Kiev J12 - Which years?

[rolleistef]

Hello all,
considering into buying a J12 for my Kiev (when? In a couple of months, or years, or when I have enough money for that), I was wondering if there good or bad periods for the J12. The first thing I'd think about is "The older, the better" and "a good nice late 80s sample might be good". Is it right or wrong or neither? Are there more chance to get a good 1950s lens than a good 1970 one?
And also, are there any significative differnce between type 1 and type 2?
ty vmuch

 

[darkkavenger]

I've had bad experience with my old j-12s, better luck with the newest ones (black J-12 in Kiev mount).

I think i'll send my two J-12s and my J-9 to Fedka for CLA. 🙂

 

[physiognomy]

Stéphane,

The J-12 I have for my Kiev has a serial # 58***** & is a good example... It's a black lens with the larger rear element, so I assume it is a latter one? I bought mine from alex-photo & had no regrets paying the little extra for a lens that arrived from the Ukraine quickly & in great condition.

Peter

 

[darkkavenger]

both my silver J-12 (1957 KMZ and 1958 ARSENAL) are out of focus, maybe that's just bad luck... The Lytkarino J-12 I had (1970) was perfect. I sold it last year to Gabriel-MA from RFF 🙂

 

[Kiev256]

I have two J-12s. One bought new in 1976 (black) has always been prone to vignetting at larger apertures, so I recently bought a 1960 silver version from the Ukraine which gives much better coverage at all apertures. Both are good as regards definition.

Philip

 

[varjag]

I wasn't very lucky with my 1986 black Lytkarino sample: it was mostly unusable at f/5.6 and wider. The spacer inserted at the factory was way too thick, after collimation the lens became fairly good performer wide open.

 

[Spyderman]

IMHO you can't judge in general which are good and which are bad.

I have one silver '68 and one black '87 and both are pretty good.

But I had to disassemble the older one, because it was full of dust and the focussing was rough. The disassembly isn't very complicated thought (Kiev version), so you can always clean and lube it 🙂

Vignetting is a question of how much the edge of the rear element is ground down.

My advice: get one with least scratches on the glass and be careful when mounting it to the body 🙂 the rear element is HUGE. Especially on a Kiev version.

 

[VinceC]

These lenses also have a construction flaw which allows them to go out of focus fairly easily (you don't discover it until you process your photos!) It might be one of the reasons so many people posting above say their focus is off.

On the Kiev-mount version, the whole optical assembly can be unscrewed two or three turns in the mount -- easy to do if you adjust the aperture ring too hard. This has the effect of making the lens focus extremely close, unusable at f/5.6 and below. The solution is to screw the optical assembly back in (clockwise, I think) as far as it will go.

I have two versions, a 1960 chrome and a late 1980s black, and both lenses have this problem.

 

[micromoogman]

I have a 1956 KMZ which is unbelievable good! Correctly adjusted so focus is spot on... Also have a 60's LTM chrome which does not feel that good. Also the colors are not so great with that lens, maybe it was callibrated to use with other films? It has a hard blue coating.