New Zeiis Ikon : lenses

[SDK]

Well, I may give in to the dark slide and buy a black Ikon after all. I just bought a black USSR made Jupiter-9 85mm/2 LTM Sonnar lens (made in 1972 apparently). Preliminary test shots indicate mine is very good at infinity and close up, nearly up to modern optic standards. I guess I got lucky because I have heard some horror stories of these lenses not being properly adjusted to the Leica standard film-flange distance. This one reads "Jupiter-9" on the front in Latin characters, not Cyrillic, so I guess it was made for export. That may be why it is fully Leica compatible (with an M mount adapter of course). I think it will work very well on the Ikon, and at 1/15th the price of the new ZM version, and about 2/3 of the weight, it's a comfy bargain.

 

[zetablues]

I usually leave the lens caps at home. Briefly, the vertical striations make it more difficult to grip. Horizontal striations would have worked better, I believe, and would have made the overall design work much better.

ZeissFan, I horizontally grated the vertical striations with a sharp knife -> this has improved the grip and handling dramatically!
Cheers