Comparing MY Jupiter-9 85mm f2 silver, black & black MC

[nixland]

Well, in several posts that I read, many confirmed that the silver is sharper than the black MC, but still, knowing that the QC of the latest Jupiter lens (J-9 MC) might be not as strict as the earlier version, I still consider that my J-9 MC could be not a good copy one.
So that’s why I add the word “MY” in the title

The black J-9 was the the first lens that capture my heart into manual lens world.
I spot it on the local flea market, tried it and suddenly amazed by it’s unique rendering.
At broad day light outdoor, It glows and hazy and has low constrast at wide open, but indoor it shines.
This lens is a gate opener for my passion to explore manual lens (positive side) and the unstoppable LBA later on, especially portrait lenses (very negative side ). I will not sell this poor black J-9, it’s too memorable.

Later on I bought the silver J-9 and the black MC J-9.
I was very surprised that the silver J-9 is a very good performer, knowing that it’s the oldest version.
The black MC has better color but it still has the glow on outdoor shots, and has a more pronounced bokeh ring.

Below are some comparison shots taken with the three J-9.

[nixland]

Sequence for all comparison shots, from top to bottom : silver, black, black MC

Sharpness, contrast and "glowing" test outdoor at wide open.









100% crop

[nixland]

Bokeh, sharpness and 'glowing' test ...... sounds odd, there is a 'glowing' test

[nixland]

Bokeh, color and CA ...

the silver has a green cast



also the black version ...



the MC has better color ...





All three has no CA spotted

[nixland]

Bokeh highlights

The silver one has the creamiest bokeh of them all

[BRunner]

Nice comparison, thanks for sharing. My experiences are in line with your findings. My latest version with new barrel, but without MC has best color rendering and is as sharp as my silver version which has slightly better contrast WO, but strong green color cast. I tried about 5 other black versions, but all of them was worse than the two above mentioned. More dreamy WO and/or worse color rendering, than my latest black version.

[nixland]

[Tervueren]

Thanks, very interesting, especially atm as I look for one.

[pst]

Nice comparison!

But MY M42 silver J9 definetly is not as sharp as yours! It also has the "glow".
S/N 6401027 labeled in arabic letters.

[martinsmith99]

I have owned 2 alu versions; I still have the 2nd. I would not call the J9 a sharp lens. It's quite good, but sharpness is not its strength.

[nixland]

@Tervueren: you're welcome.

@pst & martin: thanks for the info.
So now we can not generalize that the silver always sharper It depends on the copy, either the silver, the black and the black MC.

[Kram]

nixland, thanks for the very interesting test.

Someone just loaned me a silver J9 to try with the option to buy if I like it. I must test it outdoors but I did test it indoors today and it seems to have some CA, especially wide open. Don't want to hijack the thread but I can post my simple test if you'd like to see it. It's M42 version.

Agree with Martin that sharpness is not it's strong suit.

[Jesito]

I've owned two black copies and one silver, and found the silver one much better than the others, not specially sharp wide open but very good at 5,6 upwards. Nice for portraits. I keep the silver copy only.

Regards,

Jes.

[nixland]

[aoleg]

It's interesting how different this "same" lens can be, isn't it?

My results are comparable to yours, with exceptions. I tested M39 alu, early M39 black, and a late (made in 2000) MC version. The black M39 version came out the sharpest.

The alu version had warm color cast, the black M39 lens is greenish, the MC version is slightly cool but true to original colors.

I found bokeh produced by the MC version the busiest when shot wide open. Strange but true! Alu and M39 black versions were the same.

Since that test, I also acquired a modern version of non-MC Jupiter-9. It's made in the 80's, still has old-style barrel with knurled focusing ring, and has slightly golden coating on all lens elements. This is probably the most common model around. Surprisingly, my sample was practically as sharp as the alu and M39 black versions, with none of the "glow" that is visible with the MC version.

The first image is a resize of the picture taken with the black M39 version of Jupiter-9. Next, there's a 100% crop from that lens followed by the 100% crop of the MC version. Note that, even as the two lenses are shot wide open, there's quite a lot of difference in rendering between the two. The MC lens looks like it has a smaller effective aperture - yet this is not the case! Shutter speed with the old lens was 1/1600, while the MC lens had 1/2000, meaning it transmits more light to the sensor for whatever reason.





Histograms: old lens / MC lens.

[nixland]

@aoleg: Wow, thanks a lot for sharing your experience with the J-9.
More information is good for complete reference of this J-9 lens.

So each version can have a good and bad performance. I was lucky I had the sharp silver version

[Orio]

[Orio]

[WolverineX]

i have a question about silver jupiter 9 in m39 mount? will i be able to reach infinity using it with m39-m42 adapter ring on dSLR? i have opportunity to acquire one locally

[Attila]

There is a silver RF lens in my opinion best from all.

[JohnBee]

[WolverineX]

[simbon4o]

you must search for the longer design lens(oldest ones)


They are closer to the original zeiss design!
Well it is a Russian production so there will be bad copies but as close you get to the original the better they are!

[Smoli4]

Those longer jupiters are just the RF version. they wont work on a dslr

[simbon4o]