Reasonably priced fast non-radioactive 50mm rangefinder/lens?

Regarding a previous comment about FSU lenses not being decent quality, I once put a $12 Helios-103 against a new Leica Summilux (pre-aspherical era) and without exception, only the very edges of the Helios images wide open could be discerned as being different, but not worse than, the Summilux. After that, I got rid of my M9 and went all in on Nikon rangefinders.

My old Jupiter-8 was fantastic after I did a tiny amount of work to it. My old Jupiter-12 was great and is still being used by a friend. My current 1956 Jupiter-12 is outstanding. There is no reason to discount any lens made in the USSR.

I have a small collection of Kodak Cine-Ektar lenses, all of which have Thorium in an element and most are slightly yellowed. All amazing performers.

Phil Forrest


I'll second that.

There's two problems with ex-USSR lenses.

The first one is that they and the cameras were cheap and people who chase after cheapness won't often spend money on getting things sorted out properly. The fact that the camera could be 85 to 90 years old doesn't come into their reasoning. So the camera must be faulty. The same thing happens to all makes but FED and Zorki were seldom advertised the way (say) the Japanese SLRs were and they were backed up by some dodgy review. So old USSR have a poor reputation and the rest don't. Read threads on RFF for as long as I have and you'll notice that almost all models of all makes have problems but no one does half hour rants when an expensive and well advertised camera fails in the same way yet again.

There's a version of the old adage about half full or half empty and it is applied to cameras a lot; it's about protecting your investment or throwing good money after bad.

The second problem is that auction sites are often used to get rid of rubbish in return for good money, either by lying about the cameras condition or by servicing them with an aerosol can of oil. And then there's the forgeries. If the time and money needed to forge a Leica was spent on checking and repairing the poor old FED or Zorki, things would be a lot different.

And, of course, no one goes on the internet to report that they bought a camera and it works as it should but dozens go on to report a fault and then, worst still, think it can be repaired at home. This fallacy is now spreading to other makes of camera and soon a lot of Leicas from the 30's and 40's will become victims of the home repair mob...

FWIW, I have the same problems with all makes of lenses and cameras; none of them stand out as being unusual because I expect wear and tear and neglect to affect all makes. And if it's needed I get them sorted out by one of the experts...


Regards, David
 
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"Radioactive" is one of those vague words like "chemicals" and "drink" in that it covers such a huge range of things that it alone is meaningless. Another (simple) example of a vague word is "coffee" which cover fresh ground Blue Mountain Jamaican and that dreadful brown powder they add boiling water to...


Regards, David
 
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