LeicaFoReVer
Addicted to Rangefinders
It is not the cheapest alternative. I bought this elmar 9cm for 150$...Look at the results...J-9 can be preferred for its signature, that is right...


Good shots, congratulations. Is your Elmar a rigid one, four elements? It is an excellent and compact lens with classic character. Looks a bit old-fashioned and skinny for contemorary standards. The price is OK - the only limitation is f4... usable outdoors, a bit limited indoors, and too slow for shallow DOF portraits. But it is a genuine Leitz lens, the real thing!It is not the cheapest alternative. I bought this elmar 9cm for 150$...Look at the results...J-9 can be preferred for its signature, that is right...
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It is not a limitation for me. f4 is good enough. I tend to miss the focus at lower apertures at that focal lens so f4 gives me confidence...
I have the chrome version I dont know which one is rigid. This one is not collapsible. It is thin and long.
No, that glass ran out by 1954.Mmmm... nice... possibly made of seasoned Schott glass pillaged from Zeiss...
KMZ online archives say the Schott stock ended in 1953/54, and Zeiss designs were reformulated in 1954 for Soviet-manufactured glass.I also picked up an early 1956 (in the first few hundred) ZOMZ J-3. My "feeling" is when comparing the performance, is that the switch-over occurred when moving the production.
No, that glass ran out by 1954.
And not pillaged. Zeiss willingly shared, even provided the experts to set up production in USSR. Of course their only other option was to shut down completely, as they were deemed by allies to be major part of Nazi war machine, and were known for using labor resources from Buchenwald. But it's not like they didn't have a choice.
I've seen the pictures of the reformulated 1954 J-3's. I figure that you always need adequate lead-time to get the new product into the production line. I can rationalize that the production pipeline of turning raw glass into lens elements also pushed the actual change-over out a bit for the last completed lenses using German glass. Then factor in the KMZ to ZOMZ switch-over, and the relative performance of the lenses. Again- speculation on my part. But there is bound to be overlap between completed lenses made with Russian glass and completed lenses made with German glass.
Hi Zorkikat,
Kindly let me renew my apologies for the wrong I did to you concerning about that thread on the Kiev reliability. There was absolutely no excuse for my behaviour. People sometimes go mistaken.
As for the Jupiter 9, my version renders fantastic results. But the lens is bulky and it lacks a double f/stop scale like those you find in the later Jupiters 8 and Helios lens. This means that if you happen to focus first, to get an idea of what the image will look like, then most of the chances are that you will have to look where the f/stop scale has gone, until you reverse the whole camera.
Cheers,
Ruben
It has came just now to my knowledge that Fedka technician performs FSU lens repairs, including collimation, and this is a deal maker. The prices are very moderate.
As for the quality of the job I have a single independent indication for good.
Cheers,
Ruben
Owned it twice and sold it.
Bad ergonomics, flare and soft wide open.
But magic ...
Next time I'll keep it for good.