wide Angle FSU lens resource

[kaiwasoyokaze]

some nice stuff in this link, but half of it is in italiano.

from what i can see it talks about the russar lens, and optical designs of their f5.6 and f6 variants of 28mm and 20mm.

http://www.marcocavina.com/articoli_fotografici/Soviet_and_wide_lenses_on_Leica_M/00_p.htm

 

[David Murphy]

Interesting Web site, thanks for letting us know about that - this will take a careful read to digest it all (I speak Spanish and know a little about lens design so this is a challenge I will enjoy!). The Russar has always fascinated me. Does anyone know if there was a Contax version of it?

 

[georg16nik]

Interesting Web site, thanks for letting us know about that - this will take a careful read to digest it all (I speak Spanish and know a little about lens design so this is a challenge I will enjoy!). The Russar has always fascinated me. Does anyone know if there was a Contax version of it?

Yes. it was made in various mounts as far as I know, including Kiev / Contax.
Its an optical jewel, the other wide angle high performance designs are based on it, the Biogon, Super Angulon etc.

 

[Wulfthari]

Posted that link several times, the most interesting thing is the use of the Orion 15 as a spy device to copy documents (briefcase "forgotten" on some important paperwork), the various Russar design for aeronautical use (as well as spy satellites, why do you think the Soviet invested so much effort on wide lenses? And why they were so good?) and the final test, even if we should know in which state these lenses were, for instance it appears that the Orion 15 isn't that great while I get very good results from my specimen.

 

[KnipsOmat]

Does anyone know if there was a Contax version of it?

According to Sovietcams.com, soviet press had announced plans to produce Kiev/Contax mount Russars, but they never were actually produced in series.

The site considers the few existing samples as all being home-made conversions. The two shown samples have no similarity to each other (one for internal, one for external bayonet), which supports the thesis.

http://www.sovietcams.com/index.php?-1528466394

 

[Tom A]

Interesting site - thanks for posting it. I have the Orion 28f6 and several Jupiter 35mm f2.8 (Kiev and Fed mount) - and I have had several Russar 20mm lenses. There tends to be a bit of variations between them - but they are all highly usable. The Orion 28/6 is not bad at all, stopped down to about f8 or f11 - and remarkably small and compact. It does suffer from the alloy getting "sticky" if not used enough and you have to "start" it by turning it back and forth several time.
The Jupiter 35mm f2.8 is pretty damned good - rivals the Summaron 35mm f2.8 and is not far off the Nikkor 35mm f2.5. Frightening rear element though - you really have to be careful when putting it on the camera! The Kiev version can scratch the front plate of the Nikon Rf's - unless you file down the rear flange slightly - or, as I do, keep a couple of "rough" looking S3's and SP's where yet another scratch doesn't matter.

 

[Tom A]

Fast car - slow lens. Zeiss SW with Orion 28mm f6.0.
Acros 100 in Pyrocat HD

 

[Tom A]

Jupiter 35mm f2.8 @ f2.8. Nikon S2.
TriX, HC 110