Old russian lenses and M8

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A friend of mine just lend me 2 of his old lenses that he was using on a Zorki-4K to try with the M8:

-a Jupiter-12 35mm f2.8

-an Industar 50mm f3.5 non collapsible

 

According to the owner the lenses are close to 40 years old (and for sure older than me).

 

Here they are just waiting to be screwed on my brand new voightlander adapter (I 'll post a better picture once I'll take the time, but I don't have anything long enough to have decent macro with the M8).

 

 

The Jupiter-12 scared me quite a bit with its huge protuberant back, but it did fit and my shutter is still in once piece. Both lenses are rangefinder coupled and they are spot on at infinity. The industar seemed to focus well down to 1m (minimum), however the jupiter was front focusing from 2 meters and going down (enough to be seen with naked eye).

 

The rear element protuberance of the jupiter-12 seems to mess up with the meter as pretty much all the pictures I took with it were overexposed by one stop. It also has a pretty different color rendition from the Industar which seems relatively similar with my 35cron Asph. It seems it renders more red.

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I did take a few shots from the window with a tripod, lighting was varying a lot between shots so don't pay too much attention to the colors. I developped with lightroom, no sharpening, no noise reduction, default settings otherwise (besides the 1 stop correction for the jupiter-12).

 

Here are the f5.6 shots trying to compare with the 35 cron, I'll try to take some at wide apperture this weekend:

35cron@f5.6:center

35Jupiter-12@f5.6:center

50Industar@f5.6:center

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35cron@f5.6:corner

35Jupiter-12@f5.6:corner

50Industar@f5.6:corner (I know it's not the same thing, it was out of the field and didn't think to take it)

 

Overall the Jupiter12 seems very sharp in the center at f5.6 and quite soft on the edges, the industar seems more homogeneous across the field (but from other shots It looks less sharp in the center). I'm gonna carry them around as lense caps for a few days to see what i can get in the end, but I was happy it just worked. Both are much less contrasty than the 35 cron asph but I believe that's expected.

[peterv]

Those old Russian lenses really do a nice job together with the M8, I think.

 

Here's some more info:

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/people/27074-testing-jupiter.html

 

Peter

[Bavaricus]

Hello Julien,

 

the J-12 is doing a really good job! Did you really compare it with the ASPH cron? Wow!! Can't believe it, 'cos the design is almost 70 years old!

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The J12 seems pretty good in the center, soft corners and in general less contrast than the my 2007 35 cron asph. The main problem with it is rangefinder focusing is completely off for close distances and I am not sure i can adjust the lense easily. I have a few shots wide open with it that look still pretty sharp in the center.

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I took pictures with the Industar 50 all weekend. It is basically very low contrast and pictures tend to have very washed colors. It also has a strong yellow cast, but seems to not let much IR pass. The only positive effect I have seen is that even at small appertures the dust on the sensor is often hard to see... . I wasn't expective that much difference with the cron but it is actually comforting to see how much better the cron is.