I've bought a Jupiter 8

[javimm]

I posted a few days ago about buying a J8 for my M6. Well, I bought it from Ebay. Seems to be quite minty, but I ended up paying almost 30 Bp or 44 euros. Seems that getting good deals on Ebay is hard. I think I paid a fair price, because the shipping is not too high. Now I'll have a M6 with Soviet glass (J12 and J8) 🙂. I'm going to use this quite a long time, as my saving plan for the 35 Biogon and then the 50 Planar is going to take some time.

Here it is:

Hope I made a good buy.

 

[ath]

Thats about what I paid for my Zorki4 with Jupiter 8 (mint glass) of 1962 vintage two or three years ago.

 

[mascarenhas]

You got a pricy one, but don't worry, the Jupiter 8 is a very nice lens, and for the price I think everyone should have one, or more (I've got two! 🙂 ). It can be cheaper than some body caps. 🙂 The only thing I dislike about them is the longish focus "throw", but on the other hand this allows it to have a full DOF scale, something which I think is rare for a fifty.

 

[rich815]

I got my first Jupiter-8 for $40 USD, then my second for free. Someone I correspond with on the internet asked me if I wanted some old Russian "industar, something-or-other" lens that came on a Zorki that he did not want. He sent it to me for free. Turns out it was another Jupiter-8.

BTW, on the serial number you can see the two-digit year it was made. Supposedly older is better as QC really lagged at the end, or so I've read. Mine are 72 and 85.

Minty is not the main way to judge these babies. The lens alignment and quality is key and a nice looking one can be a worse performer than a ugly one. In fact minty may mean people have tried it once or twice and then sold it on instead of it being someone's user. Shoot with it and see what you think. Test focusing at wide apertures and infinity to see what you got, also check corners. I was lucky in that my two seem pretty good.

 

[brachal]

Looks like an export model; supposedly these are better made.

 

[javimm]

It's made in 1974. I read about that minty russian camera/lenses may mean that they are dogs as nobody wanted to use them. That scares me a bit, but the seller has 100% positive feedback and 1400 votes, he's from the UK. Let's see how it performs. Anyway, if it's a dog, I can relist it and lose a bit on it, as people (like me, haha) tend to pay more for a good cosmetic lens, than for a worn one. The previous bidder I outbid, bid 30 BP for it.

Anyway, It's not a lens I'll be using forever, just for a period of time as I save for the Zeiss lenses.


Any tips for checking alignment, etc when it arrives?.

Thanks for the answers.

 

[javimm]

I don't think very many of us have run across a Jupiter-8 that is a dog. I've purchases quite a few FSU lenses and in general the good ones seem to outnumber the bad ones. So I wouldn't worry too much.

I have a Jupiter-8 like the one you bought and I use it a lot with a IIIf.

Most of the shots here are with it:

By Jupiter!

Nice portraits. The one called Rebecca at f4.0 is sharp and the bokeh is nice too (and I may add the model is beautiful too). If mine performs like yours I'll be very happy with what I have bought.