maclaine
Well-known
I have a Jupiter-3, and in the past have had a Jupiter-8 as well. Neither of them had any aperture stops, just markings. I was thinking recently about why more modern lenses don't do the same thing. I'm guessing for most people it's probably not that convenient, since you'd have no clue what your lens is stopped down to without removing the camera and looking at it. However, with the way I tend to shoot, I think it could be really valuable.
I have a tendency to use fully manual cameras in a kind of manual shutter priority mode. In other words, I'll plant the camera on a shutter speed I know will work for most situations, then adjust the aperture as necessary. With my M6, that means I don't have to take my eye from the viewfinder. I just turn the aperture ring until the two light meter triangles light up. Still, there are times where the exposure I want may be slightly in between the available stops on the lens, and I have to settle for over or under exposure. On a camera with AE, it's no problem, because the shutter is usually stepless, and the camera adjusts itself perfectly for the exposure, so you're not limited to 1/60, 1/125, 1/500, etc. A stepless aperture ring would be the reverse, and allow you to dial in the perfect exposure without a stepless shutter. For the M6, it's still a little vague, as you can't see exactly how far over or under you are beyond the general level of illumination of the LEDs. For cameras with match needle metering, though, I think this would be great. While negative film has a little bit of play in terms of over or under exposure, having a stepless aperture lens would be great for slide film, where the latitude is much less forgiving.
I have a tendency to use fully manual cameras in a kind of manual shutter priority mode. In other words, I'll plant the camera on a shutter speed I know will work for most situations, then adjust the aperture as necessary. With my M6, that means I don't have to take my eye from the viewfinder. I just turn the aperture ring until the two light meter triangles light up. Still, there are times where the exposure I want may be slightly in between the available stops on the lens, and I have to settle for over or under exposure. On a camera with AE, it's no problem, because the shutter is usually stepless, and the camera adjusts itself perfectly for the exposure, so you're not limited to 1/60, 1/125, 1/500, etc. A stepless aperture ring would be the reverse, and allow you to dial in the perfect exposure without a stepless shutter. For the M6, it's still a little vague, as you can't see exactly how far over or under you are beyond the general level of illumination of the LEDs. For cameras with match needle metering, though, I think this would be great. While negative film has a little bit of play in terms of over or under exposure, having a stepless aperture lens would be great for slide film, where the latitude is much less forgiving.
