Jupiter 12 On Bessa R

sweathog

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Hey guys,
I am back to pick the collective brain once again (I was tempted to write nose, my inner child is acting up). I recently bought a Jupiter 12 to complement the Jupiter 8 I have ony my Bessa R.
However, having mounted it, when I was focusing I found that as I got between 15 metres and infinity it would not turn any further. Removing it from the body it goes all the way quite happily; this leads me to presume that the rear element is pushing against the shutter curtains as it focuses.
Any thoughts on this?

ed64_1.JPG


As a side note, the chap I bought it from used it on a Zorki body, are they deeper than the Bessa?

Have I just been a silly bunny and bought an incompatible lens?

Thanks for your input,
Tom
 
Hi!

The Jupiter is not compatible with Bessa's, Zeiss, or most of the Leica bodies. I used to own one which I used with my Zorki and FED. It is a great lense, but I sold it when replacing my Russian bodies with the Bessa R3M. You are actually risking damage to your shutter, so I would either sell the lens or buy a body that can use it (Zorki, FED, and several others).

EDIT: All other Jupiters, including the Orion 15 will work with the Bessa's.
 
Yep, you were bumping that big ol' rear element into the outer shutter curtain. I'm not sure if the Zorki is deeper, but the Bessa uses an inner and and outer shutter -- the remaining space is too small for the 12's rear element.

Your best bet at this point is to break down and buy the Zorki. Hopefully the glass hasn't been damaged by contact with the shutter -- or vice versa. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
 
Thanks for the quick responses guys!
I'm not too bothered about it not working (well, apart from needing to find another 35mm). It was my fault really for not putting in the research and purchasing a lens on impulse.
Rear element is still fine; so I guess it is going on to the bay, along with a load of other kit I feel it is time to part with.
 
The J-12 will not work on Bessas because of the second shutter. I understand it will not work with Canon's P and models of that vintage because the rear element will bump into the baffles. Mine works perfectly on a Zorki 1C (of course) and on an M2.
 
Mine works on the Hexar RF (metering not noticably affected), M6 (metering affected), Zorki 1 and FED 5.
It didn't work on the Bessa R.

Best regards,
Uwe
 
comment on jupiter 12 on bessa r-r2

comment on jupiter 12 on bessa r-r2

hi.

im wondering how many of you that actually own and has tried out to mount jupiter 12 on bessa r-r2.
here are some facts.
I couldn't find any definitive answers on the web, so I conducted a
little experiment myself. I wanted to see if I could fit and use the
35mm f/2.8 Jupiter-12 lens on a Voigtlander Bessa R2. I was using a
Voigtlander 35mm/135mm LTM->M adapter at the time, and my results are
as follows.

Provided the lens is racked to its closest focus, the lens will mount
on the Bessa R2. Contrary to a number of -- uninformed -- sources, the
rear lens element of the lens does NOT foul the closest pair of shutter
blades. In fact, a cursory examination of the cameras innards, with
the shutter open (set to B and hold down shutter release) will
trivially show this.

The problem is that, while there is a cut-out for deep rear element in
the top and bottom of the body, the Jupiter-12 is too deep still. As a
result, when focussing towards infinity, the large, rear, bulging lens
element *will* come in contact with the camera body. The end result of
this, in turn, is that focussing at infinity is *not* possible. however its possible to set the lens to about 2-2.5m and use hyperfocal focusing.
on my cam the metering did work and i could use the bessa with jupiter 12 as a snapshot cam. the pics it takes are ok, and if you search on flicr you will find several galleries with pics taken with jupiter 12 and bessa r2

i have tried this on my r2, but it looks like all lens chambers on r-r2-r2a/m-r3a/m-r4a/m are the same. so exercise good sense and caution when mounting ANY deeply recessed lens or collapsible lens for the 1st time.
 
I can't believe that would be good for either the shutter or the lens.

One good thing: Soviet-era bodies are plentiful and not too costly.
 
R2a + Jupiter 12

R2a + Jupiter 12

Hi.

First of all, hi everyone- I'm new on this forum.
Vaapensmed has right. I'm using Bessa R2a with Jupiter-8 50mm (great lens!) and above-mentioned Jupiter-12 35mm f/2.8. Rear lens can't destroy shutter because there is some space between rear lens and shutter (of course this length depends on value on focusing ring). So you can safely take pictures using this lens. Of course, you can't take infinity focusing, but you can make it (even on 2.8!) by using hyperfocal!
But there's another problem, on which no one mentioned yet. When you use this lens, exposure meter has a really big problem with correct setting.
For example, on my Jupiter-8 metering shows 1/125 s., and in the same place (I was measuring light from one-color, wide wall) my Jupiter-12 shows 1/8 - 1/15 s.
Rear lens it's the cause of that situation, because lingth measuring sensor can't "see" all of the light which is going through lens.

So, you can use this lens, but you should use external exposure meter.

Good luck :p
 
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