Russian 135mm

In LTM? Not that I know of... There are some Japanese brands that you might look for... The Kyoei Super Acall 135mm f/3.5 is a nice lens... I picked mine up from ebay for under $40.

Cheers!

Peter
 
Wam,

The J-11 is the only 135mm Russian lens for LTM rangefinders. Its good. Its moderate aperture and less complicated camming makes it relatively more free from the bugs which plague the J-9.

Jay
 
Having just gotten one, I'd have to agree with Bill58 that a Canon 135/3.5 is the best bang for the buck out there. It is a delightful lens to use. A good Jupiter-11 is nice, as are many of the other makes out there, but the Canon lens is just so much better.

William
 
Canon 135 LTM will have mounting issues with FED and Zorki

Canon 135 LTM will have mounting issues with FED and Zorki

Wam

If you plan to use the 135mm lens on your FED-2, don't just get the Canon yet. The longer Canon LTM lenses (85/100/135) I have and had all used a narrow tongue coupler which can catch with the wedge-shaped RF sensor found in FED and Zorki cameras. Soviet LTM lenses use a "full barrel" rf cam coupler which isn't as sensitive to exact lens positioning when the lens is mounted.

See bottom of this page http://www.jay.fedka.com/index_files/Page400.htm for a picture comparing Canon LTM couplers with the ones found on soviet and Leitz LTM lenses.

A Canon lens (even the Leitz Hektor uses a similar coupler) requires that the lens must park exactly so that its narrow tongue coupler will coincide with the camera's RF sensor. No problems when Canon or Leica cameras are concerned since these had good qc with the mounts. Russian and Ukrainian mounts on the other hand often don't have standard entry and stop points so that one lens will often mount with different orientations when put on several FED or Zorki cameras.
 
ZorkiKat said:
A Canon lens (even the Leitz Hektor uses a similar coupler) requires that the lens must park exactly so that its narrow tongue coupler will coincide with the camera's RF sensor. No problems when Canon or Leica cameras are concerned since these had good qc with the mounts. Russian and Ukrainian mounts on the other hand often don't have standard entry and stop points so that one lens will often mount with different orientations when put on several FED or Zorki cameras.

DO NOT - I repeat - DO NOT try to mount a Hektor or Canon or Serenar or wide angle Elmar or Summaron lens on an FSU camera that has a tear-drop coupling. They WILL bind up or refuse to seat properly and can alter the angle of the tear-drop coupling which ruins the RF accuracy. Why the Russians adopted the tear-drop coupling is a mystery but it's not compatable with most Leitz lenses.

Someone may come along and tell you that THEY have done it without a problem and if so, they've been awfully lucky. The tang of the Hektor and Canon and Nikkor tele lenses will not override the tear-drop coupler. The notch in the Elmar and Summaron mounts will catch on the tear-drop. They just weren't designed to work together.

Walker
 
doubs43 said:
DO NOT - I repeat - DO NOT try to mount a Hektor or Canon or Serenar or wide angle Elmar or Summaron lens on an FSU camera that has a tear-drop coupling. They WILL bind up or refuse to seat properly and can alter the angle of the tear-drop coupling which ruins the RF accuracy. Why the Russians adopted the tear-drop coupling is a mystery but it's not compatable with most Leitz lenses.

Someone may come along and tell you that THEY have done it without a problem and if so, they've been awfully lucky. The tang of the Hektor and Canon and Nikkor tele lenses will not override the tear-drop coupler. The notch in the Elmar and Summaron mounts will catch on the tear-drop. They just weren't designed to work together.

Walker

I will confirm that this is the case. My Canon 135 3.5 will not mount on my Fed 3b or Zorki 4k, much to my dismay, no matter what focal length it is set to.
 
Also don't try to mount a Super Acall 135mm lens on a FSU camera. I got one for under $40 with a finder and it fits and works great on a Bessa R. I tried to put it on a FED 3 and it won't go because it has the "tang" type coupler instead of a barrel type. Great lens but no bargain if all you've got is FSU LTM RFs.

Later,
Greg
 
ok....i'm sure you'll find this question an easy one. though i'm already doing it since they fit (M39), is it safe to use INDUSTAR and JUPITER lenses on both my FED2 and LEICA M3?
 
Other than Leica Police who can come and arrest you for desecration, it should be fine :)
 
doubs43 said:
Why the Russians adopted the tear-drop coupling is a mystery but it's not compatable with most Leitz lenses.

Well, that it is mechanically simpler and allows easy adjustment of the close range rangefinder focus without any rare special tools[1] could be some somewhat good reasons.

[1] Unlike e.g. the Canon 7 where some (for me) mysterious tool known by the enigmatic name TO6A-C151-747A/B is needed to adjust the close focus. Does anyone know where to find one? (My electric tape build up workaround sucks.. :( :bang: )

/Anders
 
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ZorkiKat said:
Wam,

The J-11 is the only 135mm Russian lens for LTM rangefinders. Its good. Its moderate aperture and less complicated camming makes it relatively more free from the bugs which plague the J-9.

Jay

Hi Jay,

No, it is not good, but superb! There is a less common M42 Jupiter-11A made by KAZAN that focus down to less than 1 meter. It is razor sharp. It is better than the later MC Jupiter-37A 135/3.5.
 
varjag said:
Other than Leica Police who can come and arrest you for desecration, it should be fine :)
Eugene not all the Leica users on the forum are nutters. ;) I'm happy to use my J-8 and J-11 on my 0.85 mag M7, to which I think they are both particularly well suited. :) The J-11 is an extremely good lens BTW.

 
Jupiter 11A quick test

Jupiter 11A quick test

Here is a test shot with a Jupiter-11A. I shot a Chinese porcelain at about 1.5 meters. The J-11A fully captured the extremely fine patterns.

One image is a 100% crop of the lower right corner. This is only a mid-size Canon 300D file. See for yourself and make your own judgements. :D
 

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