Jupiter 3 lenses - recommendations?

[Duncan Ross]

After being mightiliy impressed by the recent lens comparison I have started hankering after a Jupiter 3 for my Kiev! With the usual caveats regarding soviet lens variance accepted is there a 'rule' for these, eg the earlier the better? In fact when were they made as I can't seem to find any recent examples.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Berk Sirman]

You'll most probably have to adjust the lens working distance whichever J3 you buy. I recently bought one from 52 and it was way off, I had to take off both shims so that it would focus properly. I am currently shooting a test roll, will post the results here when I develop the film.

So if you can't/don't want to adjust the working distance you may have to have someone else do it for you. And that person will have to have the camera as well as your Kiev may have different flange depth than his.

Berk

 

[rover]

Any J3 for you Kiev should work without need of an adjustment. It is the ones for LTM cameras that were made to a slightly different back focus than the Leica rule.

 

[raid]

Brian sent me a J-3 lens that he had adjusted, and it is performing very well. Someone chose it today as the best lens amoung eleven lenses tested by me. This certainly is a vote of confidence.

 

[nzeeman]

hey brian do you maybe considering selling that j3 that wont focus properly?

 

[ranger]

i'm in the same boat.....saw all those 50mm tests and ordered myself a J3 (1.5) Soon we will find out the truth! It's going on my Bessa R. I'll keep you all informed.

 

[back alley]

there is a canon 50/1.5 on sale in the classifieds now also.

 

[sychan]

The Canon is going to be significantly more expensive than a J3 - on the other hand, the Canon's construction quality is way, way more robust. 🙂

 

[netzspannung]

If someone could explain the difference between the earlier 1950-60s J-3 and the later (1980-s), I'd be very grateful. The coatings look magenta-blue like the Zeiss T* on the early one and amber-yellow on the later, also the barrel is silver vs black. The early one I have is superb, sharp even wide open, with great but variable bokeh in 1.5 - 2.8.. Flares Very easily though, and scratched like @#$.
I liked it so much that I bought a black one, now I wonder if it should be any worse.. I haven't shot much with the second one yet.