HU: BLACK J-3 50mm/1.5 in LTM

[brachal]

This is a really great, informative thread. I'm a big fan of the Jupiter-3. Mine has always focused correctly, as far as I can tell, and the glass is perfect. Reading this thread, I've learned that it is also from the ZOMZ plant, but has the pre 1962 "three lenses glued" logo. serial number is 6109000 -- I love nice round serial numbers 🙂

 

[raid]

Hi Bill,
The history of a lens is quite an interesting issue. We sometimes just guess where our lenses came from,and it is fun to figure out some information about the background of a lens.


Raid

 

[brachal]

Hi Bill,
The history of a lens is quite an interesting issue. We sometimes just guess where our lenses came from,and it is fun to figure out some information about the background of a lens.


Raid

Raid,

I wholeheartedly agree! It's one of the things I like about FSU gear. There are so many manufacturing centers, model variations, etc.

 

[rxmd]

Roland,

Might not matter to you, as long as it's well collimated a J-3 behaves almost identically to a war-time 50/1.5 Sonnar.

I guess as long as you have a well-collimated, good sample, you can strip the "almost" in that sentence 🙂

Philipp

 

[David Murphy]

I don't get the point of paying $100 or more on a possibly not correctly shimmed FSU lens in LTM when you can have a very nice LTM Canon 50/1,8 for that price. Actually.

Even a Leitz Summitar will give you better results and mint ones sell for $150 or so. The prices of the LTM collapsible Summicron 50/2 have dropped, too. I'd say, $185 or so for a pretty nice one.

I have bought a mint late black (Made in USSR 1982 KMZ export model) J-8 for my son's FED-2. It happens to be a very good lens, properly shimmed, with no problem. But I paid $25 for it and would not have paid a penny more.

I agree with you 100%. I've read some real horror stories here about the J-3. Who the hell wants to pay $100+ for one of these and then have to send it out to be fixed with an uncertain result. My regard for lenses or cameras that must be routinely repaired to correct defects caused by poor manufacturing is personally nil. So many of the FSU cameras are like that too. (There is even a company that does this for medium format Kiev 88's).

You can find Canon LTM 50/1.4's for about $200 on eBay (with patience) and they will work great. Better still bite the bullet and get a used 50/1.5 CV for $250 or so (right here) if you wait.

 

[raid]

David,

The Sonnar look differs from what you can get with the Canon 50/1.4.

Cheers,

Raid

 

[vanyagor]

I agree with you 100%. I've read some real horror stories here about the J-3. Who the hell wants to pay $100+ for one of these and then have to send it out to be fixed with an uncertain result. My regard for lenses or cameras that must be routinely repaired to correct defects caused by poor manufacturing is personally nil. So many of the FSU cameras are like that too. (There is even a company that does this for medium format Kiev 88's).

You can find Canon LTM 50/1.4's for about $200 on eBay (with patience) and they will work great. Better still bite the bullet and get a used 50/1.5 CV for $250 or so (right here) if you wait.

I have 4 different J-3. 3 silver, 1 black. All 4 perform great. The black one has the short focusing problem but I can not see it on any of my real life pictures (I guess the effect is only visible at the extreem short focus and widest aperture).

I guess you can find the Canon lens for 200$ (with patience). but then you can also get the J-3 for 50$ (with patience) 😉 (probably "patience" should be typed in big bold letters). I got all 4 of mine below 80$. One of them (an early ZOMZ version) came with a beautiful Zorki 4 body with original box, original passport and a matching original J-8 + shutter cable release: everything for 107$ (including 25$ shipping from Ukraine).

...................................

It is strange that Princelle mentiones the ZOMZ version as "uncommon". 3 out of 4 mine are made at ZOMZ and it seems that many other people have it.