8

[santino]

so you had luck, congrats 😀

 

[wolves3012]

I have four J-8s, that came with bodies attached...the two old alloy ones on a Zorki 3M and Zorki 4 have a lot of cleaning marks and fine scratches and the two later (black) ones are very clean and tidy. There isn't a bad one amongst them, so maybe I got lucky!

 

[QUAsit]

I suppose in the grand scheme of things, $59 for a lens of that caliber is an excellent bargain.

(with deliberate 'russian' accent')

Come to Russia comrade! And for fifty-nine dollars you will get a handful of Jupiters, two matreshkas, one samovar and a pet bear as free bonus.

In general, the best J-8 I have seen are Js made around 1953-1959 and some black samples made around late 80s.

 

[outfitter]

If you really want to know your lenses, you have to shoot a single film, posing a subject at 1m and aperture at f/2. Great surprises will arise, for good and for bad.

It is only in this context that I spoke about "crappy" and "Sonnar like" quality.

Cheers,
Ruben

Only if it is important to shoot wide open. Take the quality of the lens open and stopped down and add the many many bodies whose registration may be all over the place and determining quality is like hitting a moving target - therein madness lies unless the goal is to have fun testing cameras rather than take pictures. When I grab something and it works for me I stop, ergo many untried lenses.

Michael